Regions on the Rise
Rethinking Strategies for Rural Development
since 2012

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS
Places outside of cities unite communities and individuals through meanings assigned to their built and natural landscapes. The ANCB project focuses on fresh concepts and rethought design approaches with which to understand and plan rural regions. Conceptual understandings of the region as only a supportive hinterland for the city appear invalid, out of date and ineffective; as are the design and planning tools and instruments grown from this thinking. Rather, as an examination of recent generations of economic, environmental and recreational activities in the rural region can demonstrate, the region is built upon spatial interdependencies that are increasingly autonomous of the city ‘proper’. The goal of the project is to identify and highlight strategies for the development of a future sustainable rural area, connected to the Metropolitan areas and cities in the digital age.  Another aim of the project is to explore what choices, offers and services are needed to identify a new regional self-conciousness  and create an attractive environment for the next generation of rural citizens. This includes creating new visions and opportunities for a circular economy and local products.

UCOMING EVENTS
In preparation. To be announced shortly.

HinterLAND 2018/19
A series of five debates focussing on different aspects of sustainable rural development strategies: Building culture in the countryside, animal welfare, biodiversity, digitalization and infrastructure in regions and the context of global trends. With Kuratorium für Technik und Bauwesen in der Landwirtschaft e. V. (KTBL).

PAST EVENTS
Lecture. Regions on the Rise. New Space for Built Experiments in Rural China
Friday, 3 May 2019

International Conference in Songyang, China: International Conference. Regions on the Rise - Culture and Architeture as Drivers for Rural Development
Thursday, 8 November - Saturday, 10 November 2018
The conference invites policymakers, architects, planners, academics, artists and related professionals to the successful case study of Songyang Valley to share experiences, strategies and new ideas for the development of the “global rural region” of the future. This region in the southwest of Shanghai became a pioneer in the sensitive redevelopment of rural areas by implementing carefully balanced “architectural acupunctures”.

Exhibition Talk: Rural Moves - The Songyang Story. with Xu Tiantian, DnA_Design and Architecture, Beijing
16 March 2018
Video Recording

April 2013 - May 2014
Region As City: The Spatial Interdependencies Beyond the City
A catalogue of bespoke typologies for buildings, spaces and mobility modes were prepared for a constellation of four small villages located one hour to the east of Berlin, in a project initiated by local resident and journalist Anita Wünschmann. The basis for these proposals was semester-long studies by the various universities that focused on the functional and experiential ties between the four places and the wider region. A shared-design studio and sympo- sium at ANCB began this project phase.