It is projected that about two-thirds of the world's population will live in cities by 2050. Urbanity is thus a central, perhaps even the most defining phenomenon of our contemporary world. This brings major challenges: for example, how can we create enough affordable residential space, how can we satisfy the competing needs of different transport users? How do we deal with demographic changes and how can we adapt our cities to the effects of ongoing climate change? As urban life continues to grow in importance, the question of what kind of cities we want to live in and how we can make our cities more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, is particularly pressing.

These questions were the focus of the three-day interdisciplinary colloquium "Urban Design. Cities in the Past, Present and Future", which took place in Kiel on 21 - 23 March 2022. On the initiative of Annette Haug and Adrian Hielscher, the colloquium brought together the expertise of a large number of academics from northern German universities ranging from Kiel University and University of Applied Sciences Kiel to the Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design and the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein as well as the HafenCity University Hamburg. The aim of this colloquium was to create a platform for a transdisciplinary dialogue in order to be able to view and discuss phenomena from as many different perspectives as possible. It was the combination of historical case studies, detailed analyses of phenomena and problems and application-oriented approaches to specific solutions that made the complexity of the phenomenon of the city tangible and highlighted the challenges and diverse requirements for the design of urban spaces and societies.
Selected contributions will also be published in a volume of the ROOTS Booklet Series. In addition, two science journalists will produce a volume for the broad public referring to all major topics discussed during the conference.

The colloquium was co-funded by ROOTS and the DenkRaum Urban Design at Kiel University.

The program of the colloquium can be viewed here