Smart City = Smart Region

For Lydia Rintz, a city is not a static structure, but an ever evolving place that constantly facilitates new forms of use.

Rintz is an architect and professor of urban planning and design at TH Lübeck. Cities reflect changes in our society, and just like society, they are in a constantly in a state of flux. Take the image of the family, for example, which has changed dramatically in recent decades, as new forms of partnership and family have been established. In my opinion, a city is smart if it is flexible enough to accommodate these changes and accordingly allow for new forms of living, Rintz explains. This presents a particular challenge for urban planners: We have no way of knowing, for example, what kind of vehicles we'll be using in 30 to 40 years, but we have to plan the streets for them today.

Rintz argues that planning should therefore not just focus on the smart city, but broaden its view to include the surrounding area. In urban planning, we not only talk about the smart city, we also refer to the smart region.