Walk the Line

"Walk the Line" is a study for the Eichsfeld region along the inner-German border.It deals with challenges and scenarios of small towns across the border.Only by developing small towns that are fit for the future can we promote rural regions.That's why Walk the Line is exploring the question, "How will we live together tomorrow?"

It is about new transformation challenges along a border and about cooperations between east and west and between city and country. On the one hand, the focus is on the protection and preservation of cultural landscapes, on the other hand on the elaboration of new perspectives for local and regional development. A plan of action will be developed for the entire region. The design is considered at different scales. From the entire region to the individual consideration of small towns. The aim is to discover spatial potentials, to develop strategies with structural clarity spatially and to give the framework for spatial qualities. This is adaptive for other regions. The scenario Cooperative Small Towns focuses on reactivation, marketing and local cycles for a strengthening of character. For more quality of life, inclusion and identity. Only through communication at the policy and planning level can a common awareness of problems and potentials of the Greater Region emerge. It requires participative and strategically focused planning that is culturally sustainable. Together at the new "Cooperation Table Eichsfeld" the region should be made fit for a sustainable tourism. Far-sighted, these approaches should meet today's demands for networking, climate adaptation and resource conservation, and at the same time be neighborly, solidarity-based and economically viable. In short, to make rural regions fit for the future, we need a new set of tools, materials and ways of thinking at different levels of consideration. The design of coexistence to answer the question "How will we live together tomorrow?" is one of the biggest challenges at the center of this work. It requires a new acceptance for changing forms of living, a digital and mobile participation that connects city and country, public spaces as well as culture and tourism as a motor for a sustainable urban development. A local identity can only be strengthened through impulses and forms of participation as well as incentives for a contemporary approach to our cultural heritage.