European Spatial Planning Fieldcourse: Brussels, Lille & London

Detailed Description

This field-trip is based on the high-speed rail infrastructure of the TGV and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link to St Pancras. We travel direct by Eurostar to Brussels. After two nights in Belgium, we take the train back into France for two nights in Lille. We return under the tunnel for two final days of research in the Thames Gateway and at Stratford International, beside the 2012 Olympics site. High-speed trains (HST) have radical time-space effects which can significantly alter the economic geography of regions. An essential role of spatial planning at every scale (Europe-wide to local) is to coordinate this powerful infrastructure with the pattern of urban development.

Our field trip will examine the strategies and the outcomes of planning for the Brussels-Lille-London HST link. The trip begins at the European Commission with a briefing on the Spatial Development Perspective and Trans-European Networks. Over the next four days we shall see how the potential of HST has been grasped within the Belgian, French and British planning systems. The field-trip programmes will consist of a combination of site visits to developments in Brussels, Lille, Ebbsfleet and London, and discussions of the decision-making and investment processes that produced them.