Teaching across scales

If you want to solve complex problems, you have to have the courage to leave your comfort zone and cross several borders: borders of scale, of disciplines, of nations, of culture, borders of belief and theories etcetera. Cross border action can be extremely tiring and in some cases cause friction, slowing down the progress of complex projects. However, it also leads to the development of new ideas and to a much more founded view of complex problems, characterized by non-linearity, emergence and surprise. This insight was confirmed in an advanced research and teaching project between 2007 and 2020, a collaboration between regional planners, landscape architects, architects, urban designers, planning theorist and experts from many other neighbouring disciplines: the International Doctoral College (IDK) “Spatial Research Lab”.