Urban Landscapes need great ideas!

The interactions of urbanization, globalization and climate change lead to new large-scale spatial structures referred to as urban landscapes. They are uncertain, extend beyond administrative boundaries and their developments are unpredictable. They require a fundamentally new perspective and mode of action to deal creatively with their complexity. With its integration of intuitive, rational, emotional und body related knowledge and the resulting idea-generating force, designing is just such a mode of action and a way of gaining insights. However, rational-analytic orientated large-scale planning usually remains quite far removed from a design approach. Nevertheless, it is required to interrelate site inventory with searching for ideas from the outset. Initial ideas aid in untangling complex spatial interrelations and provide a decisive navigation while searching for productive impulses in terms of relevant (research) questions and further ideas. Therefore, the essential step is to express a spatial whole in an initial picture in the shape of sketches, models or mappings. It is the ability of intuition to enable something to be grasped as a whole, even when information is incomplete. It takes a particular setting that encourages creativity and allows empathy. This paper describes both, an integrative approach to (large-scale) design with a visual-intuitive initial access to deal with complex urban landscapes, and also its practical application within a design workshop.