Spatial Planning

The Spatial Planning cluster supports local and regional governments in Ukraine by introducing innovative and collaborative planning methods tailored to tackle the combined challenges of prolonged planning reforms and war. Drawing insights from the Swiss culture of “test planning”, known for effectively addressing complex spatial challenges beyond the scope of general plans, the cluster endeavours to introduce the test planning method more broadly in Ukraine. The cluster’s members voluntarily offer their expertise to help set up and guide pilot test planning procedures in Ukraine.

Why test planning?
Ukrainian spatial planning faces a complex array of challenges that result from prolonged planning reforms and the effects of the ongoing war. These challenges exhibit a dual character in regard to time, scale, and structures of management. Planners in Ukraine must deal with tensions between the urgent needs of frequent emergencies and visions of long-term, sustainable post-war renewal; the coexistence of micro-projects and meta-narratives; and the simultaneous effects of martial law’s centralising forces and society’s informal, situational practices. Effectively addressing these tensions requires flexible, adaptable and people-centred planning methods.

Test planning is a collaborative planning process streamlined to identify, understand and tackle significant spatial conflicts, challenges, and opportunities by engaging with various forms of agency. Its format invites all stakeholders (planning professionals, political decision-makers, investors, interest groups, and locals) to participate. It is a legally non-binding planning instrument that can effectively operate in dynamic contexts and uncertain situations. Testing and evaluating different strategies in the participative interplay of design and dialogue not only generates innovative ideas, but may also secure political consent. This, in turn, grants the planning process political legitimacy and makes its goals more feasible.

Key features of test planning
- Test planning is a discursive format aligned to work with uncertainty.
- Test planning works in dynamic contexts.
- Test planning connects informal practices with centralised planning.
- Test planning is a method for tackling wicked problems and complexity.
- Test planning connects normative visions with models of realization.
- Test planning connects master planning to infrastructure projects.
- Test planning bridges the divide between concrete projects and more abstract planning and governance.

Techniques of test planning
An informal planning instrument with a supra-organizational structure
Test planning is characterized by an informal, supra-organizational structure (see organigram on the left). This, however, does not mean that the legally-binding formal planning system is suspended at any time during the process, or that the test planning would try to bypass it. However, members of the supra-organizational structure can act independently of the formal planning system for the duration of the project.

Testing several plans rather than declaring single winners
The goal of test planning is to identify and test multiple courses of action and their possible consequences. Therefore, the practice requires several plans to be tested with the participation of multiple planning teams. To enable the testing of plans and in order to identify potential problems, each planning team receives the same compensation for their work. No winner is announced. This approach ensures that the teams’ work also reveals risks, potential failures, and new problems—outcomes as important as successful ideas. A dialogue emerges between the competing ideas. Findings from the process are debated and negotiated by all stakeholders. Finally, the process concludes with a set of recommendations that reflect the views of all stakeholders.

Three design cycles, mid-reviews, and participation
To address the complexity of the task and discuss potential actions with stakeholders, test planning is organized into three design cycles. During mid-review presentations, the status of the work is discussed, and new findings are recorded. The design teams and stakeholders gain new insights for the next cycle. It is crucial that all relevant topics are discussed in meetings between teams and stakeholders, as well as amongst the stakeholders themselves. This ensures that everyone can respond effectively to emerging issues.

Work in Progress
The test planning method was introduced and presented at the exhibition “ETH with Ukraine – Exchanging Knowledge for a Sustainable and Resilient Future,” which was held at ETH Zurich between January 24th and February 5th, 2024. Drawing experience from a test planning project in the city of Vinnytsia in 2018, the Cluster is currently setting up pilot projects in Lviv and Vinnytsia.

From October 26-29, a four-day workshop was held with the participation of planning experts from Lviv and Zurich, as well as members of the cluster. This workshop marked the beginning of preparations for test planning in Zboishcha, a territory on the northern fringe of Lviv. The goal of this test planning project is to address the city’s long term planning challenges while responding to emergent wartime needs, from providing medical care and rehabilitation to integrating displaced communities.

In recent years, St. Panteleimon Hospital and St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital have become central to the development of Zboishcha. In particular, with the outbreak of the full-scale invasion the hospital became the core of the UNBROKEN ecosystem, whose mission is to help rehabilitate those affected by Russian aggression. It aims to provide not only medical care, but also comprehensive solutions for the rehabilitation, integration and housing of war-affected people. This was the impetus for the development of a number of other projects within the UNBROKEN ecosystem.

Through the application of test planning, Lviv’s City Council also strives to develop a collaborative local planning culture, bringing together diverse stakeholders and raising awareness about key issues in local development. In addition, the annual “Lviv Urban Forum” serves as a platform for sharing planning knowhow with other Ukrainian municipalities and the Ukrainian planning and design community.

Members and Contact

Kees Christiaanse, founder of KCAP Architects and Planners and retired professor of architecture and urban design at ETH Zurich and TU Berlin, k.christiaanse@arch.ethz.ch
Daniel Kiss, architect and urban planner, co-founder of XM Architekten Basel, dkiss@xm-architekten.ch
Franziska Matt, urban planner, project manager at City of Zurich, Office for Urban Planning, franzi.matt@gmail.com
Gyler Mydyti, urban designer, project leader at KCAP Zurich, g.mydyti@kcap.eu
Nataliia Mysak, architect and researcher, founder of Spatial Practices Lab, Lviv, nataliia.mysak@gmail.com
Urs Thomann, Spatial planner, consultant in the GIZ/SECO project Integrated Urban Development in Ukraine urs@co-evolving.space
Yegor Vlasenko, Researcher in Urban Studies and Planning, Doctoral Assistant at the Laboratory of Urbanism, EPFL Lausanne, iegor.vlasenko@epfl.ch

Photo by Janmaat Fotografie

Photo by Daniel Kiss