City of Cologne Urban Development Strategy - Economy

In Cologne, both living space and space for business are rare commodities. The “Urban Development Concept - Economy” therefore concretises the city strategy “Cologne Perspectives 2030+” with regard to economic areas.

The industry, production, manual trades and the logistics sectors are the main pillars of Cologne's economy: not only do they fulfil key urban supply functions, but they also account for about a quarter of trade tax revenues, thus making a significant contribution to the city’s budget.

The efficient enhancement of commercial and industrial areas is therefore a key challenge for the city.

In exchange with representatives from Cologne’s businesses, associations and the city administration as well as members of the public, Prognos created an urban development concept for the City of Cologne's manufacturing economy.

Sustainable and future-proof economic areas: dialogue on the urban development concept

The urban development concept for the manufacturing economy (StEK) is a strategic and action-oriented urban development concept that solidifies the goals of the “Cologne Perspectives 2030+” city strategy with a specific focus on Cologne’s economic areas. The StEK presents how the goals of the city strategy and further concepts and expert opinions can be reconciled with the specific needs of the manufacturing economy.

The result of the dialogue process is a target system and a concrete portfolio of measures.

The target system contains guidelines and concrete target formulations for the three fields of action considered

• Space,
• the industrial areas of the future, as well as
• Cologne across the region.

Eleven measures for a productive, sustainable and liveable Cologne

To achieve the identified goals in the respective fields of action, concrete measures are needed. As part of the dialogue process, eleven measures for a productive, sustainable and liveable Cologne were defined:

• Securing commercial and industrial space
• Improving knowledge about the areas through real utilisation analysis
• Activating new areas for commercial use
• Redensification of existing areas
• Steering land policy with foresight
• Controlling settlement
• Navigating new commercial construction projects
• Initiating craftsmen/industrial centres
• Supporting climate protection and adaptation in companies
• Further development of commercial and industrial areas
• Continued regional cooperation

These measures contribute to the different objectives in the three fields of action. They were formulated in detailed action profiles within the Urban Development Concept.

Our approach

In the first step, Prognos conducted a meta-analysis of existing concepts and studies on the three fields of action.

Subsequently, the project team organised various workshops with the most important actors in Cologne's economy, administration and politics as well as the public. They used methods to promote cooperation: moderation small and large groups, cooperation discourses, participative foresight elements as well as design thinking and service design approaches.

The results of the dialogue were summarised in a final report, from which recommendations for action and specific tools were derived. The urban development concept for the economy was then presented to stakeholders from the economy as well as the public.

Links and downloads

Further information (City of Cologne website)

To the participation portal of the City of Cologne (website)

Information on the "Cologne Perspectives 2030+" city strategy (website)

Project team: Niklas Gaus, Edina Knabe, Christina Schenten, Christian Schoon, Bernhard Wankmüller, Max Willinghöfer

Latest update: 08.11.2024