Buchpräsentation mit Podiumsgespräch: Ungeplante Raumplanung

Of donuts, Berliners and a different spatial planning:
Hollowed-out city centres, empty village centres, rising prices with dwindling added value: Swiss spatial planning is stuck in the doughnut trap. Christine Seidler shows what a dense, mixed and lively alternative could look like in her new book "Von Donuts, Berlinern und einer andere Raumplanung" (Trieste Verlag, 2026). In it, the urban planner, researcher and long-standing political actor combines scientific knowledge with decades of practical experience and shows ways for a real paradigm shift in spatial planning culture.

Program:
- Welcome by Andrea Wiegelmann, publisher Triest Verlag and Daniel A. Walser, architect and lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences Graubünden
- Book presentation by Christine Seidler, author, professor, University of Applied Sciences Graubünden, Chur
- Panel discussion moderated by Daniel A. Walser with Christine Seidler and Rita Bollmann, Head of the Department of Urban Development / Urban Planning Chur

About the book:
"Of Donuts, Berliners, and a Different Spatial Planning" Author: Christine Seidler Publisher: Triest Verlag, © 2026 ISBN: 978-3-03863-074-6
Christine Seidler
Of Donuts, Berliners and a New Spatial Planning: Strategies for a Paradigm Shift in Spatial Planning Culture
The book bundles economic and planning perspectives and shows the dependencies on economic framework conditions and their influence on planning processes, with a direct reference to practice.
"In spatial planning, the "doughnut" stands for hollowed-out spaces. For inner cities that are losing life and economic substance, while settlement and work locations are increasingly shifting to the surrounding areas. Similar developments can be seen in Alpine regions, where village centres are structurally preserved by second homes, but are uninhabited for large parts of the year. Places are emerging with structure but without everyday life – with houses but without community, with rising prices but dwindling local value creation.

In contrast, there is the "Berliner": dense, mixed and lively. It stands for spatial planning that not only organises areas, but also brings together use, social diversity and economic viability.

Von Donuts and Berliners shows how inner city development can succeed without losing quality of life – and why it has become so difficult today to actually redeem the effectiveness of spatial planning."

About the author
Christine Seidler combines scientific research, planning practice and political experience like no other person. She heads the Zofingen Urban Planning Department and has been researching at the DAViS department since 2025 on how spatial planning can be consistently systemically combined with artificial intelligence. Previously, she led research in spatial planning, settlement development and economics at the Institute for Building in the Alpine Region and was Professor of Urban Development and Mobility at the Bern University of Applied Sciences and co-head of the Dencity research focus.

Christine Seidler combines scientific research, planning practice and political experience like no other person. She combines her many years of experience in urban development with scientific work and over twenty years of political experience in municipal planning.
Christine Seidler is a professor at the University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons in Chur and teaches urban planning, sustainability, digitalisation and economics. At the Institute for Building in the Alpine Region, she led research in spatial planning, settlement development and economics. Christine Seidler heads the Zofingen Urban Planning Department and has been researching at the DAViS department at the University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons since 2025 how spatial planning can be consistently systemically combined with artificial intelligence.