The three steps in SAPONI

The process of thinking on spaces and projects of national importance was done by the help of a series of SAPONI symposia. The hypothesis at the beginning of this process was that spaces and projects of national importance are not only an important task for a single country but an emerging task of spatial planning in whole Europe.
To verify or falsify the hypothesis three SAPONI symposia with responsible representatives of selected European countries had been set up. This series of expert workshops was intended to focus on practical discussions and outcomes therefore a case study approach was chosen for the symposium series. To select the case studies and the experts in this field a state-of-the-art study had been done. This study was completed by more than 15 interviews in selected countries to learn more about cases and mechanisms of different kinds of spaces and projects of national importance. To learn more on the interviews on spatial planning »»

The first SAPONI symposium in 2009 summarised the discussions and actions in selected European countries on spaces and projects of national importance. A main finding was that it is not only a single phenomenon in some countries, rather it is an important task throughout Europe. By means of selected case studies the expert group discussed the appearance and characteristics of different spaces and projects of national importance.
The second SAPONI early 2010 focussed the question of spaces and projects of national importance by starting to define «national importance» and pointing out driving forces in this process of definition. By means of case studies different SAPONIs had been discussed. Based on this the operability of developing spaces and realising projects of national importance had been defined by leading questions on the what, how and who of SAPONIs?
The third SAPONI in late 2010 discussed a position paper which was prepared by an editing group and sums up the results achieved in the process so far. This discussion took place not only between the experts, the task of SAPONIs and the position paper had also been discussed with participants of the master programme of advanced studies (MAS) at the ETH. This exchange was be accompanied by an exhibition on SAPONIs. This dialogue reflected task and process and sharped the position on SAPONIs which where finally reflected in the book on Spaces an Projects of national Importance.