Our consultancy

Planungsbüro Rahs, the Consultancy for Urban and Regional Planning & Research, was founded in Duisburg on the Rhine in 1992 by Rüdiger Rahs, Dipl.-Ing. for Spatial Planning (brief biography http://www.whoiswho.co.at). In October 2003 the office moved to its present location in Plettenberg, Märkischer Kreis, Germany.

Planungsbüro Rahs defines its main aim as the bringing together of important research findings in urban and regional planning and in other spatially relevant subjects with realisation planning and processes, which together shape spatial development and the everyday life of citizens. The inter-disciplinary team engage themselves in an objective way, primarily in the fields of urban and regional planning, siting and development of "locations" in their various manifestations. The team also develop their own research projects and innovative approaches. Moreover, the consultancy has great expertise in advising clients on spatial and other planning matters.

For quite a decent period of time we focus our work on urban and regional planning approaches and on development processes, which are crucial to building up the as it is called "information society". The scope of our work therefore combines research and development, planning realisation, consultancy and evaluation in view of the "information society", the impacts and options of "ICTs", the "Information and Communication Technologies", and the increasingly more complex societal problems within the so-called "global village". The societal challenges resulting from the "information age" and from ICTs to urban and regional planning necessitate appropriate adaptations to the complete range of planning activities and not only the formulation of tasks or to proceedings. We have called this area of our expertise - which spans the traditional planning fields like an invisible net - "Spatial Planning whithin the Information Society". The range of service we offer in this area of our expertise shall contribute on the one hand to take advantage of the opportunities, which "information society" and ICTs present, and to minimise occurring risks on the other hand. [next page]