Marta Doehler-Behzadi is an urban planner and an appointed member of the German Academy for Urban and Regional Planning (DASL). After studying urban planning at the University of Architecture and Civil Engineering in Weimar (now Bauhaus-Universitaet Weimar), she completed postgraduate research and earned her doctorate in 1986. She subsequently worked in the office of the chief architect of the city of Leipzig until 1992. She then worked as an independent urban planner and, together with Iris Reuther, ran the Office for Urban Projects in Leipzig until 2007. She headed the Department of Building Culture and Urban Heritage Conservation at the Federal Ministry of Construction before taking over as director of the International Building Exhibition Thuringia in 2014. The International Building Exhibition Thuringia concluded in 2023. Since then, she has been self-employed.
Interview
How would you describe your vision for the ‘‘Spaces of Mobility’’ for the Munich Metropolitan Region in 2034 in three words?
Modern, well-connected and fair.
What do you see as the biggest mobility challenge facing the Munich Metropolitan Region?
A major challenge will be to improve mobility across the entire region, whilst also overcoming the municipal and district boundaries in order to act in unison. It’s also not just about up-to-date planning: investment must follow innovation.
What motivated you to get involved in the IBA-M?
Above all, I’m curious to see how one of the most challenging tasks in urban and regional development can be tackled by one of Germany’s strongest economic regions.
What unique perspective or expertise do you bring to the IBA-M?
I bring experience from an IBA in a predominantly rural region: IBA StadtLand in Thuringia. I once joked that Thuringia is like IBA Munich Metropolitan Region – just without Munich. The need for a new quality of regional collaboration is as evident here as it is there, and indeed across Germany as a whole. In the face of climate change, we need a new form of societal metabolism – one that cannot be achieved within municipal boundaries alone.
For me, the IBA is…
…a troubleshooter for conditions in need of change, and a window of opportunity to test new approaches and ways of shaping things, and ultimately to showcase them publicly as models for others to follow.