The Ancestry of Regional Spatial Planning

Preface .- Ch.1. Introduction (Looking for the origins of regional spatial planning - Short presentation of chapters - Appendix on regional planning in the interwar period).- PART I (Chapters 2-11) .- Ch.2. Historical periods, regions and examples .- Ch. 3. Greek colonization.- Ch.  4. Colonies and towns in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Empires .- Ch. 5. New capitals.- Ch. 6. Middle Ages and Modern Era: Towns and planned settlements.- Ch. 7. Land: Empires and ancient world.- Ch. 8. Land: Medieval period and Modern Era.- Ch. 9. Government, territorial organization and decision structures .- Ch. 10. Trade, industry and natural resources.- Ch. 11. Transport, infrastructures and fortifications.- Ch. 12. Parameters of analysis .- PART II .- Ch. 13. Planning "actors", government and regions.- Ch. 14. Planning process: Means and survey.- Ch. 15. Population re-distribution and spatial re-structuring.- Ch. 16. Towns and urban networks .- Ch. 17. Land, natural resources andinnovations.-  Ch. 18. Networks, flows, trade and interconnected areal units.- Ch. 19. Long-run change and future prospects: Closing statement .- Bibliography.- Index.

Louis C. Wassenhoven is Professor Emeritus (Urban and Regional Planning), National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), a Postgraduate Diploma in Planning from the Architectural Association School of Architecture (London), an MA in Architecture (NTUA) and a Certificate in Town Planning (Ministry of Housing, France). Apart from his career at NTUA, where he was the director of the Laboratory of Regional Planning and Urban Development, he has taught as Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer at the Development Planning Unit, Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning (University College London) and as visiting teacher in other universities. He has served as chairman of the Greek National Council of Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development, as chairman of the Steering Committee of the Joint Activity on Urban Management of OECD, as vice-chairman of the Greek State Scholarships Foundation, as member of the board of the company Hellinikon s.a. (Management and Redevelopment of the site of the former Athens international airport), and as member of the council of the Technical University of Crete. He is a past member of the British Royal Town Planning Institute and a member of the Association of Greek Urban and Regional Planners. He is the author of two books (in Greek) on Territorial Governance and Maritime Spatial Planning and of a number of articles and papers in Greek or English. He wrote the volume on Greece of the EU Compendium of Spatial Planning Systems and Policies..

"This impressive original book bridges a major gap in literature on planning history and indeed prehistory, when planning was not even named yet as an activity or discipline. ... Louis Wassenhoven thus offers a mesmerizing account on the ancestry of regional spatial planning even before it was named, but also a forceful statement on the functions of history as past and its importance in forecasting the future, or rather our multiple futures." (Lila Leontidou, European Planning Studies, Vol. 28 (12), 2020)