The first day of the program in Brussels began with a discussion of our places of origin and early experiences of crossing borders. This was followed by an audio-guided tour of the European Quarter. With Daniel Shams, a graduate of our institute, and other employees of the European Parliament, we were able to gain personal insights into life in Brussels and work in the EU. The political dimension of spatial planning was discussed particularly intensively.

On the second day in Brussels, we visited the European House, where the European Council meets. We also listened to presentations about the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Finally, we visited the House of History, which attempts to cover the entire history of Europe.

After a day of traveling, we headed to HafenCity University Hamburg on Thursday. There we discussed cross-state spatial planning and the Kom.Zerti research project with Swen Wacker (Hamburg Metropolitan Region) and Charlotte Muhl (HCU Hamburg). We were then given a presentation and a guided tour of the ScienceCity urban development quarter in Bahrenfeld in the Altona district. Finally, we had discussions with neighborhood managers and participants in the citizens' initiative for ScienceCity. Important border issues included overcoming spatial barriers such as a highway and bringing together different demands on the autonomous and diverse Bahrenfeld district: multilingualism, infrastructure, expansion of the public transport network, protected bottom-up structures, housing shortage, leisure uses, ...

On the last day, we visited the International Bauausstellung (IBA) Hamburg, which took place from 2006 to 2013. Here we learned about out-of-the-box thinking with new ways of building and the reuse of difficult structures such as a bunker. Later, we walked through the Veddel district, which is located on an island, together with Professor Simon Güntner from the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. We discussed the socio-spatial differences between Veddel and the nearby HafenCity: Two residential districts with very different building structures, residents, infrastructures, income structures, connections to the outside world, etc.

Together with the course “Tracing the Iron Curtain”, the excursion is part of the Bachelor's elective module “Cooperation Region” and encourages students to take a closer look at border regions, peripheries, barriers and how to overcome them.