12-06-2013  Symposium: Does Münster have to become denser?  The Westphalian city of Münster is a popular place to live. However, 30,000 migrants are expected by 2030 according to a demographic survey in 2015.Apartments become scarce, rents and prices rise. Despite the opportunities offered by the university in Munster, for students and staff alike accommodation is hard to come by. Newly appointed professors cannot find housing alternatives in the city centre and are forced to move to semi-detached dwellings on the urban fringe.

The future of the growing city is the topic of a discussion forum opened by Beat Suters of the Swiss architectural office Metron with an introduction to a GIS-based “Density Box”, a tool for increasing the building density of neighbourhoods. Other guests include:

• Klemens Nottenkemper, executive director of the housing association Wohn + Stadtbau Münster
• Tim Rieniets, executive director of StadtBauKultur NRW
• Prof. Winfried Schmidt, Westfalian University of Gelsenkirchen, Citizen Münster
• Christian Schowe, City of Münster – Head of the Planing Department
• Beat Suters, Metron AG Zurich