Preface -- The transformation of the city towards sustainability -- The impact of urban form on the sustainability of the city -- From the bottom-up approach to the top-down strategy -- Four eco-areas in Europe -- Short descriptions of the four eco-areas -- Lessons can be learned from the four eco-areas -- Towards a space-economic city: Case study in Asia -- Urban planning strategy for Ho Chi Minh City -- Design process -- Towards a new urban planning strategy.

City planning is the key-stone to tackle the question of climate-change and to involve adequate action. In Part I of this book, the theory of space-economy is presented.  Opening up a new conceptual and operational toolbox for policy makers, practitioners and scholars, the theory of space-economy is based on a rigorously structured thinking and acting in the field of sustainable urban planning and architecture. Europe has the greatest experience in sustainable city planning worldwide.  In Part II, four of the most remarkable experiences (Vauban in Freiburg i.B., Kronsberg in Hannover, Western Harbour in Malmö, Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm) are presented, dissected conceptually and operationally a radically new way. The interest of the approach is not limited to European countries. In Part III is developed a project in Asia, in Ho Chi Minh City, faced with dramatic threats due to climate change and rapidly growing tidal and sea-level rise. Based on the experiences presented in Part II, the approach is integrated in this completely different context, thus becoming fully effective at a much bigger scale.   About the author: Peter Bächtold personifies some of recent history of urban planning in Europe and its potential for wide application, through his many experiences in several European countries, from his position as "professional officer" in the Greater London Council in the years 1970 to its professorial and research activity in France and Switzerland, which led to his current professional involvement in various countries in South Asia.