Shaping Holland : regional design and planning in the southern Randstad Shaping Holland gives a unique insight into the emergence of contemporary regional planning and design practice in the Netherlands. This densely populated country in the delta of the Rhine and Meuse rivers is internationally renowned for its urban planning and design tradition. Amid the growing number of academic analyses of regional design this book uniquely focuses on planning practice and first hand knowledge while also exposing the benefits and the pitfalls of regional plans and designs. Regional design is on the rise in all continents. It provides an answer to a world in which economic activities activity patterns urban growth and ecological systems are no respecters of administrative boundaries. The book highlights how a complex network of stakeholders used regional design to forge alliances and pool investments to translate administrative priorities into a compass for the future. Drawing on first hand accounts and a rich collection of illustrations maps and diagrams the book gives pointers for practitioners academics and students of spatial planning urban design and landscape architecture. With this English edition the authors hope to inspire international readers and those interested in the particular Dutch situation to look beyond the postage stamp sized area on which they might live and work to enact policies and plans for the future