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Date of Lecture: November 18, 2026
Abstract
Wolfram Hoefer’s new book Suburban Cultural Landscapes: Planning and Design for Place Identity investigates the concept of cultural landscape and its role for planning and design in the suburban context. The presentation will highlight how suburban settlement patterns in the U.S. and in Europe have been shaped by two very different suburban narratives: the American Dream narrative of individualistic suburban dwellers versus the European Rural Village narrative of the inherited cultural landscape. Suburban development in four metropolitan regions are analyzed and compared: Vienna/Austria, Budapest/Hungary, the Ruhr Region in Germany, and New Jersey’s Northeast Corridor. These regions have in common the fact that land use decisions are based on principles of property ownership in capitalist economic systems within a democratic framework. However, there are also differences: The American suburb forms a culturally distinct zone between city and open landscape. This suburban zone is smaller around Budapest and Vienna, where the countryside (conceived as an idealized cultural landscape) starts right at the urban edge. Similarities in settlement patterns between New Jersey and the Ruhr Region are shown to be related to industrial development. These different cultural narratives impact land use planning and design approaches on cultural landscapes within the suburban context.
Bio
Dr. Wolfram Hoefer is a Professor at the Rutgers Department of Landscape Architecture. He received is doctoral degree from the TU München and serves as Director of the Rutgers Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability (CUES). He developed numerous community outreach projects in the field of adaptive re-use of brownfields, urban resiliency, and infrastructure.
His current research explores underlying cultural narratives that shape planning and design approaches to cultural landscapes within the suburban context. He is lead editor (with Arianna Lindberg, Angela Oberg, Sebastian Schlecht, and Frank Gallagher) of the book: Climate Bridge. An international perspective on how to enact climate action at the government public interface. Rutgers University Press 2025. His theoretical research goes hand in hand with community outreach. Recent projects include Middlesex County Cultural Landscape and Ecosystems Service Plan, New Brunswick Parks Action Plan, and advising Drumthwacket Foundation on restoration and long-term management of Drumthwacket Estate, the official residence of the governor of New Jersey in Princeton.
Dr. Hoefer has lectured at national and international conferences and academic institutions. Among his honors are the 2021 Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture National Teaching Award and a 2018 NJASLA Merit Award, Landscape Planning from the New Jersey Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Web Page: Wolfram Hoefer – Rutgers Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability at Rutgers SEBS