Edge City

The English term was coined Edge City by Joel Garreau. He describes large outside city centers, which are multifunctional, so have all the characteristics of an independent city. For example, over a wide range of jobs, shopping, leisure and residential facilities.

Joel Garreau defines the space of an Edge City as follows: About 450,000 m² of office space, more than 55,000 m² of retail space. It serves primarily as a workplace for commuters, less than the living room, so that there is a so-called commuter surplus. Quite essential for the definition of an edge City according Garreau addition, the functional transformation of the space at a certain time. After that was claimed by the Edge City area about 30 to 40 years before either agricultural land or suburban living room.

This development may lead to a greater edge city office space is available, as in the center of the city proper. As an example of Southfield is in Detroit, to name with an office area of approximately 7 million m². This Southfield has a larger office space than the central business Discrict (CBD ) of Detroit.

The peripheral edge Citys are politically not independent cities. Edge City's represent a kind of final product of suburbanisation, which is connected to the part of the actual city centers with significant disadvantages, such as a large vacancy rate of commercial space or the " extinction " of the inner cities.