See it as a challenge – Planning as an obstacle course Spatial planning has a challenging mandate of design and coordination. Herewith, the tasks of planners and the demands made on planning are becoming increasingly diverse and complex. Planners are thus repeatedly confronted with boundaries and barriers, often reaching the limits of their ability to act. However, such limits are seldom final; they represent rather transitions to new situations. It is a matter of discovering how to overcome the existing boundaries and barriers of (or in) the various dimensions and fields of planning. Often the challenge for planners here is to leave behind what is familiar and to break new ground. This volume seeks answers to the questions of how planning can remain capable of effective action, what would have to change to ensure this, and how planning can perhaps even take advantage of boundaries and barriers. The meeting of the ARL Junges Forum from 29 to 31 Mai 2013 in Kaiserslautern discussed these topics. The focus was on the following questions: How can new avenues be explored in planning? What needs to change, and how can planning actually take advantage of existing boundaries and barriers?