NationStates

The idea of urban planning is rather young in Lillorainen, where most cities have been subject to natural growth for a long time. With the population mushrooming, social issues becoming a thing, and the country unifying under a meritocratic/technocratic banner, urban planning became more important. There is a wide variant of urban planning models from different eras, where different imaginations of an ideal city prevailed. Examples as to how urban planning has developed throughout the Federation and its predecessor states shalt be mentioned here.

Pontrath - the City of Cities.
From their very early history on, the cities which would form Greater Pontrath now evolved and grew naturally, with different economic and cultural meanings: Pontrath itself was an old stronghold with a ring fortress and a harbor each on both sides of the Rathe river, the city walls being extended first in the 14th century, then multiple times until it reached the size of the Old Town today. Other important cities by the river, also being trade hubs, were Lademünd, Frierscheid, Kanthoven, and Gymirsheim on the right side of the Rathe, as well as Harringen, Lünnich, Fronweiler, and Sassenwerth on the left side. Aside from these, smaller cities were in the area as well - mostly important for agriculture, later becoming industrial centers.
Between 1851 and 1997, all these cities as well as villages and hamlets surrounding it, were incorporated into Pontrath. As a result, Pontrath is the city of ring roads; the city centers of all former cities are surrounded by orbital roads, which are connected with each other by boulevards. Greater Pontrath nowadays consists of around 80 districts, organized in five larger statistical districts (North, South, East, West, Central), each of them serving different functions - there are culturally important ones such as Pontrath-Zentrum, Frierscheid, Harringen, Fronweiler, or Koldenich, with a stress on being traditional-style and residential; there are districts with a stress on being industrial, such as Lünnich, Dronningen, Vinxtweiler, Pollheim, Lademünd, or Reumagen; there are workers' districts such as Epperfeld, Freyweiler, Hehle, Süppes, Rüttscheid, or Estringen; there are modern financial districts such as Madenich, Wellem, Mildenthal, Büsenich, or Malmshoven; there are residential and rather rural districts such as Grönnard, Hayn, Thorand, Moorpesch, Mechuln, Kelk, Lumme, or Neupütz.
The goal of urban planning in Pontrath is to make plans as to how these functions may ideally connect, how to fill gaps between them, how to prevent social segregation, and how to optimize public transport and traffic in general.

Cities with a similar history and makeup include, but are not limited to: Nienhagen, Preetz (Rgsr.), Freudenberg (Nessau), Laerdonk, Kirajevo, Nörishamn, Lysköping, Ailavar, Longenager, Lollerup, Leewerder, Bargrade, Lefkagor, Roisweiler, Lechelen, Sandscheid, and Pippard.

Jillich - The Mother of Reinvention.
Jillich, State Capital of Rathenia, is a good example for urban planning, since contrary to Pontrath or the other examples listed above, most parts of Jillich are fairly new. Only the Old Town, situated by the Rathe river, has not been subject to any major changes in its history.
Different concepts from different eras have been developed in and for Jillich, all of them dealing with the question of maximum efficiency and social mobility. As a result, Jillich has a large financial and shopping district including and surrounding the Old Town, as well as multiple residential districts surrounding this center. Thus, mobility in Jillich is fairly centralized, and the monstrous buildings put up around the center tend to give Jillich the impression of a city of the wealthy.
Urban planning in Jillich often tends to experiment with concepts, resulting in older buildings often torn down and replaced by new ones. Some people think, that Jillich is one of the rather rare examples for gentrification in Lillorainen, an image urban planners are working at correcting, even though less successfully than wished. Other than that, they are constantly thinking about redesigns of the cityscape.

Lillamala - The Planned City.
Lillamala was entirely planned as a federal capital, thus is fairly new. As a result of these 1980s plans, the four districts are clearly functional: the Southeastern District is a seaport and workers' district; the Southwestern District is the governmental district including the buildings for the Meritocratic Council, the Chamber of States, and the Lillatorn, as well as numerous security facilities; the Northwestern District is the embassy district, hosting embassies and residential buildings for Lillorainian staff assisting them; the Northeastern District is a financial district.
Most main boulevards run either east-west, or north-south. Some also radiate from the center and continue as Autobahn-style Federal Routes - one of these also continues as the Federal Highway A13.
With the May 2019 merge with Lysköping as the (City-)State of Greater Lysköping, urban planners deal with the question how these two cities can efficiently and sensibly grow together in the future.

Further Planned City projects in Lillorainen include wide parts of Ladenburg, Theede, Kerkenich, Lollerup, Saskilde, Milabul, Ratibora, as well as Nehrne (Vjdg.) - most of these cities are fairly old themselves, but have grown to their modern size fairly recently. One may argue, which of those can actually be compared to Lillamala, or rather to Jillich.

The future - urban vs. regional planning.
In modern times, classical urban planning is losing its meaning a bit in the Federation. Much rather, cities and counties/districts organize themselves in metropolitan areas, focussing on cooperation within a region in lieu of just limiting their plannings to one city - especially in very densely populated areas (Pontrath and Jillich are already bordering each other, and the rural gaps between Pontrath and Kerkenich, or Pontrath and Theede, are not that large, either), this is getting important, especially since the reorganization of the states. It is to be expected, that in the future, city planners will need to go beyond the borders even more, so that many issues will be dealt with on a metro area level.