Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to propose a methodology to empirically investigate the longitudinal development of social media content concerning buildings characterized by iconic architecture and second, to report on the application of this methodology.

Design/methodology/approach
We collected and analyzed empirical data of social media content shared via Instagram between 2011 and 2019 on 16 buildings that can be considered iconic architecture projects. Using an automated pipeline, we collected and processed 264,000 posts and 140,000 images from Instagram for the selected case studies. By studying the posting activity of Instagram users through time series analysis and conducting content analysis of the social media posts by means of both image classification and topic modeling, we report on the development of users’ capturing and reception of the selected case studies on Instagram over time.

Findings
First, we identify two distinct time patterns of social media content: instantly popular buildings whose popularity fades over time and buildings that gradually gain popularity over time. Second, we distinguish differences in the content of social media posts: some buildings are primarily covered for their architectural features and others for their cultural function and facilities.

Originality/value
Using empirical investigation of Instagram data on iconic architectural projects, we have identified a correlation: buildings primarily posted for their architecture are generally also the ones to gain instant online popularity that subsequently faded over time. In contrast, buildings primarily posted for their function and facilities slowly gained popularity on the social media platform over time.@en

To address regional development effectively, integrative strategies are needed based on interdisciplinary and even transdisciplinary thinking. To prepare professionals for this task it is crucial to look at higher education, in particular regional design education. Three key disciplines which have become separated need to be re-coupled: planning, design, and social sciences. To assess whether regional design education is capable to do so, this chapter first presents a method to make such an assessment possible. This is followed by an application of this method through an analysis of two regional design courses at Master’s level from TU Delft and TU Munich, specifically looking at the underlying pedagogical principles. Two main outcomes of the analysis are: 1) it does not seem to be necessary to have consecutive Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in order to understand and steer regional development; 2) it is necessary to prepare a variety of students from various disciplinary backgrounds for co-creation and cooperation. This leads to a number of follow-up questions, in particular in relation to the admission of students and the assessment of interdisciplinary learning.

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