Achievements

Output

In the fields of energy, traffic / mobility, building and participation / social interaction/public spaces new concepts of developing a sustainable city district were successfuly put into practice (see "setting new standards", "public dialogue"). In Freiburg-Vauban

• the project's structure integrates legal, political, social and economical actors from grassroot-level up to the city administration (see "partnership structure"),
• all houses are/will be built at least with low energy standard plus at least 100 units with "passive house" or "plus energy" standard (between 100 and 200 more plus energy houses are planned),
• solar collectors (about 450 m² until 2000) and photovoltaik (about 1200 m² until 2000) will be common "ornaments" on the district's roofs,
• an ecological traffic/mobility concept is implemented with a reduced number of private cars (40-50%) to be parked in the periphery, good public transport, a convenient car sharing system and a higher quality of life,
• streets and other public spaces are/will be playground for kids and places for social interaction,
• joint building projects (about 30 groups of building owners, the Genova co-operative and the self-organized S.U.S.I.-settlement initiative) are the fertile ground for a stable district's community and rise ecological awareness,
• a far-reaching participation and the social work organized by Forum Vauban gives voice to the people's needs and supports their initiatives, invents innovative ecological and social concepts and sets up a communication and participation structure including meetings, workshops, a three-monthly district magazine, publications on special issues and internet-presentations.

Measurable Impacts

The Öko-Institut (institute for applied ecology) is examining two development projects as part of the research project "Sustainable districts in urban conversion areas": one of these districts is Freiburg-Vauban. Forum Vauban is the local partner in this project which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The project is examining ecological and economic effects. One of the analytical approaches is life cycle and regional material flow analysis using the GEMIS-software. This is the first time that a complete urban neighbourhood is analyzed with respect to buildings, infrastructure, electricity supply, heat supply, water and waste, traffic and private consumption with a full life-cycle perspective, and using regional data. The implementation of local data (from the model district) was possible for all areas except private consumption for which national average data was used. The determination of the positive ecological impacts used a hypothetical reference district with the same setting and the same size but without further acological effords (e.g. no transport policy, no passive houses etc.).

Through this, the following impacts were found out (all figures are provisional):

• Energy savings per year: 28 GJ (calculated as "CER", cumulative energy requirements).
• Reduction of CO₂-equivalents per year: 2100 t.
• Reduction of sulphor-dioxide (SO₂-) equivalents per year: 4 t.
• Saving of mineral ressources per year: 1600 t.

The interim project report offers many results on the impacts of local activities to realize a more sustainable development. Through this, the Vauban-project and further development projects, too, could benefit from this research. The final report will be submited to the German Ministry of Education and Research by April 2001. The homepage of the project "Sustainable districts on urban conversion areas" is:  http://www.oeko.de/service/cities

Innovation Impact

As mentioned above, Freiburg-Vauban is a most innovative city developing project in the fields of energy, traffic/mobility, building and participation / social interaction / public space (see "setting new standards"). In addition to this, the district provides some very innovative model projects such as the Baugruppen "Wohnen und Arbeiten" (new sewage system with vacuum pipes, see "setting new standards") and "Gärtner / Passivhaus" (the first two four-storey passive houses built in Germany, one of those completely built out of wood). In Freiburg-Vauban with its upcoming 2000 housing units, it is possible to explore sustainable city developing concepts implemented on a remarkable scale. The district is regulary visited by groups of planners, architects, scientists and (municipal) representatives from different countries.

Besides the innovative technology which also contributed to Freiburg's EXPO 2000- presentation ("Solar Region Freiburg"), a highly innovative aspect is the culture of planning and of the participation process. This leads to highly motivated actors within the process aiming to realize what is best in terms of ecology and human needs.

To what Extent did the Project Reach its Objectives?

All objectives mentioned above were put into practice. For a detailed discussion, it's necessary to distinguish between different kinds of objectives:

1) Participation:

The participation is much stronger than expected. People really identify with "their" district. This can be seen through

• the number of 30 Baugruppen/co-housing groups and community building projects,
• the number of people taking part in workshops,
• the number of people committed in local initiatives (district festivals, farmer's market, neighbourhood center, mother's center, private kindergarden, community gardens, the co-operative district's foodstore, ecumenical initiative for a church in Vauban and others)

2) Ecological Standards:

In the beginning, there was also a kind of "competition" between the City of Freiburg and Forum Vauban around the "better" ideas. The objectives which an integration of ideas of both partners.

On the one hand Forum Vauban, for example, wanted to built more passive houses and a new sewage concept (combined vacuum system) in the whole district. The City of Freiburg on the other hand wanted to implement a special urban concept and had to keep the timetable for planning (also because of financial reasons). Nevertheless, Vauban is (as far as we know) the largest passive house settlement in Germany.

The initiative "living without an own car" is very successful. It completes the City's approach of not having parking spaces at the doorstep of most houses is very successful. Nearly 50% of Vauban's households are "car-free". They use alternative mobility concepts and save money because they don't have to buy a seperate parking lot in the community car park.

Most of the old trees were saved and are now the "jewels" of the new district. The public green spaces follows an attractive design.

Discussions about a co-generation plant by the year 2003 still continue because the financial feasibility is currently threatened by the liberalisation of the European energy market.

3) Social Balance:

Within Baugruppen/co-housing projects the overall costs for buildings are much lower than if a building with similar quality were bought ready from a development company. Through this, even people with a lower income were able to become "house owners". The support of Baugruppen was most successful.

On the other hand, the number of flats for rent is quite small. Especially people with very little income have problems to find appartments. The main reason for this is that federal and state subsidies for building so called "social flats" were heavily reduced. Co-operative projects in some case are able to absorb this major problem.

The objective of family and children friendliness leads to a problem with the demographic balance. Vauban soon needs a third public kindergarden and the primary school has to be enlarged, too. Although it's most lovely to see, how kids occupy the streets, the district's social workers already face potential conflicts arising from the one-sided age structure.

As a result of this it can be said that in Freiburg-Vauban a sustainable district can be experienced daily by the inhabitants.

Main Outcome

It's a major achievement of the City of Freiburg to divide land into small lots and to allocate it in preference to private builders and Baugruppen/co-housing groups. This most important work was supported by Forum Vauban with the organisation of the participatory process and the formation of Baugruppen. The City of Freiburg set the basic ecological standards and was open for new developments through the extended citizen participation and the principle "Learning while Planning".

Here is the main outcome from a researcher's view:

" (...) It was this meticulous liaison work with prospective residents that contributed to, and eventually built the necessary popular support for, some of Vauban's most conspicuous innovations - such as the parking-free and carfree models of mobility management, the emergence of owner cooperatives (Baugruppen) as self-governed, non-profit developers and the instigation of building energy concepts far exceeding the already stringent legal requirements. Assisting people to translate their dreams and aspirations about sustainable living into feasible plans, and seeing them through a council planning department (that may be well-meaning in general terms but often sceptical in detail), became an invaluable role that Forum Vauban filled with verve, notwithstanding some inevitable conflict potential. The level of synergy, accrued from such forceful collaboration structures, eventuated in a multiplicity of experimental and daring solutions to planning tasks when Vauban was developed from early 1998 onwards, proving as inspirational to sustainable building as such as requiring ongoing attention and re-evaluation with regard to their long-term viability. (...)"