Freiburg Case Study

4 Key excerpts on "Freiburg Case Study"

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  Green Cities of Europe

  Global Lessons on Green Urbanism

  • Timothy Beatley(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Island Press

    (Publisher)

  3

  Freiburg, Germany: Germany’s Eco-Capital

  Dale Medearis and Wulf Daseking

  Nestled in the southern corner of Germany near the Swiss and French borders, the city of Freiburg has long been considered a model of sustainable development for Europe and the world (see table 3.1 ). Freiburg is a moderate-sized city of approximately 220,000 people, with a unique combination of topography, climate, leadership, and history that have merged to make it a pioneer in renewable energy (especially solar), nature protection, transportation, and environmental planning. Freiburg’s proliferation of renewable energy industries, clearly defined landscape plans and urban forests, vibrant public transportation system, and environmentally designed housing in projects in Rieselfeld, Wiehre Bahnhof, and Vauban reflect how environmental protection, economic growth, and social inclusion policies are not mutually exclusive, but interrelated. Freiburg’s success can be more appreciated when one considers that it has sustained steady and continuous population growth for over thirty years.

  Freiburg is recognized as a global leader in sustainable development when measured by comprehensive energy planning, water conservation, or high transportation modal splits. The city’s success in merging design, transportation, and ecology is reflected in its expanding trophy case of European and global sustainability awards, and is living proof that sustainable planning is moving from the margins to the mainstream.

  General Background and Profile

  Freiburg’s success with environmental planning proves that ambitious environmental, energy, and nature-protection initiatives are economic development opportunities rather than insufferable obstacles. Three key elements have made Freiburg a pioneer in this realm: the city’s utilization of its comparative advantage with the relatively high concentration of sunlight, its rural isolation at the base of the Black Forest, and its development of a comprehensive energy program.

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  Dilemmas of Sustainable Urban Development

  A View from Practice

  • Jonathan Metzger, Jenny Lindblad, Jonathan Metzger, Jenny Lindblad(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  While Freiburg continues to uphold its sustainability agenda in the city, including developing sustainable neighborhoods, institutionalizing strict low energy standards, improving the tram network within the city, and supporting more sustainable lifestyles, supported by a vigorous branding and marketing program, meanwhile, in the hinterland, towns and cities such as Münster continue to cling on to the dream of living in suburbia, with its (semi)-detached single-family housing, car dependency, social homogenization, and daily commute to the green city. While at the first glance, Freiburg might appear as a green island in an ocean of unsustainability, families are in fact quitting the city and moving into the hinterland because they can no longer afford the cost of living and high house prices in Freiburg. The hinterland communities benefit from the economic downsides of living in the green city, and welcome these middle-class ‘renegades’ who have been ‘displaced’ by Freiburg’s sustainability agenda: those citizens, who are in search of relatively affordable housing or who are willing to spend more on larger plots than on strict energy regulations (for an interview with Mayor Endingen, see Miller & Mössner, forthcoming). The lack of regional governance and the non-existence of any serious regional planning cooperation between the green city and the surrounding municipalities is explained by the mayor of a smaller municipality in the Black Forest, located approximately 25 km from Freiburg: “The green city Freiburg ends where the train ends” (city planner, 2018, authors’ translation). This smaller municipality is de facto excluded from the regional public transportation network.

  The academic literature and countless expert groups who visit Freiburg or Münster rarely recognize the regional context, namely the city’s relationship with its hinterland. Despite researchers’ blindness to this reality, there are interesting relationships that need to be addressed in order to fully understand Freiburg’s sustainability agenda. The dominating focus on the city itself that leads sustainability research comes with a desperate hunt for the best practices that are required in order to find ostensibly better solutions that might transform our cities into more sustainable places (Roseland, 1997). We argue in this chapter that this search for best practices is highly problematic. It overlooks spatial contexts and ignores the complexity of urban development. And while it is still tempting for politicians and those who are looking for quick and easy solutions, one should act with caution when declaring that a city has adopted best practices.

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  Community Action and Planning

  Contexts, Drivers and Outcomes

  • Gallent, Nick, Ciaffi, Daniela, Nick Gallent, Daniela Ciaffi(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Policy Press

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 10 , this volume). Theoretically, neighbourhoods could be empowered to deliver Vaubanstyle simplified planning arrangements, allowing residents freedom of physical expression, as long as such arrangements are broadly consistent with higher plans, as is also the case in Freiburg. The second is a modicum of support for the self-build sector, including for collaborative schemes, in apparent recognition of the financial, tangible and social rewards that the alternative models to volume house production may bring. Vauban has caught the attention of practitioners and policy makers internationally (Hall, 2013), and although the scheme’s evolution pertains in large part to local societal context and political circumstances, it illustrates the potential of community power under an enabling governance framework. Moreover, the social outcomes described in this chapter evidence the enduring social outcomes of this apparently radical but arguably instinctive approach to residential development.

  Notes

  1 The site did not have planning permission and the municipal government indicated that they would not give permission to a developer. In effect the state had no choice but to sell to the city.

  2 Children tend to act as a social bridge: parents get to know one another through schools.

  References

  Buehler, R, Pucher, J, 2011, Sustainable transport in Freiburg: Lessons from Germany’s environmental capital, International Journal of Sustainable Transportation 5, 1, 43–70

  Buehler, R, Jungjohann, A, Keeley, M, Mehling, M, 2011, How Germany became Europe’s Green leader: A look at four decades of sustainable policymaking, The Solutions Journal 2, 5, Online

  City of Freiburg, 2007, Die Neubaugebiete Rieselfeld und Vauban [The New Developments of Rieselfeld and Vauban], Freiburg: City of Freiburg

  City of Freiburg, 2012, Demographischer Wandel in den Freiburger Stadtbezirken [Demographic Profiles in Freiburg’s Districts], Freiburg: City of Freiburg

  Daseking, W, 2010, The sustainable suburbs of Vauban and Rieselfeld, unpublished paper, Freiburg, City of Freiburg Department for Building Construction

  Hall, P, 2013, Good cities, better lives, London: Routledge

  Hamiduddin, I, 2013, The social implications of residential car reduction: Exploring community and mobility at the neighbourhood scale, unpublished PhD thesis, University College London

  Hamiduddin, I, 2014a, Social sustainability and neighbourhood form: Learning from the evolution of residential design in Freiburg, Germany, Town Planning Review

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  Low Car(bon) Communities

  Inspiring car-free and car-lite urban futures

  • Nicole Foletta, Jason Henderson(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Conference on Sustainable Planning and Development , Dorset: WIT, pp. 701–720.
• “Quartier Vauban” (2014) City of Freiburg : www.freiburg.de/pb/site/Freiburg/get/647919/Infotafeln_Vauban_en.pdf.
• R+T (1999) Verkehrsentwicklungsplan Freiburg. Teil A: Problemanalyse , Freiburg: R+T.
• Scheurer, J. (2001) Urban Ecology, Innovations in Housing Policy and the Future of Cities: Towards Sustainability in Neighbourhood Communities , Perth: Murdoch University Institute of Sustainable Transport.
• Sommer, U. and Wiechert, C. (2014) “Lernen von Vauban. Ein Studienprojekt und mehr ,” Architecture Department, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
• Umweltbundesamt (2009) Daten zum Verkehr. Ausgabe 2009 , Umweltbundesamt, Dessau-Roßlau.
• URBED: www.urbed.com/ .
• VAG Freiburg (municipal transit operator): www.vag-freiburg.de/