What can be learned from this project?
Freiburg’s success is due to a combination of skills and innovative thinking:
• The local authority taking the initiative, with a strong Mayor backed up by a visionary chief planner
• Masterplanning and urban design: commissioning appropriate masterplans and design codes to achieve excellence in urban design, but allowing flexibility to enhance character
Rieselfeld library (Source URBED)
• Prioritising community engagement and support for initial residents, particularly those that are vulnerable, e.g. single parents
• Skills in conflict resolution, focusing more on collaboration than competition between planners, architects, engineers and designers
• Branding eco-neighbourhoods as energy- and waste-saving
• Matching transport infrastructure to the growth of the community, and installing a high quality system early on
• Making full use of natural features, landscapes and existing buildings
• Providing a child-friendly environment with family homes, play spaces, and schools within walking or cycling distance
• Using schools as the catalyst for community development where practical
• Attracting residents of all ages to create a balanced community
Topics associated with this project
Community engagement, Eco-town, Energy, Environmental, Housing, International, Neighbourhood, Transport