Summary and Review on the Project "Sustainable Model City District Vauban"

In the South of Freiburg, on the former area of a French barrack site, the new Vauban Residential Area (42 ha) is being developed for 5,000 inhabitants. The planning started 1993 and in 2006, after three development sections, the district will be completed.

Key Dates:

• 1993 - the project starts on December 14th:
  - the decision has been made by the Freiburg City Council to develop the new Vauban residential area
• 1995 - the start of the participation:
  - Forum Vauban NGO has been founded and is recognized as legal body of the extended participation process
  the Student's association and the SUSI settlement initiative start to refurbish 10 of the old army barrack buildings especially for students and people with low income
• 1996 - the most important year geting the project going:
  - main discussion about the master plan happens, with a major influence from Forum Vauban which runs its first project "Scientific Support for the Extended Participation Process" funded by the German Environment Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt)
  - main publicity campaigns mobilizing the first future inhabitants occurs, formation of the first co-building groups
  - Freiburg-Vauban is a German Best Practice(at)the Habitat II conference in Istanbul
• 1997 - the concepts are taking shape:
  - the EU-funded project brings forward the implementation of the sustainability concepts in the fields of mobility, energy and social/ecological building
  - the first building lots become available for co-building groups, co-operative building initiatives, private builders and a limited number of commercial builders
• 1999/2000 - the "turning point" of the Forum’s work:
  - closing of the EU-LIFE-project with an international conference "UrbanVisions" in Freiburg (pre-event of Urban 21 conference in Berlin), conceptional and scientific work is completed and documented with a number of publications
  - a new focus: the social work - communication with all new inhabitants and the developing of neighbourhoods
• 2002 - many people move into the 2nd sector, start of the neighbourhood center
  - by June, more than 2700 people are living in Vauban, 20% of them are younger than 10 years - start of the renovation of "Haus 037", the self conducted district’s neighbourhood center
• 2006 - bankruptcy of the Forum Vauban due to a reclaim of part of the funds by the European Community
• 2008 - a judge ruled that the former responsibles of the Forum Vauban had only a small guilt - if ever.

How everything started ...

In spring 1995, the  City of Freiburg initiated a process of citizen participation, as it was done before in another development project, the  "Rieselfeld". The private association Forum Vauban e.V. was accepted by the city to be the organizing body of the participatory process. Working groups made suggestions for the official planning. The city gave some core funding to Forum Vauban e.V..

Before the development project began, ten barrack buildings had already been given to the "Student's; Association" and the  alternative settlement initiative S.U.S.I. (Selbstorganisierte Unabhängige Siedlungsinitiative). The "Student's; Association" created dormitories with rooms for 600 students in six old barracks and 3 new buildings. S.U.S.I., a grassroots initiative, is concerned with creating healthy and self-organised housing that is both low-cost and ecologically sustainable. The initiative has refurbished 4 old buildings and created 45 housing units that can accomodate an average of 5 people.

Scientific support

From the very beginning, Forum Vauban did not want to restrict itself to merely organizing and co-ordaining, but developed suggestions for the planning of the district. Therefore, with funding of the German Environmental Foundation ( DBU) in 1996 the project "scientific support for the citizen participation" was realized. Experts developed a set of measures for a "sustainable model city district Vauban", dealing with the fields of traffic, building, energy, nature in the city, sanitation and public space. The results were discussed internally and with the city. Many of the suggestions became part of the official planning, others were implemented by private initiative in parts of Vauban.

Publicity campaign "Wohnfrühling" (housing spring) and Information Fairs

Another issue(at)that time was to get in contact with the future inhabitants of Vauban. For that purpose, Forum Vauban and the city jointly ran a publicity campaign with special regard to ecological and social city planning. Due to the "exemplary civic engagement and the co-operative planning culture", Forum Vauban and the City of Freiburg were selected to present the Vauban project as a Best Practice on the UN conference Habitat II in Istanbul. This also resulted in additional publicity for the district.

After the very successful publicity campaign, Forum Vauban organized information fairs and transformed its newsletter into the bimonthly district newspaper " Vauban actuel". With great help of Forum Vauban, 15 "Baugruppen" ('co-building'; or 'co-housing') were formed, each one consisting of 5-15 families. Within the "Baugruppen", the future inhabitants can build individually but also very cost/effectively, moreover the new neighborhoods begin to grow(at)a very early stage. Many of the "Baugruppen" realize themselves special ecological and social measures within their new homes beyond the official planning which already includes for example low energy building, public transport and keeping cars outside the district.

During 1997 and 1998, information fairs, excursions, but also the meetings of the various working groups. In the "Baugruppen-co-ordination group", the private builders shared their experiences and problems and supported each other. Furthermore, the building and housing co-operative GENOVA was founded, which meanwhild built rented flats with an ecological and cost-effective concept.

LIFE-Project and Start of the First Building Section

In summer 1997, the project "realization of the sustainable model district Vauban" got funding through the EU environmental programme LIFE. This made possible the elaboration of several projects of environmentally friendly ways of building and living. This is especially true for the fields of energy and traffic and the realization of the concept "living without an own car" and the "mobility package" in Vauban. In co-operation with the Freiburg utilities FEW, two funding schemes for solar energy and efficient household appliances were developed.

In April 1998, the first construction sites were established in Vauban, and in September, the first families moved into their new homes. For Forum Vauban, a point of special interest then was to assist the realization of the different measures, in order to ensure their successful implementation. In co-operation with the city's building department and a working group of the city council, all relevant issues could be addressed(at)an early stage. Special participation workshops took place for the topics "residential streets" and "green space". During the LIFE-project, 6 to 8 staff members and up to six working groups were active in Forum Vauban. The LIFE project ended in December 1999 successfully.

The results were most impressing: More than half of the 420 apartments of the first building section had been realised collectively by groups like the Baugruppen or the GENOVA co-operative. About 140 households were living in Vauban without a private car. Moreover, 42 apartments were built in passive house standard. Furthermore, many of the potential builders of the second section have been informed about ecological building measures. Also many new Baugruppen had been formed.

In October 1999, the conference UrbanVisions took place in Freiburg, organised by Forum Vauban and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives ( ICLEI). At the conference with 130 participants from 21 countries, the topics of sustainable city planning and citizen participation intensively had been discussed. Furthermore, the book "Nachhaltige Stadtentwicklung beginnt im Quartier" (only German) and the brochure "Journey through the Model District Vauban" were  published by Forum Vauban.

Community Work, Second Building Section

Since October 1999, Forum Vauban is the organising body of the community work. The program's goal is to help the residents to get to know each other, to support new neighbourhood initiatives and to create a good social infrastructure. In 2002, the first Vauban guide was published listing more than 30 non-commercial initiatives and 65 commercial institutions within the district. What needs to be specially noted is the district's grocery shop. This self-organized project was brought to life by community members and sells produce which has been grown with biologically controlled production. Another example for the commitment of the community is the initiative for a weekly farmers' market, which is organized every Wednesday since September 1999.

An important part of the Forum’s work is the transformation of the former officers’ mess into the district's self-conducted neighbourhood centre. After long discussions, the city of Freiburg agreed to give further financial support for this specific project. The renovation of the old building started by June, 2002.

The social and cultural life in the new city district is strongly enhanced by the commitment of the Forum’s community workers. In addition to the district’s yearly festival, there are other events, such as the district’s rally "Allez! Allez! Vauban!", the culture café as well as workshops, partys and frequent information stands.

The experiences from the first building section are used for the development of the second section, where construction work started in spring 2000. More than 30 new co-building groups were founded. More than 50 new apartments are built in passive house standard. The Genova co-operative has built another 40 units within two further apartment houses. The innovative traffic concept encompasses almost the complete second section, too. So far, some 360 households agreed to live without an owned car.

In the middle of 2001 a new project was started directed(at)informing the inhabitants about the unique traffic concept and to introduce alternative mobility possibilities to them. This project again is financially supported by the German Environment Foundation ( Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt - DBU).

Finally, in June 2002,  Vauban became one of the 40 selected from among 544 best practices and was submitted to the Jury for the 2002 Dubai International Award, announced by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT).