Quartier FRANKLIN in Mannheim

D - 68309 Mannheim: On the former largest barracks site of the US Armed Forces in Germany, the so-called "Benjamin Franklin Village", five largely mixed-use neighbourhoods have been developed since 2012 on an area of 94 ha. Residential buildings for around 9,300 people (4100 units) and around 2,000 jobs are to be built. Furthermore, a park of 50 hectares will be realized. Existing buildings will be used, energetically renovated and modernized in line with the times, but also many new buildings will be constructed. December 2017 the first residents have moved in, in December 2019 already exceeded the 1000 residents. Completion: 2025
Urban planning
The FRANKLIN building project is based on the framework plan by the Danish architectural firm Vandkunsten. Based on this, the new FRANKLIN will be surrounded by a lot of greenery. Almost 40 percent of the total area will be developed into public open space. "Franklin" is to become a socially mixed district with the widest range of residential typologies to date for Mannheim: New construction and refurbished existing housing, single-family homes, terraced and semi-detached houses, rental apartments and condominiums with sizes between 30 and 200 m² as well as space for community projects. Four 13-storey buildings mark the centre as the highest points. Green spaces, sports fields and an arena occupy around 60 hectares of the site. Restaurants, shops and educational facilities provide further urban qualities in the vicinity of the approximately 4,100 apartments.

The plans envisage 5 quarters:
FRANKLIN Center
Funari
Sullivan
Officers' Housing Estate
Columbus Quarter
See: https://franklin-mannheim.de/quartier/allgemein/

"The Columbus Quarter will be commercial and will provide space for large-scale retail. The remaining areas will be developed into new residential neighborhoods. In the meantime, a large number of people already live on FRANKLIN. The Officers' Quarters is the most developed area and will retain the original character of a typical American suburb. A new commercial center will be built in Franklin Mitte. In addition to shopping and services, social facilities such as a kindergarten will be offered there in the future."(Source: mannheim.de)

Sustainability

Mobility
Blue Village FRANKLIN is the name of FRANKLIN's mobility concept, which sees all transport users as equals and creates alternatives to the private car with attractive offers.

Currently, the FRANKLIN quarter is connected to the public transport system via an emission-free battery-powered e-bus. From the second half of 2023, the tram will run in the direction of the city center.

Public transport is complemented by innovative, low-emission mobility offers of the sharing economy (rental bike and rental car system, establishment & operation of an e-vehicle fleet) and autonomous driving as well as attractive mobility services (e.g. mobility app, mobility centre) to enable a low-threshold entry into a multimodal mode of transport.

Operation of the FRANKLIN mobility center on Washington Street: personal mobility advice for residents, rental of e-cars and cargo bikes, workshop, package acceptance, café, etc.

The Deutschlandfunk report explains the mobility concept in detail:
www.deutschlandfunk.de/mannheim-fast-autofrei-leben-im-franklin-quartier.697.de.html?dram:article_id=416126
An extensive charging infrastructure for e-cars and pedelecs is being built.
http://franklin-mobil.de/

wooden quarter

A concept tender was held for the Franklin-Mitte site, which measures 100 by 68 metres, and was won by the partnership Innovatio / Profund / Sauerbruch Hutton Architekten. The quarter is being built predominantly in timber construction: Walls in timber panel construction, the roof is made of cross laminated timber, timber-concrete composite ceilings, the TG in steel-concrete. Size: 90 apartments. Net living area: 7510 square meters of living area, 292 square meters of common area. Planned completion: 2nd quarter 2022

https://konzept.contur-publisher.de/wohnformen/wohnquartier-holzbauweise-soziale-gemeinschaftsraeume-mannheim/

www.pirminjung.ch/projekte/franklin-village

SQUARE redevelopment model project 
In the SQUARE project, GBG - Mannheimer Wohnungsbaugesellschaft is developing two existing buildings into ecological model houses on the FRANKLIN site under the title SQUARE (smart quarter and urban area reducing emissions). The buildings will be modernised in different ways (one according to the passive house standard (EnerPHit) and one according to the EnEV) according to the latest technical findings. The sustainability of the methods will be measured and compared by means of a 3-year monitoring of the measure after completion of construction. The project is supported by the funding programme "Climate Protection with a System" of the European Regional Development Fund ERDF. It involves a living area of 4,300 m², distributed over 48 residential units with three to five rooms. Individual components of the project are photovoltaic systems (hybrid collectors with 68 kWp) with battery storage and tenant electricity model, ice storage and heat pump technology.
https://franklin-mannheim.de/gbg-mannheim/square/
www.bundesbaublatt.de/...Vorbildcharakter_in_Sachen_Energie_und_Nachhaltigkeit_3419447.html

Blue infrastructure (water)
Decentralised management of rainwater

Green infrastructure / open space design
The conversion is expected to unseal extensive areas of land, providing 10% more green space once the work is complete. New planting of over 1350 trees. A wetland area will be created to the north with wetland scrub, reedbeds and rushes.

sdg21.blog posts

Links
https://franklin-mannheim.de
www.mannheim.de/...konversionsflaechen/benjamin-franklin-village-franklin
www.bundesbaublatt.de/artikel/bbb_Zurueck_in_die_Zukunft_3117027.html