Visions for the Future: Shaping Urban Neighborhoods Participatively and Sustainably

How can cities develop sustainably? How do they limit traffic, reduce pollutants and make attractive use of urban spaces, how do they create affordable attractive housing for all? These and other questions are at the centre of a project just launched by the Öko-Institut in cooperation with the Institute for Regional and Urban Development Research (ILS, Dortmund), the German Institute of Urban Affairs (difu, Berlin) and the City of Darmstadt, which has the working title "Transformative Strategies for Integrated Neighbourhood Development - TRASIQ".

Visions for the Future: Shaping Urban Neighborhoods Participatively and Sustainably

How can cities develop sustainably? How can they limit traffic, reduce pollution and make attractive use of urban space - in short, be liveable for their inhabitants? How can they meet the needs of an ageing population and the influx of younger people in equal measure, and how can they create affordable, attractive housing for all? What role do possible conflicts between ecology - more forest - and economy - more living space - play and how can they be resolved? These and other questions are at the centre of a project just launched by the Öko-Institut in cooperation with the Institute for Regional and Urban Development Research (ILS, Dortmund), the German Institute of Urban Affairs (difu, Berlin) and the City of Darmstadt, which has the working title "Transformative Strategies for Integrated Neighbourhood Development - TRASIQ".

In the two cities of Darmstadt and Griesheim, the project partners discuss sustainability requirements together with planners - for example with a view to limited budgets - and develop concepts and strategies for liveable neighbourhoods. How exactly such visionary ideas could be implemented is then to be co-developed by the future residents. team ewen and the Schader Foundation support the project in communicating and shaping the dialogue. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Darmstadt and Griesheim - testing sustainable neighbourhoods

Darmstadt is one of the so-called "swarm cities" - that is, one of the 18 municipalities in Germany where the age group of 20 to 35-year-olds is concentrated far above average. The city has been growing continuously since 1997, currently at a rate of around 2,000 people per year. In this context, Darmstadt set itself targets for sustainable urban development early on and wants to test new settlement concepts in pilot projects such as on the site of the former Cambrai-Fritsch barracks.

"Precisely because we are a city of science, we rely on the dialogue between research and practice in urban development. We are particularly pleased to be cooperating with the Öko-Institut within the framework of TRASIQ, which is one of the most important players in the field of Green Smart City in Darmstadt's scientific landscape," explains Lord Mayor Jochen Partsch.

"Conflicts arise in the conception of an ecologically, socially and economically sustainable urban area - for example, in high-quality, energy-saving construction that nevertheless has to remain affordable," says Dr Dietlinde Quack, one of the two project leaders of the transdisciplinary project at the Öko-Institut, explaining the challenge. "Discussing such conflicts in the municipalities with those politically responsible, the citizens and future investors and finding a fair way for as many parties as possible is our task for the next three years. In doing so, the exchange about common visions of the future of design will help us. If all stakeholders agree on this, we can then align ideas for the concretisation of the development areas with it."

Contact persons at the Öko-Institut

Dr Dietlinde Quack
Head of the Consumer and Society Group
in the area of products & material flows
Öko-Institut e.V., Freiburg Office
Phone: +49 761 45295-248
E-mail: d.quack(at)oeko.de

Dr Bettina Brohmann
Research Coordinator Transdisciplinary
Sustainability Science
Öko-Institut e.V., Darmstadt Office
Phone: +49 6151 8191-135
E-mail: b.brohmann(at)oeko.de

The Öko-Institut is one of Europe's leading independent research and advisory institutes for a sustainable future. Since its foundation in 1977, the Institute has been developing principles and strategies on how the vision of sustainable development can be implemented globally, nationally and locally. The Institute has offices in Freiburg, Darmstadt and Berlin.

More info: http://www.trasiq.de/