After decision in Spain and WHO demand: German Environmental Aid demands 30 km/h speed limit in built-up areas by 2021

Published 19 May 2021

Other countries are leading the way: Spain adopts 30 km/h speed limit in cities; French cities with 30 km/h speed limit have 70 percent fewer fatal accidents
Federal government fails "Vision Zero" and ignores 30 km/h as an immediate measure in key points paper for new road safety programme
Current United Nations Road Safety Week identifies reduction of speed limit to 30 km/h in built-up areas as key measure to protect lives

Berlin, 19.5.2021: The German Environmental Aid (DUH) renews its demand for a reduced speed limit of 30 km/h in built-up areas as an immediate measure to prevent traffic fatalities and serious injuries. Last week, Spain reduced the speed limit on main roads to 30 km/h with immediate effect. The United Nations Road Safety Week is currently underway under the slogan #love30. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has also called for a global 30 km/h speed limit in towns and villages.

To do this Jürgen Resch, federal managing director of DUH: "More and more countries are leading the way and proving that 30 km/h in built-up areas not only reduces the number and severity of traffic accidents, but also reduces noise pollution, improves air quality and enhances the quality of life. In our neighbouring country France, 30 km/h speed limits have already been in force in 200 cities since 2020 and have led to a 70 percent reduction in fatal accidents there. Our call for 30 km/h in built-up areas, which is now also supported by the World Health Organization, is consistent and should be implemented in Germany before the end of 2021. It is now well known that Mr Scheuer is not adopting any sensible measures to increase road safety. However, at least from the Greens we expect a clear positioning here: no coalition agreement without 30 km/h in our cities!"

The rapid implementation of 30 km/h is particularly urgent because the German government has failed miserably with the "Vision Zero" goal enshrined in the coalition agreement. By 2020, the number of accident fatalities was supposed to be reduced by 40 percent. With the measures taken by the Federal Government, there has only been a meagre 25 percent reduction in accident fatalities since 2010. Since the end of 2020, moreover, Germany has had to manage entirely without a current road safety programme because the old programme has expired. Nevertheless, the federal government's key issues paper, which serves as the basis for the new road safety programme 2021-2030, completely ignores a reduction in the speed limit as a solution.

Link
Vote for a speed limit now! www.duh.de/tempolimit-jetzt

Source: DUH-PM from 19.5.2021

Keywords: Bike-/Velo-City, DE-News, Climate protection, Mobility, News Blog Europe (without DE), Sufficiency, Transition Town, Environmental policy

Published 15 June 2020

European cultural heritage seal awarded to Werkbund housing estates

On 31 March 2020, the European Commission awarded the European Heritage Label to the Werkbundsiedlungen in Stuttgart, Brno, Wroclaw, Vienna and Prague.

From 1927 to 1932, 6 European Werkbund housing estates were built, which tested the industrialization of building through prefabrication and at the same time new forms of social coexistence:

1927 Werkbundsiedlung Stuttgart, Weißenhofsiedlung
1928 Werkbundsiedlung Brno, Nový Dům (New House)
1929 Werkbundsiedlung Breslau, WUWA
1932 Werkbundsiedlung Vienna, currently being revitalised
1932 Werkbundsiedlung Neubühl, Zurich-Wollishofen
1932/33 Werkbundsiedlung Prague, Baba

The Werkbund housing estates have had a significant influence on the development of architecture in the 20th century. They form a European cultural asset of exceptional standing and are still the subject of intellectual and design debates today; they exemplarily reflect the political-social developments and ruptures of the 20th century in Europe. In their entirety, the Werkbund housing estates are outstanding testimonies to the common roots of modernity.

A cross-border network, initiated to a large extent by the state capital Stuttgart in 2013, is intended to ensure the preservation of the settlements and to convey the significance of the emergence of modern architecture as a joint European achievement.

Detailed information in werkbund.brief 57

Keywords:
Awards, DE-News, European Heritage Label, News Blog Baden-Württemberg, News Blog Europe (without DE), News Blog Switzerland, News Blog Austria, Settlements, Aesthetics / Architecture / Building Culture

Published 20 April 2022

Book Review Building for the Community in Vienna

Solidary, Participative, Pioneering

Isabella Marboe (ed.) Bauen für die Gemeinschaft in Wien Neue gemeinschaftliche Formen des Zusammenlebens. Edition Detail 2021, 144 pages, de/eng, Euro 39.90

Review by Roman Schaurhofer, Vienna

Overview

The book "Building for the Community in Vienna" was published in 2021 by Isabella Marboe at Verlag Detail. All texts were printed in German and English in the book. In addition to an interview conducted by Marboe with Ulrike Schartner and Alexander Hagner, Robert Temel has his say in an expert article.

All in all, the book deals with 20 building projects in the Austrian capital Vienna and offers insight into the respective planning as well as the organisational and structural realisation of those very communities.

Content

At the beginning, Isabella Marboe looks back at historically relevant and significant events surrounding Viennese housing, community in everyday life and housing, and participatory building. The editor then highlights the importance and significance of the architect Ottokar Uhl and his work. Especially the projects "Living with Children" and "B.R.O.T." are mentioned and described as positive examples. In addition, Marboe goes into more detail about the historical developments surrounding the "Sargfabrik" and "MISS Sargfabrik" projects. Isabella Marboe is committed to a communal and socially solidary as well as responsible coexistence.

In Robert Temel's contribution, after a historical classification of Austrian pioneer and follow-up projects, there is also a brief description of organisational and ownership models. This is followed by an outline of the emergence of building communities and their possibilities for acquiring a building plot, as well as a comparison of several models implemented in Vienna.

In an interview, Ulrike Schartner and Alexander Hagner from gaupenraub+/- explained the many challenges that arise when creating quality housing for homeless people and at the same time show approaches to dealing with problems of this kind.

After the essays and the interview, there is a more detailed examination of the individual projects. A brief description, accompanied by key figures and background information, provides insights into the planning and implementation of the respective community ideas. In addition, illustrations and detailed plans (often in the form of floor plans) give the reader a better understanding of the structure and function of the respective project. In addition to individual buildings, row houses, multi-storey residential buildings and neighbourhood houses that stand out from their surroundings were also selected.

Criticism

The social and socially solidary approach of the project examples stands out in a clearly positive way. Each of the projects features people-oriented planning and high-quality implementation geared to the wishes of the residents, without losing sight of the demand for high-quality architecture. Although the communal and participatory character is clearly in the foreground as a unifying element, the individual projects cannot be denied their uniqueness and individuality in approach.

The detailed information, underpinned by pictorial representations, enables the reader to place the projects conceptually and contextually in their respective environment. With the overview and detailed descriptions of the sample projects, the editor Isabella Marboe offers a solid basis with carefully researched project examples for professional discourse and a more intensive examination of the topic of building communities.

February 2021, Hardcover, 23 x 30 cm, German / English

Text samples or buy the book from the publisher:
www.detail.de/de_de/bauen-fuer-die-gemeinschaft-in-wien

Keywords:
Cohousing, DE-News, New books and studies, News Blog Austria, Vienna, Housing, Housing projects

Published 27 September 2019

Conference of Construction Ministers promotes timber construction

Nationwide, construction with wood for buildings up to the high-rise limit is to be made easier and the Model Building Code (MBO) adapted accordingly. This was adopted by the Construction Ministers' Conference (BMK) at the end of the two-day conference in Norderstedt. In addition to climate-friendly construction with a focus on wood, the topic of "affordable housing" was also on the agenda.

Four and a half years after the legal equality of timber construction in the LBO Baden-Württemberg and almost half a year after Bremen, the sixth federal state to break out of the broad phalanx of "timber construction obstructionists", the realisation is now maturing throughout Germany that timber is a particularly environmentally friendly and climate-compatible building material that can be used to solve a wide range of construction tasks well and cost-effectively.

Links

Conclusion of the Construction Ministers' Conference: Wooden houses for more climate friendliness
27 September 2019
www.sat1regional.de/abschluss-der-bauministerkonferenz-holzhaeuser-fuer-mehr-klimafreundlichkeit/

Conference of Building Ministers decides on more climate protection (4.10.2019):
www.bfsb-online.de/bauministerkonferenz-beschliesst-mehr-klimaschutz/

Keywords:
Building materials / Construction, DE-News, Wood construction, Communities, News Blog Baden-Württemberg, News Blog Berlin, News Blog Bremen, News Blog Hamburg, News Blog NRW, News Blog RLP, City, Housing, Housing policy, Ecology

Published 11 August 2017

Karlsruhe Reallabor receives award from the Sustainability Council

Image: German Council for Sustainable Development

Making life in the neighbourhood more ecologically, socially, economically and culturally sustainable together with the residents; that is the aim of "Real-world laboratory 131: KIT finds the city" at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). In Karlsruhe's Oststadt district, researchers in this laboratory are looking for ways to reduce CO2 emissions, conserve resources, strengthen neighbourhoods and improve the health of people in the district. The project has now been honoured twice by the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE).

"The special thing about this project is that we work directly with the people living and working on the ground at eye level and can therefore not only incorporate specific local knowledge and think ahead. Rather, this makes it possible to take action for sustainable development," says Alexandra Quint from the project team at the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS). Ways to make neighbourhoods more pedestrian-friendly are being researched, as are new methods for energy-efficient building refurbishment, and services for sustainable living and sustainable mobility behaviour are being developed. The researchers' work is highly interdisciplinary: "Architects, philosophers, landscape planners, cultural scientists, environmental scientists and geoecologists work together in this team," says the urban geographer.

This is not just research, but also very practical work: "For example, there is a newly developed energy concept for increasing the proportion of renewable energies in existing buildings or initiatives for slowing down our increasingly hectic everyday lives," reports Dr Oliver Parodi, Head of Reallabor 131. In the "Beds and Bees" project, citizens and scientists have jointly designed a snack bed with herbs, fruit and vegetables in public spaces and set up a hive as a home for bees. Quint explains that this not only serves to raise environmental and nutritional awareness, but above all to build community. All of this is done in co-operation with civil society groups, the city administration, associations, businesses and, above all, the local citizens who regularly take part.

A series of events also provides approaches and ideas for alternative consumer behaviour. Parodi mentions plant swaps, clothes swap parties and a regular repair café. "Reallabor 131 is designed as a platform for participation and has a strong networking character." The project's own "Future Space for Sustainability and Science", a former shop, combines the characteristics of a neighbourhood office, a science shop and a community centre and is now a popular meeting point, event and educational venue.

According to Quint, the concept is attracting worldwide interest: "The laboratory is a model, is designed to be transferable and has so far been researched by scientists from the Netherlands, Spain and Australia, with requests for cooperation coming from Mexico, Russia, Switzerland, the USA, Estonia, Portugal and Spain."

Honoured as a transformation project
The German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE), which advises the German government on sustainability issues, has now honoured the Reallabor twice: with the "Project Sustainability 2017" seal of quality and as one of four "transformation projects" nationwide. With this seal, the RNE recognises initiatives from society that make a special contribution to sustainable development in Germany and the world. Around 240 projects applied for the award. According to the jury, the transformation projects honoured have particularly great potential to make the world more sustainable. The awards were presented at the end of May at the RNE's annual conference in Berlin.

The website provides information on all the activities of the real-world laboratory: www.quartierzukunft.de

Photo of the award ceremony under:
www.tatenfuermorgen.de/galerien/jahreskonferenz

Source: Press release 076/2017 from 09/06/2017

Keywords:
Stock, News Blog Baden-Württemberg, Quarters, Contests & Prizes