Benutzer:OberMegaTrans/06

German original

Vauban (Freiburg im Breisgau)

Translation in progress

Housing

The average price for a square meter of a real estate is 2, 500 – 3, 000 Euro. All buildings were constructed according to the low energy standards of Freiburg. The 100 units of solar energy housing developments are even supposed to produce more energy throughout the year than they themselves need. There are a few passive houses, among them the first passive house, which provides housing for several families in Germany. Some of the houses are even equipped with vaccum toilets and Ecosan-effluents. The population density of about 12,500 inhabitants/ km² is quite high and matches somehow the density of many German inner city districts. The area is right next to a nature protected ditch with very old tree population which is also a biotope for a multitude of rare animals. Since the former military used the area, the ground-water is particularly contaminated with carbon dioxide. It is being circulated and replaced in a construction of its own. It is supposed to be clean again in twenty years.

Inhabitants

A major part of the inhabitants of this quarter of the city are families. They have organized and planned the construction of the apartment blocks together, in order to build them economically and with a lot of self-initiative. GENOVA is an important construction and housing project and organized as a cooperative. Approximately a third of the inhabitants are under 18 years of age, the percentage of children is very high.

As a result, Vauban is Freiburg’s quarter with the most children, ahead of the second new large quarter Rieselfeld. Vauban is often considered to be the quarter with the most children in all of Germany. Additionally, many of the quarter’s former barracks buildings have been turned into student apartments for the Freiburg Student Union.

Infrastructure

Since April 2006, a cable car line allows fast / easy access to the city center. About fifteen car-sharing vehicles are available to the car-free households in the quarter. Due to the high number of children, the elementary school had to be enlarged shortly after opening. Among other things, there is a bakery, two children’s and youngsters’ clothes shops, a stationery shop, two ice cream parlors, two wholefood shops, one supermarket, a health and beauty retailers, a flower shop, a bike store with a repair shop, a computer shop, two carpenter’s shops, a shoemaker and a drug store in the neighborhood. Every Wednesday, there is a market with a great range of organic products.

Inhabitants' Participation

An essential feature of the Vauban project is to encourage public participation through the Vauban Forum with the aim of the community creating a town-quarter which is a model of sustainability.

Opposing to traditional projects, in Vauban several alternative solutions were put into practice: for instance, old French military barracks were transformed into residential buildings with relatively low budget; another example is S.U.S.I. (roughly „self-governed, independent initiative of residents“), whose attempt was to establish room for student accommodation and affordable housing.

Traffic concept

1. An important issue of the forum Vauban was to materialise a sustainable quarter with a special focus on traffic. The plan was to connect this quarter to tramway network of Freiburg as soon as possible (materialized since April 2006). The households or the residents have the choice between car-free and parking-free living. The residents of the quarter, in case they own a car, have to purchase a parking space (for about 18,000 Euro) in one of the two parking blocks at the edge of the area. In the quarter, in the road of the residential area, which are all streets where kids play, and in front of the house, cars can only be parked for a short time.

2.Those who do not own a car or those who share a car (in the cantonment there are 400 people who share a car and fifteen cars available) have to buy a share of “reserved areas” for about 3,500 € in order to be able to purchase a parking space later, in case a car is acquired. This is registered as a mortgage loan. A union against too many cars, the Autofreiverein, founded by the initiators of the traffic concept, supervises the compliance of living without cars. By waiver of parking space in the neighbourhood, most of the public residential roads are available for child-friendly extracurricular activities and thus offer along with the numerous green spaces a special urban quality of living.

3.Critics of this traffic concept complain about the lack of parking space for visitors, which, however, only occurred temporarily because of these critics parking their cars on parking space provided for visitors and the city of Freiburg failing to a large extent to control until Autumn 2006. Since there is regular controlling, there is enough parking space available for visitors even during the day. The “Autofreiverein” (“free of cars -Club”) assumes that 10 -15 % of the adult inhabitants of the district try to register their car as cars of persons living outside of the district or to outgo the “Car-Free” regulation in another way.

---

Mehrere „alternative“ Projekte (z. B. die selbstverwaltete unabhängige Siedlungsinitiative S.U.S.I., die Wohnraum für Studenten und Sozialwohnungen in einem alternativen Wohnkonzept geschaffen hat) haben unter anderem alte Kasernengebäude kostengünstig umgenutzt. In einem der erhalten gebliebenen Kasernengebäude wurde ein selbstverwaltetes „Stadtteilzentrum Haus 037“ geschaffen. Im Frühjahr 2005 wurden einige ehemalige Kasernenbauten besetzt, da sie abgerissen werden sollten.

Decide on which paragraph should be used!!!

More "alternative" projects have, among other things, converted old barracks at a low cost. An example of this is S.U.S.I., a self-governed independent residential initiative that, through an alternative living concept, developed living spaces for students as well as subsidized housing. A self-governing "Community Center Building 037" (German: Stadtteilzentrum Haus 037) has been established in one of the preserved barracks. Some former barracks were occupied in early 2005, as they would have been demolished.