As an academician of the Academy of Urbanism I had the privilege of visiting Freiburg recently at the launch of their Sustainable City Charter. Freiburg is considered to be ‘the most sustainable city in Europe’. Similar in size to Derby, it is located between the Black Forest and the Rhine, close to the French Border. It has an old historic core that avoided destruction in the war as there was no industry there. The Mayor of Freiburg had not agreed with the rush to manufacture arms in the 1930s and focussed his city on providing education and financial services. This gave the city a post war advantage in being both free from pollution and relatively intact - an advantage the ‘City Fathers’ exploited, so by the 1970’s they developed a Vision of a clean ‘green‘ energy efficient city.
Enter onto the ‘stage’ the then young, Prof Wulf Daseking, as the new city planner who since, over the last 35 years, has engineered the growth of the town around 12 sustainable principles. These are the principles, encapsulated within their new City Charter, that I summarise here:
Spatially:
1. City of Diversity, Safety, and Tolerance: Provide, within each neighbourhood, a range of energy efficient housing for a balanced age, social and ethnic profile, together with work places for all sectors of the population, public facilities and open space - especially for very young and old citizens
2. City of Neighbourhoods: Decentralise governance with local empowerment of living and working, education and recreation and, in particular, the management of green spaces, encouraging each neighbourhood to help define the city’s identity
3. City of Short Distances; Public transport and local facilities to be within easy walking distance in each neighbourhood and priority given to public transport, pedestrian and bicycle networks over private car use
4. Urban Development should be concentrated around Public Transport Networks: Increased urban density along the routes of public transport should be encouraged in a sensitive and sustainable manner, especially civic functions and frequently used buildings
Content:
5. Education, Science and Culture: Create opportunities for personal development and life-long learning within the city’s schools, universities, research facilities and cultural institutions.
6. Industry and Jobs: Conserve existing employment and develop groundbreaking and innovative businesses. Counteract the trend to greenfield development by concentrating on regeneration of existing fabric.
7. Nature & Environment: protection of a healthy and liveable environment
8. Design Quality: Planning decisions should support and enhance the character of a city with high quality design. The planning authority should direct the quality of development of key buildings from initial conception through to realisation on the ground - and, for other building, control the nature and scale of development plots.
Architectural design competitions, multiple commissioning, and expert panels will achieve better designed solutions for important buildings and spaces. The authority should ensure public owned spaces provide a good “public face” of the city.
Principles:
9. Long-term Nature: Consistent urban planning should follow a unified vision, referring back to the city’s past whilst also projecting forward by anticipating the needs of future generations. Conserving the old and celebrating the new by avoiding short-lived fashions or political whim.
10. Comunication and Participation. All parts of a city’s population should be invited to participate, cooperate and engage in all phases of development from initial visioning through to detailed planning, working as communities toward a “collective vision” of the city, involving both protagonists and stakeholders inside and outside the city administration.
11. Reliability, Obligation and Fairness: Urban policy needs to be founded on basic resolutions that have a binding effect on the administration of the city –a citywide concept based on principles of consensus. Govern development guidelines and standards of sustainable construction - such as retail concepts that support the sustainability of local sub-centres – through legally binding master plans.
12. Co-operation, Participation and Partnership: Cooperation, participation and action by the community involved in urban design can stimulate private action and also help to initiate a more self-fulfilling process. Involve scientific institutions, universities, industry and professional bodies as important players in innovative urban development.
High ideals? Maybe - but ones visibly demonstrated by Freiburg today
