While we are exploring our own little experiment of sustainable living in the Greenbelt community, I think it is important to look beyond our immediate bubble and take a look at other sustainable living concepts. While it is certainly valuable to generate our own ideas and projects through our creativity and spirit, we can also learn a lot from looking at other communities and their approaches and creative solutions that are successful or not. On our recent field trip, we saw one example of a remote community focused on sustainability, but I rather want to focus on another community that was based on the idea of urban sustainable development and set an example for many other projects to come.
A district of my hometown in Germany, Vauban, was used by the French occupation army as a military base until the fall of the wall in 1989 (5). When the city of Freiburg bought up the land in 1992, grassroots organizations made up of anti-nuclear protesters, environmental and student activists fought for the creation of a unique project of sustainable living to be implemented in this new district of the city (5, 6). The citizen participation in the upheaval of the project continued throughout the planning, implementation, and the actual living experience today and made the project what it is today. The district implements a unique concept for homeownership and energy, transportation, and community living. Vauban’s plan thus incorporated social, economic, and environmental dimensions which speak to a holistic approach to sustainable development that turned out to be very successful. Since its initial plans, it has won multiple national and international awards in sustainable urban design, development, and citizen participation by the United Nations and other institutions (4).
Besides generally using democratic modes for decision-making in the planning process, democracy stays part of the life of the people who live in Vauban. The district was divided into different public and private interest groups that sought architects to build their neighborhoods after their interests and ideas. These interest groups established their own council and guidelines about how they wanted to live together in the neighborhood. The division into interest groups gave residents a voice in forming their environment. Many neighborhoods went above the general guidelines for the sustainability of Vauban and created even more energy-efficient and environmentally conscious housing. This shows how having a right to participation can foster the feeling of being able to make a difference and a sense of responsibility. I believe that this is a powerful way we can create a greater sense of responsibility for our decisions towards sustainability. Increasing student participation in big decisions our university takes regarding new building structures and our energy sources would improve the general environmental consciousness amongst the student body.
One example of these neighborhood communities is the “Sun ship”. Besides having a passive house standard (houses generating as much energy through renewable sources as they use) across all of Vauban, the “Sun ship” is a “Plus energy” neighborhood – the community creates more energy through solar and geothermal sources than it uses (4). Thus, it can feed surplus renewable energy back into the grid. Many other building techniques like the intentional placement of windows and trees for optimal heat retention and cooling, advanced insulation and passive ventilation technology, and other technologies were incorporated to achieve energy neutrality. While there is certainly a lot of practical building technology we can learn from these houses, I think more importantly we can see how these advanced technologies are not just big dreams of environmentalists but feasible options for designing homes.
Parking space is decentralized in parking garages and when signing a lease for an apartment, you commit yourself to living car-free or paying significantly high fees and annual taxes for a parking space in the garage. Carsharing is available and members get a free pass for all forms of public transport in Freiburg. Significant financial incentives and a great light rail, bus, and train connection lead to car ownership in Vauban of 75% lower than the average car ownership per person in the US (4). I think creating economic incentives such as higher fees for parking spaces while simultaneously making more sustainable transport options more accessible and financially beneficial can be leveraged on our campus to decrease short-distance car use.
While being connected well to the inner city of Freiburg, Vauban’s district concept also tries to encourage local sustenance by having local food supply as well as other stores within the district. One can find restaurants, organic convenience stores, small clothing, and art business, and community gardens distributed across Vauban (3). Besides emphasizing local sustenance, the placement of shops and community gathering places in the district has another intentionality – creating a tight-knit community was also a goal in Vauban’s design (2). As much as social sustainability can sound secondary in sustainable design, I think Vauban demonstrates that the tightness of a community can significantly enhance everyone’s willingness to commit to certain changes, increase the probability of actually realizing these changes, and maintain the projects by holding each other accountable.
To conclude, Vauban is a successful example of sustainable urban development that includes many approaches that we can learn from for our Greenbelt community. A major contributor to the success was the citizen participation that initiated the beginning of the project and remains the basis for the maintenance of the community. The US is a special place where novel entrepreneurship is highly supported, and this campus has many resources for us to create initiatives and make active decisions for the community. Thus, I think we are in a unique place and time of our lives when we can and should dream big.
Sources
- https://stadtteil-vauban.de/
- https://uclg-cisdp.org/sites/default/files/observatory/files/2021-06/Freiburg_EN.pdf
- https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/words-most-successful-model-sustainable-urban-development/229316/
- https://www.witpress.com/Secure/ejournals/papers/D%26NE080401f.pdf
- http://cjjnwdb.plusenergiehaus.de/files/pdf/Foro_Internacional_de_Vivienda_Sustentable_2010.pdf
- http://publications.rwth-aachen.de/record/231115/files/6_pt_materialien_32-1.pdf