FIELD-TRIPS #UF23

Do you think it’s beautiful or as ugly as modern architecture can get? Join a walk to one of the most talked about neighbourhoods in Stuttgart and listen to all the background stories. Why does much of modern architecture look like is does. And was it meant to look like this? This fascinating guided tour covers the famous Weissenhof apartments and its surroundings, including the UNESCO world heritage listed Le-Corbusier-Haus. Also see developments such as the new Killesberghöhe, the Academy of Fine Arts, Brenzkirche and more.

So, you think farmers are old-fashioned, businesses are callous, and collaboration with self-interested property owners is bound to fail? This 110-acre collaboration project proves otherwise! This is your chance to explore—and taste your way through—the commercial transformation site in Fellbach. The planning will focus on collaborative ways to mix and re-densify the area, as well as strengthen urban agriculture. Finish the trip with a feast of local seasonal delicacies at a traditional “Besen” restaurant.

Remember the days of spinning mills and labour wars? Of course, you don’t. This is your chance to relive 1861 and—at the same time—imagine the future. Don’t miss this exclusive guided tour of the well-worth-seeing, forward-thinking industrial site at Neckar Spinning Mill. Drees & Sommer together with client HOS invite you to witness the mill’s astonishing conversation into a mixed-use, sustainable, live-work-play area as part of IBA’27.

So, what’s in the pipeline for this typical, post-war neighborhood? Check out this 21st century living lab for housing from the 1950s and explore what can happen when crisis-resistant, cooperative housing is reinvented when residents are taking the lead. Stuttgart-Rot is Germany’s biggest post-war housing complex with many architectural highlights. It’s also the future of conversions. N.B.: German is the main language on this tour.

Dazzling but dormant. Reclaiming the Neckar riverbank as a living space for all is a key to becoming a spectacular, sustainable, climate-adapted region of Stuttgart. But, as with any such plans, there’s much controversy around who is going to use newly reclaimed space. Learn how Stuttgart is prioritizing different functions (housing, sports, ecology, industry, etc.) in the most relaxing environment – on the river.

You’ve been indoors for days straight and hours at a time, soaking up all things Urban Future. Maybe you’re now craving fresh air, water and a most relaxing dip? Why not stretch your legs, get into nature, and join this walking tour to Stuttgart’s hidden gems: its thermal springs! Thanks to its special location in the basin, Stuttgart has got many of them. Don’t forget to bring a bathing suit if you want to end your day in the best possible way: in a thermal spa.

What sounds like a science fiction novel is now the present: researchers from Stuttgart have opened the world’s first adaptive high-rise building. The 36.5-meter-high building can adapt to its surroundings at the push of a button! Each of the 12 floors serves as a test module for cutting-edge façade systems, such as for a hydro-active façade system to reduce urban heat and risks of flooding. And when a cold wind blows, it flexes its muscles; its weight shifts and it leans into the gusts to avoid getting knocked over. D1244 is not a robot from Star Wars but the world’s first skyscraper of its kind. Consuming very little construction material, the jaw-dropping building is also a glimpse into the future of architecture.

If plants (or health) are your thing, you’ll never want to leave again. Join this private tour of the amazing Weleda Gardens in Wetzgau, Europe’s largest garden of healing plants spanning over an astonishing 23 acres and hosting more than 800 plants. Very much in line with Weleda’s anthroposophical purpose of “unfolding health and beauty in harmony with nature and the human being”, the gardens are considered one living organism. Experience them in the summer – and be overwhelmed by the sheer ocean of blossoms. N.B.: As this tour will include an very unusual construction site visit, make sure to wear good shoes. Do not join the field trip with sandals or heels!

Stuttgart 21 is probably one of Europe’s most controversial train stations. But did you know, that’s it is actually not a train station project? In fact, it is a massive infrastructure project with 11 rail tracks, 3 train stations, 57 km of tunnels, and Stuttgart’s new main station – coupled with Germany’s largest inner-city urban development project. This private tour will put the project(s) into perspective before taking you in protective gear some 100m below surface into the heart of what will be the main hall of Stuttgart’s spectacular underground train station.

This is for tunnel fans: seize the opportunity to experience for yourself one of Europe’s largest train infrastructure projects. At Stuttgart Airport, Germany’s train operator Deutsche Bahn builds a massive high-speed rail station that is part of the missing link of Europe’s train link from Paris to Budapest. On this private tour of the Airport construction sites we’ll kick off with an overview of the project, then take you in protective gear to the various construction sites and access points. And yes, most of it will be under ground.

Join us and the crew of Werner Sobek on this guided tour of the sustainable urban quarter P18, the milestone project for wooden serial construction. Consisting of six buildings for the staff of the Bad Cannstatt Clinic it is Germany’s largest wooden house quarter planned to date. While the buildings are constructed in prefabricated timber modules, particular attention was paid to energy performance and systems engineering with the massive use of PVT collectors and heat pumps. See for yourself how to develop a plus-energy quarter.

Join us at this spectacular tour of Mercedes Benz Group’s latest production gem: Factory 56 is where all knowhow from dozens of plants, latest G5 & robotics technology and new work concepts have been combined to create a super-efficient large-scale production facility that even has strong sustainability credentials: both social, as well as ecological. While energy consumption was reduced by 25%, Factory 56’s own PV system generates on site more than 30% of its electricity needs. See for yourself what’s possible if you allow your teams to be ambitious and creative.

In an ideal economy nothing goes to waste. Whatever we consume and construct is, from the outset, produced for endless reuse, and reuse, and reuse. In the real economy very few organizations are brave (and crazy) enough to build this new world. We’re going to visit one of them: the large recycling park of Federal Environment Prize winner and recycling pioneer Walter Feess in Kirchheim/Teck. Join the family run business on their mission to recycle building materials and construction waste in most innovative ways. After having visited the impressive site, you will be served a light networking lunch together with asp architects and the masterminds of Concular to share know-how, inside stories, and to simply have a good time.

You think Stuttgart is all about cars? Let us prove you wrong – and show you just why the region is producing the most patent applications in all of Europe. Thanks to its thinkers, engineers, research institutions and tech knowhow, Stuttgart is also home to an astonishing number of cutting-edge sustainable buildings. This unique tour will take you across the city to experience several highlights: meet the people behind the projects, hear about their experiences and seize the opportunity to bug them with your questions. Get ready to be surprised.

Have you ever wondered why many ‘green’ walls look rather like a vertical desert shrub? Well, this one does not. Come along, collect your magnifying glasses, and zoom in to the “Wilde Klimawand” – the wild climate wall, one of Stuttgart’s premier climate adaption projects. On its 60m2, this urban wilderness is home to a wide range of species including various birds – and bats. Find out how microclimate can be influenced by dense green walls like this one and feel the difference yourself before quizzing Stuttgart’s leading biodiversity researchers about the wall.

Before it’s going to be demolished in the coming years, a bridge crossing the river Neckar will be completely redesigned during the Stuttgart Urban Development Hackathon on June 20, and you’re most welcome to join this virtual redesign at Stuttgart University’s High Performance Computing Center! Beware though: Once you’ve virtually reworked the bridge, you will not want to go back to traditional planning anymore. For those who did not participate in the Hackathon: Check out the potential of virtual reality in urban planning when the results are presented on June 23.

In Esslingen’s Neue Westsstadt “climate neutrality” is more than just marketing speech on glossy folders. With power-to-gas-and-heat (P2G&H) as its key technology, in Esslingen, renewables are converted into green hydrogen on site and directly used for mobility and industry. The hydrogen pipeline connects the city with the port of Stuttgart thereby laying the foundation of a regional green hydrogen economy. No wonder the Neue Weststadt district sweeps the board and is one of only six lighthouse projects funded by Federal Ministries. Join us on this tour to meet the five partner organisations (SIZ energieplus, Agentur Blumberg, RVI GmbH, DGNB and Stadtwerke Esslingen) which, together with the City of Esslingen, are taking this pioneering next step towards truly climate neutral districts.

It doesn’t get more ‘Italian’ than this in Stuttgart: a place where people of all ages can meet, enjoy one’s company, cook, and support one another. At the Generationenhaus Heslach, which also features a daycare and a parent-child center, senior citizens share housing and living spaces with young people of all backgrounds. Through shopping facilities and public transportation, Heslach residents are closely connected to the city, which they are a part of anyway – and probably both the most traditional and innovative part of it all.

In Tübingen, 40km south of Stuttgart, over the past 25 years, many small and big neighbourhoods have been added, or were completely transformed – among them the well know “French Quarter”. Key to successful urban planning were certain instruments, which ‘regulate without regulating’ and are now making waves in Germany with other cities following suit. Let’s take a close look at these famed neighbourhoods and meet the key people – planners and politicians – behind the ‘Tübingen School’ of urban planning.

Are you a foodie? Well, Germany might not be famous for its cuisine, but the region of Swabia with its capital Stuttgart certainly is. Let us convince you with this tour: Stroll the city using a dedicated app and enjoy treats at half a dozen food places while learning about their unique concepts – from food rescue to organic, zero-waste and the latest vegan trends. This trip is hosted by Ernährungsrat StadtRegion Stuttgart, Welthaus Stuttgart e.V., the state capital Stuttgart with “Agenda 2030 Alliance mEin Stuttgart – mEine Welt” as well as the campaign #jetztklimachen. Make sure to download the FAIRlaufen app when coming along. Nom nom nom.

Are you a public transport wonk? Then you’ll like this kind of rush hour. Hop on an exclusively rented SSB-rail coach and, together with the mastermind planners of Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen AG, visit some of the city’s most exciting public transport innovations. We’ll stop at several light-rail stations, intermodal mobility hubs and experience first-hand what it means to build on such a challenging topography. One thing is certain: As a modern city Stuttgart will remain attractive (and competitive) only if more and more people are able to escape its car-clogged streets. You’ll be one of them.

Did you know that Stuttgart is home to one of the world’s oldest schools of urban climatology? The school dates to 1938 and should inform urban planning to improve the health of citizens suffering from bad air in the Stuttgart basin, a rather bad location regarding air quality. Join this climate-themed tour across Stuttgart to learn how climatology has informed planning in surprising ways, how, in turn, the build environment shapes urban climates, before visiting the vineyards overlooking the city to enjoy a glass of locally produced white – a more pleasant result of that infamous Stuttgart basin climate.

This one is for those who foresee a car-free urban future. The question is: How can we assist politicians and planners in bringing visions like superblocks and the 15-minute city alive? After all, not everyone shares the enthusiasm about cars leaving their neighbourhood. This forward-thinking project called Streetmoves4iCity is using virtual and augmented reality to make people experience a nearly car-free neighbourhood. With the active participation of citizens, the project by the Stuttgart Technology University of Applied Sciences aims to change the mindset of citizens – one by one – to slowly relax people’s resistance to change. Come along and try it out.

If you’ve ever had the doubtful pleasure to be one of their ‘clients’, you know how dreadful and denigrating places job centres can be. Not this one! Stuttgart’s training campus is preparing young adults and refugees for a successful start in their new life: They can have their skills systematically assessed, receive advice on career orientation and get an overview of networking opportunities in the city. Or they can continue to learn German, establish contacts with sponsors or write job applications. If this is what all job centres looked like, we’d have fewer people in wrong positions.

Let’s hit Stuttgart’s worst architectural mistakes on a humorous, provocative walk. We want to start a debate about which sort of city we all would like to live in. And hear the story of how these buildings came to be, and how to avoid making the same mistakes again. Why is Stuttgart so grey, and what is the difference between boring and ugly? What is the role of greedy developers, boxy shopping centres, gated communities, and bling? How can we make building sites look more visually interesting? Can car infrastructure ever be improved? What are the effects of S21? After each piece of the built environment we visit, the group will be asked to vote on whether they find it, indeed, ugly? When tour guide Eugene created this tour concept in Vienna in 2015, he was presented with three fines for making illegal tours! Let’s see how Stuttgart reacts…

Vast sections of cities are ill-used by night. But night-time is very special – for lovers, party-people, dancers and artists – here lies great opportunity, culturally and economically. Many people work through the night to support the infrastructure that the rest of us rely on in the day. Others bake bread or serve food, or have their social media to attend to. Many students choose their study city on the basis of good parties and opportunities to be creative outside of lecture halls. We will meet them all. Join tour guide and night owl Eugene on a storytelling walk, to find out yourself who is awake, and why.

Universities were the first institutions to preach low-carbon lifestyles. What about them – what are they doing to walk the talk? Quite a bit, it turns out: Stuttgart University aims to become “climate-neutral” by 2030 and is partnering up with research and innovation agency MobiLab to design a largely car- and emission-free campus. Join an 8-mins train ride to Stuttgart’s Vaihingen Camus and witness their progress on autonomous shuttles, mobile e-charging and solar-powered e-charging garages. These and other mobility services are expected to lead to a reduction in demand for parking of around one third. Hear! Hear!

Ziel ist die Aufwertung einer innerstädtischen Konversionsfläche in Donaueschingen aus den 1950er-Jahren durch Schaffung von Wohneinheiten, Gewerbeeinheiten und einer Tiefgarage. Die Entwicklung eines städtebaulichen Konzepts und das Bebauungsplanverfahren ging den Bauarbeiten voraus. Durch die enge Zusammenarbeit und Abstimmung der Bundesanstalt für Immobilienaufgaben (BImA) mit der Stadt konnte beides innerhalb von nur 15 Monaten umgesetzt werden. Besichtigen Sie die Baustelle und lernen Sie über diese erfolgreiche Zusammenarbeit zwischen einer Bundesbehörde und einer Kommune am Beispiel des Planungsprozesses.

Why not wind down after a long field trip day with a cold drink at the old “Wagenhallen” (tram and rail shed), where you’re invited to watch experimental performances by resident artists. So, if you want to see the remaking of the old garage by 150+ artists, and are looking for a slightly different Stuttgart evening, join a very exclusive tour to one of the city’s most popular meeting places. Discussing the city of tomorrow is so much more fun when you’re right in the middle of it!

This one is for the brave – not. Because Stuttgart is a rather hilly city with a cycling infrastructure the spoilt Dutch or Danish would not even call infrastructure, riding a bike in Stuttgart can be a real adventure. There’s a lot of room for improvement, and you’ll be discovering it on this tour with Stuttgart’s Regio-bikes. But worry not: Neither steep climbs nor maddening traffic will await you. In fact, on your pleasant trip you will even be rewarded with ice-cream to quickly regain all those calories.

Start your tour of Rosenstein, Stuttgart’s largest urban development project, with a huge interactive city model: On around 25 square meters, you can (fore)see how the future district in the heart of Stuttgart will be developed. Stuttgart’s planners will then take you on a very special tour to the former railway tracks and tram sheds (Wagenhallen) on which the project is brought to life in the coming years and decades. First highlights are the maker-city and a temporary opera house.

Most cities are struggling to find the space they’d need. Countless stakeholders are fighting to get space from the municipalities for micro mobility, city logistics, circular economy logistics, charging infrastructure, storage for local workshops, just to name a few. Now imagine you had enough space to serve them all – and countless more that you don’t even know of just yet? Welcome to the Urban Hubs. This tour will help you rethink how to make use of urban space and existing infrastructure. Together with the creators of the Urban Hubs we will tour one hub in Stuttgart’s city center, learning about the ample opportunities we have with existing infrastructure – and the myriad of challenges that might come when transforming it. What would you do if you suddenly had space in your city (or 12,000 times so, across all of Europe)?

You believe autonomous driving to be science-fiction? Well, then it’s time for some rethinking: experience for yourself in real-life operation Europe’s first Level 4 autonomous system. Experience for yourself the kind-of spooky situation, when regular cars move ghost-like without drivers and even park themselves. This is your opportunity to get some insight into the tech behind the autonomous revolution and meet the experts from Apcoa, Mercedes-Benz, and Bosch who jointly made this world premiere happen. Let them take you on a tour of the future of vehicles.

This is your unique opportunity to join a private masterclass with Gil Peñalosa, one of the world’s most renowned expert for public spaces in cities. Having worked in over 350 cities on all continents, Gil will share with you a blend of experience, pragmatism, and passion on how to make cities more affordable, equitable, and sustainable. The masterclass will cover many different public spaces, the relationship between the size of infrastructure and the resulting different uses of it. Join Gil in this class to hear about the biggest barriers to change, the benefits of change, and most importantly, how to move your city from talking to doing.

Join a short trip to the roof of Stuttgart’s Town Hall overlooking the city for your moment to tell the crowd on so-me where you are and what you’ve been doing there. Up we go slowly in the bell tower, before going back down using the Paternoster lift, an open compartment elevator you will have seen in old films.

Yummy buns baked by the sun? Beer forever cooled by solar? The Solarbakery is the world’s first provider of fully equipped, mobile and energy independent container bakeries. Join this very special field trip to the mobile Solarbakery at Schlossplatz to get your hands dirty with flour. Reward yourself with cool drinks accompanying your first ever self-made sun-powered bread.