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Hello from HelloStuttgart! from We are an independent initiative called Stuttgart am Neckar born in the M.Sc. Stuttgart!of Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design (IUSD) of the Uni- versity of Stuttgart. We are 22 students from around the globe commit- ted to bring the river Neckar back where it belongs, in every Stuttgarter heart. Join us in our journey and let yourself be part of this initiative filled with passion, creativity and knowledge. PAGE 2 STUTTGART - SEPTEMBER 2017
MOTIVATION
Let’s do a small exercise. Search on your historical cathedral as background, the makers for decades, could be revitalized? towards a better environment around the Images section in Google: “Paris”. What green areas around the Elbe in Dresden The idea of reviving the riverbanks river. Even though the efforts have not do you see in the first images? Now, do or the Neckar in Heidelberg and the in Stuttgart is not new. Almost every been prominently successful, they have the same with the following: “London”, magnificent connection of the rivers Mosel summer season, the theme of bathing in started to build the ground to keep pushing then “Budapest” and finally, “Prague”. Do and Rhine in Koblenz. the Neckar comes to discussion in the city for integrated solutions and calling the you see something in common? Even if with unsatisfactory results. Apparently, attention of citizens and officials. you do not go that far and search again But the exercise is not over, there is one the water is too dirty and the fact of being but this time for: “Berlin”, “Cologne”, more step to reach the end. Let’s type a national waterway makes the direct Should we lose any hope, then? “Dresden”, “Heidelberg”, “Koblenz”. Do you “Stuttgart” this time. At this point, you interaction between citizens and the river see any similarity between all of them? I might be expecting a similar picture of a almost impossible. But this is not the one These and more questions will be ad- bet there is. Probably, what you will find city with its emblematic buildings and a and only problem, the Neckar riverbanks dressed in this publication along with the are pictures of the river Seine with a beautiful river finding its way across. How- are the least of the things why the city efforts made during the summer season of romantic background of the Eiffel tower ever, what you found is not like that, right? should feel proud of. Lack of proper 2017 by Stuttgart am Neckar, an indepen- in Paris. Or maybe you will be amazed by Well, that is because the river in Stuttgart infrastructure, very narrow bike and dent initiative born in the Master of Inte- the views of the magnificent Parliament is not part of its identity, not at least in pedestrian paths, long distances without grated Urbanism and Sustainable Design and the Citadel separated by the Danube the minds of most of the inhabitants of the facilities, almost non-existent pulling (IUSD) of the University of Stuttgart as river in Budapest. Coming closer, you city. The truth is, Stuttgart does have a attractions, very few access points, fences part of the Integrated Research and De- might feel the amazing contrasts in how river and it is called Neckar. along the river, low maintenance and a sign studio, with the aim to find effective the history and its river, the Spree, has sense of non-belonging are just some solutions and realistic strategies to revi- shaped the city of Berlin. Most probably, What happened then? Why having a river of the features that the few users of the talize the Neckar river and bring it back your small research will also delight your Stuttgart is not recognized as a “river river experience every day. As a response to the city. eyes with images of beautiful promenades city” like the ones mentioned above? Why to all those problems, many initiatives along the Thames river in London, the nobody has done anything about it? And have aroused with the years, claiming the historic bridges crossing the Vltava river more important, how a river like the Neck- right to enjoy the river and demanding in Prague, the Rhine in Cologne with the ar, neglected by citizens and decision- more and better solutions from the city
Promenades along the Seine river, Paris. Photo Courtesy: Sally Ejeilat
Activity along the Rhine, Cologne. Photo Courtesy: Sally Ejeilat STUTTGART AM NECKAR STUTTGART - SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 3
Moorland of Schwenninger Moos
THE NECKAR HISTORY AT A GLANCE
What makes up a river city? A river flowing cores of Greater Stuttgart: the Stuttgart between Hedelfingen/Untertürkheim and and settlements to be laid out in the secured through a city has a huge and manifold city center located in the Nesenbach Stuttgart-Berg/Cannstatt and Stuttgart. valley plain. The Stuttgart port opened in impact on that city, usually a beneficial valley (an affluent of the Neckar), and Coping with this wilderness has a long 1958, the Plochingen port ten years later, one. Over the centuries, the inhabitants Bad Cannstatt; eventually the Neckar tradition. People canalized particularly both on the right Neckar bank, and they are of those cities worked with and on their only touches the north-eastern fringes dangerous river segments, and built still playing an important commercial and river often turning it and its banks into a of Stuttgart´s urban fabric in the valley. embankments, bridges and weirs. The industrial role. But the landscape design of vital urban arteria. Amsterdam, Cologne, Second, the Neckar in the Stuttgart latter were often accompanied by various the banks from the 1950s to the 1980s is, if London, Paris or Porto are but a few well- region grew into an industrial river since mills – Stuttgart-Berg, for instance, you can call it like that at all, austere and known examples. Such cities had been the late 19th century. The Neckar, its had nine mills in 1753. The industrial and appalling. It matches the large and busy founded on a river because of strategic port along with all the energy and traffic infrastructural use of the Neckar included motorways B10 and B14 which push hard commercial, geographical and political infrastructure, logistics and factories, rafting and the so-called Treidel shipping, on the left Neckar bank. This are but two of reasons. Their rivers grew into a normal large and small, famous and less known, with ships being pulled by men or horses the legacies from the 1950s-1980s period part of the historic urban fabric, like a are vital factors of prosperity. That´s why along the banks. With the railway system, which are being challenged since the early huge linear park. This is also due to the the Stuttgart “cheeks” of the Neckar are the technical progress first challenged the 1990s. Gestalt, the shape and design of the river hardly accessible and attractive for urban relevance of the Neckar as a traffic route in banks: the urban fabric often comes close leisure and cultural activities. the 19th century, but due to motor shipping Since then, river awareness is constantly to the river, sometimes it waves back, and the political changes after World War I rising among the Stuttgart society. There thus creating urban spaces. Such parks, the Neckar was turned into a federal is still much to be done, but the prospect promenades, squares make the river Initially, the Neckar was marked by typical waterway up to Plochingen just south-east of turning the Neckar into an urban river is accessible for the public. river bank vegetation and fauna in the of Stuttgart. The Neckar got canalized and promising indeed, with the City of Stuttgart water and on the banks. Its very name, tamed by 27 locks, most of them built in the working hard on its complex Neckar What about Stuttgart? It´s not a river city of Celtic origin, signifies “wild water”. 1920s and 1930s to sensible designs of Paul Masterplan. yet, albeit its river, the Neckar. The reason This showed in heavy floods (e.g. in 1524, Bonatz (who also designed the Stuttgart for this is twofold. First, the Neckar flows 1734, 1817, 1824) which also changed the main railway station). This allowed for right between the main historic urban river course, especially in the wide valley energy and traffic infrastructure, industry
Confluence of Neckar (left) and Rhine at Mannheim. STUTTGART AM NECKAR PAGE 4 STUTTGART - SEPTEMBER 2017
VOICES FROM THE NECKAR
STUTTGART AM NECKAR STUTTGART - SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 5
WHAT PEOPLE SAY?
STUTTGART AM NECKAR PAGE 6 STUTTGART - SEPTEMBER 2017 BEHIND EVERY GREAT IDEA...
Stuttgart am Neckar started earlier this year as a student project, carried out by the international Master program IUSD - Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design from the University of Stuttgart, its main driver was the revitalization of the Neckar river. The project, managed by 22 students, was strongly supported by the university and often invited representatives of established organizations and institutes, creating partnerships and opening dialogues with different actors of the region.
A common session was arranged with teaching program, the IUSD international ics and Efficiency (IER) and the Center an irreplaceable resource, contact and some of the ones who boosted and ac- Master program is one of a kind in Ger- for Interdisciplinary Risk and Innovation valuable critics during the semester.”, companied this project throughout the many. “The IUSD is unique with bringing to- Research (ZIRIUS). This BMBF financed Lenka explains. “Since the research proj- realization of it. Dr. Prof. Astrid Ley, gether different disciplinary backgrounds interdisciplinary research project looks, ect was still at its infancy stage, we hoped head of the department of International and the extend of its focus on community among others, into the upcoming energy that the IRD could bring about greater Urbanism of the University of Stuttgart, engagement” as Prof. Astrid Ley explains. transformation, a realistic estimation of insights, brainstorm innovative ideas and Mr. Johannes Rentsch, representative It is mainly composed of international the energy potentials at the Neckar river create first links to stakeholders.” Prof of Stuttgart’s department of City Plan- students with different professional back- and scenarios for the potential urban and Ley adds. ning and Urban Renewal, and Dipl.-Ing. grounds, “this year for example, we have landscape development along the river”, MSc. Lenka Vojtová, lecturer of the professionals from the fields of architec- as Lenka Vojtová explains. One might think that depositing such a Integrated Research & Design studio ture, engineering, urban planning and even responsibility to a group of students is a (IRD) of the IUSD master program, ac- communications & media, all coming from This sounds like big business, doesn’t it? mistake. However, Mr. Rentsch uses his cepted our invitation and were happy to more than 15 countries” Prof. Ley adds. Then, what is the role of the students in academic and professional background to answer all our questions and to share all of this? refute this paradigm. “From my time as their knowledge and experience with This was the group of young researchers an Urban Design student in Berlin, I know us. selected to join WECHSEL, “a collaborative “Well, the IRD Studio with the topic ‘In- the creative potential of working groups research project released in 2017 between tegrated Urbanism_ Neckar Re…loaded!’ formed by young people from different Born in the University of Stuttgart six the City of Stuttgart, the Stadtwerke Stutt- used the obvious synergies – the analyti- disciplines. In long, busy nights, with a years ago by the efforts of Prof. Antje gart and the University of Stuttgart rep- cal and strategical students` work could lot of fun, playfully different perspectives Stokman and Prof. Philip Misselwitz to cre- resented by the Urban Planning Institute enrich the starting phase of the research on the topics of city and landscape were ate an interdisciplinary and reality-based (SI), the Institute for Energy Econom- project, and the project partners would be thrown, discussed and planning concepts
STUTTGART AM NECKAR STUTTGART - SEPTEMBER 2017 PAGE 7 developed. Just as in the Stuttgart am Awareness, Connectivity, Hidden Waters tent. They still actively (and successfully) canoe club and share food and ideas at the Neckar initiative, the results were usually and Life around the River. Those were looked for partners and sponsors as well same time. The kids had great fun and we unconventional approaches to how the city the four main topics selected as the most as recyclable materials from the streets, were amazed how much collaboration be- can be rethought and further developed. relevant and which defined the outcome of but what you start with, definitely makes a came visible and the degree of profession- As an administration of a large city, we what it is today Stuttgart am Neckar. difference.” Lenka explains. ality to present ideas (see page n.30 for are often confronted with regulations such further details). However, all other events as laws, finances, property relations, etc. Starting with the design of an overall During a time-frame of three months, the also were characterized by a great degree Under those conditions, it is not always strategy (which in all cases had to be rede- four groups had more than 20 main ac- of creativity and enthusiasm.” easy to keep the great vision of urban signed with the more input the teams were tivities, reaching from urban experiments development and landscape development gaining throughout the process and the (which was the focus), interim presenta- Using Mr. Johannes words, the students in the focus. As an addition to this official more interaction with stakeholders found tions to meetings with relevant stakehold- approached the project with an incredible level, it is valuable and important that the on the way), each team defined the path ers. Some more risky than others, some amount of passion and that passion is also IUSD students worked in a more open form for the following months. Just one thing more serious than others, some based on visible in the results, which the reader will with the Neckar and the surrounding urban was clear from the beginning, the “battle” observation, some others on interaction; find in this publication. “I was fascinated space.”, he states. was not inside the classroom, it was in the all of them equally relevant and creative. by how the concepts were presented in a streets, with the citizens, with the ones complex and profes- Over the past century, the Neckar river in in favour and against, with the actors in- But, what was the sional way. It is also Stuttgart has been mainly surrounded by volved in the complex dynamics the Neckar outcome of those “When we look at interesting to note, all kind of businesses river involves. But due activities? Were the Berlin, Paris, Prague, that despite the same and industries which to the time and man- results successful? task, the groups have in fact, are the engine “For the first time, power limitation and What was the high- the citizens feeling come to completely of the economic pros- the scale of the project, light of the whole different approaches perity of the region. It it is possible to this battle could not be process? To those a certain kind of to the question how has been also declared fought separate. This questions, Lenka felt belonging won`t let the Neckar in Stutt- a National Waterway to really think about was the real reason for the necessity to clar- gart could be acti- facilitate freight trans- a process of the group to join efforts ify that “in general, the river be taken vated for urban life. port and channelled for and make the project experiments in public In the end the range flooding control. Then, transforming the look like just one. The space should not be away from them. In covered ecological, why just now? Why the decision? Stuttgart am rated as successful Stuttgart, this seems economic, social as idea of “reviving” an Neckar valley” Neckar as a collective or unsuccessful. An well as spatial ap- industrial river? title, easy to remember experiment is a tool to be different” proaches”. and attractive for pub- for understanding Taking the floor, Mr Johannes Rentsch ex- licity, under which they all could act and and testing certain situation and if proper- What all participants agree in, is that the plains that “the idea of giving the Neckar appear as one initiative. ly evaluated, it allows for further adapta- group of researchers realized a project in Stuttgart a new appearance, has been tion of strategies or the choice of a differ- beyond expectations. “It is just not com- pursued for a long time at the City Plan- For covering a wide range of topics in an ent approach”. Mr. Johannes agrees and parable with an usual studio situation as ning Department. Already in the 1980s also wide scale, not just the man-power complements the idea saying that equally you can feel the degree of ownership and and beginning 90s, initial concepts were and the goodwill of students and lectur- or even more important than the results responsibility that goes along with it” as developed and smaller ecological projects ers, but the economic support must be of the experiments, was “the strategic ap- Prof. Ley express. That is the level of en- implemented. But true momentum has gagement and ownership that our three come into the subject in the last couple of Lower Your Fences! participants encourage all the citizens to Connectivity Sarcastic Signs years. Meanwhile the desire of the people VVS Map have with their city, with their river, “it be- in Stuttgart to experience the river for Neckar ist Nebenan longs to them!”, Mr. Johannes exclaims. As leisure and recreation purposes is so Lenka concludes, “When we look at Berlin, strong, that politics has also recognized Paris, Prague, the citizens feeling a cer- Do you “river” in Stuttgart? think! Awareness the importance of the topic. For the first Movie night tain kind of belonging won`t let the river time, it is possible to really think about a be taken away from them. In Stuttgart, process of transforming the Neckar valley this seems to be different and so must be from an almost pure area for industry and the approach of reviving the riversides. infrastructure, into a multi-coded urban Any new design planned and implemented Life around Selfie am Neckar landscape and even to realize it.” Frame the Neckar along the river is likely to fail without the the river NeckarLab acceptance of the current dynamics, with- So, how the group of researchers ad- out the activization of citizens and awak- dressed this challenging task of reviv- ening their interest in discovering the hid- ing one of the most industrialized rivers Drink Local Hidden Waters den places, what the river has to offer. The Hidden Water. Clean Water. in Germany? Until this point, we knew Information Points riverside needs people first.” Stuttgart`s eigenes Grün- that Stuttgart am Neckar works as one bächle initiative created by the IUSD students. This was the reason why the decision of However, this name was not even in the making this publication was a necessity to panorama at the beginning. “Topics were critical for the materialization of what proach that was chosen as a principle for keep spreading the word and keep pushing predefined only for the very first analyti- was embodied in the strategies. The group the concepts. It was consistently tried to for a better Neckar in Stuttgart. What the cal phase to get a broad view and well- however was lucky to get this, at least identify actors and existing networks re- reader will find in this publication, is the grounded knowledge of the overall themes partial, support. “Straight at the begin- garding the Neckar, and to integrate them work developed by this group of students and the site. All other decisions were taken ning of the semester, we applied for co- into the planning process. In this way, a during the summer semester of 2017 all by a group consent. After an evaluation of funding through Stuttgarter Change Labs, form of urban planning can succeed, that along with their strategies, urban experi- the analysis in a common workshop, the even though it was not yet clear, where thinks and links new and existing struc- ments and some extra material. students identified the highest potentials the journey would take us. We were very tures together”. Being an active partici- and important challenges to be tackled and lucky to become one of the ten supported pant during many of the activities held by Are you ready? decided for four topics determining the initiatives. This already secured backbone the group, Prof. Astrid felt confident to be remaining semester activities, each team of financial support released the students more specific and say that for her and her working on one of these topics.”, as Lenka from a lot of frustration and stress and family “the nicest event was to discover explains the approach of the seminar. allowed them to concentrate on the con- with the initiative the Neckar river at the STUTTGART AM NECKAR PAGE 8 STUTTGART - SEPTEMBER 2017
STUTTGART 2017 AM NECKAR
Initiation of the project S 11 04 INITIAL PHASE
Bicycle trip around the river. A - G M -E -S
First symposium 20 04 24 04 Analysis Phase 02 05 Presentation
STRATEGIC PHASE
Connectivity S 12
P 30 05 Life around Awareness the river S 1 S 1 Media & Hidden Waters Communication S 1 06 06 Coordination
Inception of Stuttgart am Neckar Public Relations and Logo and Image design 10 06
EXPERIMENTAL PHASE