Vauban, Germany, a city district in Freiburg, is the most sustainable town in Europe. The "Sun Ship" is in the Solar Settlement in Vauban; part of why Freiburg is known as Europe's "solar city". The Solar Settlement is known internationally as the pioneering first community in the world in which all the buildings produce a positive energy balance.
Buildings that generate more renewable energy than the building's occupants consume are known asplus-energy (or positive energy) buildings. Residents in plus-energy buildings in the Sun Ship in Vauban simply sell excess energy generated by the property's solar photovoltaic (PV) panels back to the municipality (for use in other homes in the community), resulting in lower electricity bills.
Residences in Vauban are either passive solar energy buildings (ultra energy efficient buildings that consume as much energy as they produce), or the aforementioned plus-energy buildings (producing even more energy than they consume). Homes in the Sun Ship (Das Sonnenschiff) are entirely plus-energy buildings.
Residents in Vauban primarily live in co-ops, including many plus-energy buildings. Plus-energy co-op residences are not only found in the Sun Ship, but are also found throughout Vauban.
The plus-energy home category is the highest level of energy efficient building development in the field of passive home construction. Passive home (“passivhaus”) construction refers to cutting-edge energy efficientgreen building construction practices that produce buildings with minimal energy needs.
Passive homes and buildings are almost entirely heated by passive-solar gains and technically simple heat recuperation systems. Passive buildings are popular in European cities (featured cities in Green City Times' articles - like Vauban, Germany, Vaxjo, Sweden, Copenhagen, Denmark), as well as many other cities that are known for cutting-edge energy efficient building construction throughout Europe.
Typical features of most passive buildings include:
well-insulated with high-quality, super-efficient insulation materials
use timber construction for the framing
are sealed airtight to keep out external weather completely, and to keep heat inside
often use renewable energy (rooftop solar PV panels and/ or geothermal heat pumps), for heat and electricity, or use electric heat pumps and rooftop PV
The town of Vauban is virtually absent of all GHG emission-producing sources. Vauban is a “zero-emission” district in Freiburg, Germany.
However, Vauban is not completely emissions-free, as cars are actually allowed. Residents of Vauban can own cars and park them in town (but not necessarily in front of their homes). This is only possible if they pay quite a bit (comparable to at least $23,000 USD), for a parking spot on the outskirts of town.
Thus, the majority of residents in Vauban don’t own a car, choosing instead to use the tram, cycle, or simply walk. In Vauban, roads designated for cars are very narrow. Most streets don’t even have parking spaces. Plenty of space on Vauban's streets is given to bicycles, and pedestrians, as well as designated lanes for electric trams.
The urban planning techniques of “filtered permeability” and "fused grid" were implemented in the design of the municipality of Vauban. These urban planning terms refer to a town design of connected streets throughout the town, as well as plenty of pedestrian and bike paths. Ultimately, urban planning efforts in Vauban have led to cycling as the primary mode of transit.
VaubanUrban planning layout of the city district of Vauban, Germany
Vauban's unique history
Vauban is a town with a radically dramatic history. A military town through WWII and into the early ’90s, when the military left, Vauban's vacant buildings were inhabited by squatters. These vagabonds were the people who organized Forum Vauban, creating a revolutionary eco-community. Modern Vauban today represents the very cutting edge of sustainable living.
"The district Vauban is known as a model for a sustainable ecological collectively planned urban district...On the area of an old military base a whole new district with a lot of housing spaces was be built with the participation of the citizens. The City of Freiburg responsible for the planning and development of the district-project cooperated with an extended citizen participation organized by an association called Forum Vauban.
Under guiding principles concerning different high ecological standards different environmental projects such as a co-building group and a car reducing traffic system began in 1996. The city simply gave away land at the start of the building phase. Nowadays nearly 5000 people live in Vauban - a nearly car-free, low-energy, social integrating, and sustainable [town] full of playgrounds, and its own kindergarten. All houses were built with improved low energy standard...[many homes in Vauban, as well as commercial buildings, co-op buildings are] "passive house" or "plus energy house" standard, producing more energy than they use.
A highly efficient co-generation plant (CHP) operating with wood-chips [and natural gas] is connected to the district's heating grid. Good insulation and efficient heat supply creates CO²-savings. A large number of solar collectors and photovoltaic modules were installed. The electricity needed in Vauban is produced on-site through CHP and photovoltaic [solar PV].
The ecological traffic concept reduced the number of private cars, provided good public transportation, and a car sharing system. Streets and other public spaces became playgrounds for children or other public uses." FROM - use.metropolis.org/sustainable-urban-district-vauban
trams in Vauban
The district was planned around green transportation (as with another city known as a global beacon of green urban planning, Curitibain southern Brazil), because, besides consumption, transportation is the hardest ecological impact of development to reduce. While the district includes streets, cars hardly ever pass through, and car parking is not catered for. Residents who do own vehicles can park in a community lot on the edge of the district, unsubsidized by the car-free households.
Pedestrian and bicycle paths form a highly-connected, efficient, green transportation network with every home within walking distance of a tram stop, and all schools, businesses, and shopping centers located within walking distance. When moving into Vauban, 57% of the households that previously owned a car decided to let their car go. All in all, 70% of the inhabitants live without a car in Vauban. FROM - smartcitiesdive.com/words-most-successful-model-sustainable-urban-development
Like Vauban, Germany (but in a variety of unique ways), these world cities below are also taking the lead on climate action through novel urban planning strategies -
(and please also see the Green City Times article on Desalination for information about the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere; in Carlsbad, San Diego)
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[Dan Braff is the founder of GCT –
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