From knowledge to action: under this motto and with the support of the real-world lab District Future and the Urban Transition Lab 131, a lot has happened during the last years in the Oststadt.

The Future Space for sustainability and science has developed to a fixed point in the Karlsruhe district Oststadt. At first it seemed that the funding of our project would unfortunately be discontinued by the end of the year. As some of you might know, we started proposing subsequent applications and collected ideas until our heads were spinning. At the end of 2017 we could sight with relief for the time being! With the subsequent funding of the KIT presidential committee, the continuity of our project in 2018 is ensured in a slimmed-down form since September 2017 (we reported on this in our autumn-newsletter). We are all the more pleased to give you more good news: the Baden- Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts (MWK) as well confirmed a follow-up financing for the next two years.

Now it is about to plan the real-world lab’s future. Our big wish is to perpetuate the project in order to ensure that in future we continue being a reliable and constant partner for sustainable development in the Oststadt and throughout Karlsruhe. That is why we want to use the next two years to give rise to the “Karlsruhe Transformation Center for Sustainable Futures and Cultural Change” (KAT) which is based on our current project. The goal is to support the long-term process of cultural change towards sustainable future by transforming our society – technically, socially and institutionally. For us, this is a major milestone. Furthermore, it is an important signal showing that working in the real-world lab – together with and directly in society – needs one thing above all others: time. “In order to develop the scientific and transformer potential of real-world labs, long-term orientation and institutionalisation are essential. We want to take up this challenge with the KAT”, says head of the project Oliver Parodi.

In the coming year, our work in the Oststadt will be continued while at the same time, we will start with the building up of the KAT. With the establishment of the Transformation Center we want to extend our range of tasks: education, consulting as well as transdisciplinary basic research shall complement the portfolio of the current real-world lab. Knowledge about the topic “real-world labs” which we gathered in the last years could be used and further developed in order to intensify the cooperation of science and society. This open-ended process generates knowledge which has an impact on the practice. Our vision is to make the KAT a motor for sustainable development that is locally, nationally and internationally effective and visible.

You as citizens of the quarter are still the main part of our joint work. We are glad that this funding ensures the future of our cooperation, so we can go on contributing our share to sustainable development together hand in hand.  We will of course keep you up to date about the progress that is going on in the real-world lab.

Press release of the KIT

The BürgerForum Sustainable Oststadt | Future in citizens’ hands will start on 11 October. You are cordially invited to participate.

The objective of the BürgerForum Sustainable Oststadt | Future in citizens’ hands is the active shaping of the future development of Karlsruhe’s Oststadt together with its citizens. We are aiming at a high quality of life for everyone in the district – for those who live there, those who work there, and those who visit the Oststadt. They are invited to develop ideas together with us as well as experts from science and practice. Always our focus: The world that surrounds us, the world we are part of, and the world to come.

In line with the motto “Think globally – act locally, together for a livable future”, the United Nations have been promoting efforts for a sustainable development all over the world since the 1990s. District Future joins this challenge and works on a local level in Karlsruhe’s Oststadt. For District Future, a development is sustainable if it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. What can we do to make the Oststadt a sustainable living environment for all generations and people with different lifestyles, earning capacities, and cultural backgrounds? Here we need your support. What do you envisage? What are your needs? What are your ideas?

Play a part in the BürgerForum! Discuss the following topics with other citizens:

• Living in the district
• Organizing everyday mobility
• Working and doing business in a responsible way
• New ideas about energy – Protecting the climate
• Changing urban society – Improving the quality of life

The aim of the BürgerForum is that Karlsruhe’s citizens work out recommendations for actions for societally relevant topics of sustainable development in the district which they can realize afterwards autonomously. The BürgerForum Sustainable Oststadt | Future in citizens’ hands is realized by the project District Future – Urban Lab in cooperation with the city of Karlsruhe and Bertelsmann Stiftung. This type of civic participation was jointly developed by Bertelsmann Stiftung and Hans Nixdorf Stiftung. This short video explains how it works.

For further informations about the topics and general informations about the BürgerForum click here.

Accordingly the BürgerForum Sustainable Oststadt | Future in citizens’ hands will take place in three steps. It will start with a kick-off workshop on Saturday, 11 October 2014 between 10 am and 4.30 pm. Up to 200 citizens will participate. You could be one of them.

This will be followed by an online workshop from 11 October until 7 November 2014 with an unlimited number of participants. In this phase, the ideas of the kick-off workshop will be developed further.

On Friday, 21 November from 18  to 21 pm we will hold a final workshop to present the results to the public in the vestry of St. Bernhard.

If you would like to participate in the BürgerForm Sustainable Oststadt | Future in citizens’ hands, previous registration is necessary. Registration is possible from now on. Please visit the website of the BürgerForum: www.karlsruhe.buergerforum2014.de. We recommend early registration since the number of participants for the kick-off workshop on 11 October is limited to 200 people.

However, you can still participate in both the online and the final workshop if you were not able to attend the kick-off event. Please also register for these events at the website www.karlsruhe.buergerforum2014.de.

For additional information or in case of further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us by e-mail or telephone:

• buergerforum@quartierzukunft.de

• +49 721 – 608 24241, on Tuesdays between 1 and 3 pm, on Thursdays between 10 am and noon.

Join us in shaping the Oststadt’s future. We are looking forward to you!

The District Future team takes a summer break from August 11th until August 31st 2014. During this time, there will be no external communication. We will not be available regularly. At the beginning of September we will be back in order to further develop and do research on the District Future project with lots of energy.

No external communication means that there will be no update of the “news” on this website as well as on facebook and twitter. There will be no events during the break. We will be available irregularly only. Thank you for your understanding.

After the summer break we will give attention to forthcoming tasks with new energy. Among others, these are cooperation talks, e.g. with companies, schools, kindergardens and associations, the preparation of our contribution to the 300th birthday of the city of Karlsruhe and a phase of intense citizen involvement.

We are looking forward to an eventful autumn 2014 and wish you restful summer time.

With the new news format “Insights”, the team of District Future – Urban Lab illuminates the workflow within the project work with local actors and the local population in Karlsruhe Oststadt. Insights is a compilation of news briefs. It will be published on a bi-monthly basis – for the first time in mid-July and initially only online – and report about the background and latest developments in District Future.

In order to promote sustainable urban living in the district of Oststadt, the District Future team designs, plans, organizes, networks, presents, and initializes, closely working together with different actors and civic groups. Much has already happened in the project area. Other things are starting to take shape.

The news format Insights will periodically give an up-to-date picture of what is happening or being planned in order to provide starting points for committed and interested people and to involve them in the long-term development of the district towards sustainability. Many individual steps, dialogues, commitment, negotiations, and decisions are necessary both for the overall development and for individual project activities within District Future.

Insights will be given into ideas in progress, trains of thought, and current work processes. We want to show you what moves us and what we want to achieve together with you. Insights | July & August 2014 will first be published on Monday 11 August 2014 on this website.

We are happy to announce that the District Future – Urban Lab was recognized by the German UNSECO Commission as “Official Project for the UN Decade of Education for Sustainabile Development” in 2014. The District Future team received the award at the end of March 2014 at the official award ceremony in Stuttgart. We are very pleased that our efforts have gained the recognition of the German UNSECO Commission. Next to recognition but also means indulgement for our future work for us. A special thank goes to all the supporters of the District Future who make the project successful and lively.

It’s official now: The District Future project starts in the Oststadt of Karlsruhe. In the coming years, the existing district will be developed further towards sustainability in social, ecological, economic, and cultural terms. Together with the population, city administration, politics, industry, persons engaged in the cultural sector, and other actors of the urban society, old and new ideas as well as societal and technical innovations will be tried out in a number of projects. A series of kickoff events started in November 2013.

“The decisive feature of the District Future project is the active participation of the public in the project area,” says project leader Dr. Oliver Parodi of ITAS. “Sustainability affects everybody and, ultimately, can succeed only in a common effort. Citizens, groups, artists and scientists, companies and associations: We warmly welcome everybody who is willing to contribute to a sustainable development of the city’s Oststadt and seeks to contact us.” The objective is to generate impulses in order to advance the sustainability development of the Oststadt in a long-term and cautious process. The intention is to establish structures which support to continue this development even after the official end of the project term.

“Karlsruhe’s Oststadt offers ideal preconditions for this project: The urban district enjoys a great variety in socio-cultural, functional and architectural respects, a traditional dense network of local stakeholders, open-mindedness of the population, and proximity to the KIT, all of which constitutes an excellent breeding ground for new, sustainable urban development,” Parodi explains. This was a prerequisite for the District Future project to gain model character – for other districts of Karlsruhe, but also for other, especially European, cities. The project area was chosen on the basis of a thorough scientific analysis.

The District Future project is also associated with the wish to bring science closer to the people – and vice versa. In Feburary 2014, there will a citizen meeting. Citizens then will have the opportunity to enter into an active dialog about future urban development and to address own ideas and activities for the Oststadt.
2014 also will be the year to start first project activities in the project area. These could be activities in climate protection, recycle economy, health, education, energy supply, and projects, such as autonomous living for the elderly, neighborhood kitchens, an organic and regional evening market for the working population, a science shop, fast lanes for bikers, multi-generation houses, sidewalks and road pavements equipped with sensors, a center for subsequent use of empty urban space, street libraries. Specific projects could also be located in the urban space adjacent to the Oststadt.

Information to the Citizens

In recent months, some preliminary talks have been arranged with local stakeholders from industry, society, culture, and sports. Others will follow. On Tuesday, November 26, 2013, the approximately 7000 households in the project area received an information letter explaining the project and presenting the kickoff events in the winter of 2013 and the spring of 2014. The dialogue between the project team and the public is in the focus of all these events.

Kickoff Events Launching the “District Future” Project:

• RepairCafé

Saturday, November 30, 2013, 4 – 8 p.m.
Kinder- und Jugendhaus (Rintheimerstr. 47, 76131 Karlsruhe)

This is an active contribution to resource conservation and against throwing away objects still fit for use: At the RepairCafé, participants can repair damaged household objects, such as small furniture items, bicycles and radios, or get advice on how to do the job. The team responsible for the District Future is supported by these projects: FabLab Karlsruhe, Transition Town Karlsruhe – Karlsruhe im Wandel, KonsumGlobal Karlsruhe, Gemeinwohl Ökonomie Karlsruhe, and many other groups committed to these endeavors.

• District Future on Its Way!
  

Wednesday, December 18, 2013, 12 noon – 6 p.m.

Streets and squares in Karlsruhe Oststadt, including Tulla-Schule, Karl-Wilhelm-Platz, Alter Schlachthof

The District Future Mobile can be found in the streets and squares of the Karlsruhe Oststadt: The District Future team invites people to exchange ideas about the sustainable development of Karlsruhe’s Oststadt. The Mobile can be found at the Tulla-Schule, the Karl-Wilhelm-Platz, and on the premises of the old slaughterhouse (Alter Schlachthof), among other places.

• Citizen Meeting: Oststadt Perspective – Designing the District Future

Sunday, February 9, 2014 I 12 noon – 7 p.m.

Lichthof, BGV Versicherung, Durlacher Allee 56, 76131 Karlsruhe

This is where dialog comes in: The District Future team presents the project and looks forward to your questions, criticism, and suggestions. There will be workshops for participants to introduce their ideas about sustainable urban life. Possible schemes for cooperation will be explored in an offer-request type of market. A cultural program will accompany the citizen meeting.

• Debate: “Which kind of mobility do we need for the Oststadt’s future?

Thursday, March 20, 2014, 6 – 8 p.m.

alina café, Alter Schlachthof 39, 76131 Karlsruhe

This is an entertaining event for exchanging perspectives and visions, from scientific to personal about future urban mobility, among invited participants and committed persons from the region.

Further information

Find pictures of the RepairCafé in the gallery.

The program of the Citizen Meeting: Oststadt Perspective – Designing the District Future can be found here (German).

World Cleanup Day 2013 in Karlsruhe: The District Future – Urban Lab cleans up!

On 21th September the World Cleanup Day 2013 takes place in Karlsruhe. It is the first time that the District Future cooperates with the initiator Bürgeraktion Sauberes Karlsruhe together with Karlsruhe Amt für Abfallwirtschaft and Karlsruhe city council. We warmly invite you to join the team between 9-17 on the Ludwigsplatz and making the city a better and cleaner place together. Let’s do it!

Located on the Ludwigsplatz there will be an information stand for the Karlsruhe World Cleanup Day 2013. It offers both information about the necessary cleanliness of the city and ways we can contribute to it, as well as practical tools like gripping tongs and garbage bags for volunteers who want to participate hands-on. The District Future team cleans up, shares information about the project and discusses sustainable solutions to garbage-related problems.

The World Cleanup Day 2013 belongs to the global network Let’s do it! World Cleanup. Since 2008 volunteer from more than 100 countries have been active in order to clean up our environment. From Germany citizen groups from Munich, Bochum, Leipzig, Hamburg, Berlin and Karlsruhe participated.

Data

World Cleanup Day 2013 in Karlsruhe, initiated by Bürgeraktion Sauberes Karlsruhe in cooperation with the District Future – Urban Lab

Date & time: Saturday, 21th September 2013, 9.00 – 17.00

Place: Karlsruhe city center, Ludwigsplatz-Waldstraße

Further Information

Let’s do it! World Cleanup Germany

Let’s do it! World Cleanup

Bürgeraktion Sauberes Karlsruhe (german)

Facebook event (german)

The District Future – Urban Lab presented its first work report and held a brainstorming workshop on 22 June 2013 in Karlsruhe. The aim of the event was to present the current state of the project to the public, to generate ideas together with the participants in workshops on different topics of sustainable urban development for further development of the District Future, as well as to strengthen the network of stakeholders of sustainable urban development of Karlsruhe. About 40 participants from civil society, local initiatives, science, ,and city administration followed the invitation.

The main issue of the first part of the event was the work report on the current state of the District Future. The project leader, Dr. Oliver Parodi, presented the status quo of the project development and answered questions in a lively discussion. The central questions addressed were: objectives, main characteristics of the concept, topic areas, theoretical foundation and methodology, financing, as well as questions concerning the project area, project duration, and forms of participation. Another central concern of the presentation was to outline possible connecting points for partners from Karlsruhe’s stakeholder community in the form of individual projects in the District Future project development.

Following the work report, various workshops were held on selected topics of the District Future concept. The workshop topics were as follows: Loop City, Healthy City, Value Shift towards Sustainability, and Mobile City. Based on key questions, project ideas to be implemented in District Future were developed in small groups during the workshops.

Further impressions of the event can be seen in the Gallery. The event was part of the Science Festival “Effects 2013”.

Introducing District Future – Urban Lab in the International Communal Studies Association conference „Communal Pathways to Sustainable Living“ in Findhorn ecovillage in Scotland brought us many valuable contacts of leading experts and cooperation partners worldwide.

From 26.-28. June Findhorn community in Scotland hosted the 11^th international conference of the International Communal Studies Association (ICSA). Bringing together over 200 communal scholars and community activists from around the world, this year the conference focused on the nexus between community and sustainability. This emphasis was chosen by the main organizer and ICSA board member Dr. Graham Meltzer from Findhorn, who’s research on cohousing has concentrated specifically on the link between social cohesion and pro-environmental behavioural change.

Taking place in a modern day ecovillage, the conference showcased and analysed sustainable practices in urban and rural communal settings. Founded in 1962 and still flourishing, Findhorn is one of the oldest intentional communities in Europe. With more than 320 people and 30 organisations living and working together, it extends to individuals, businesses and organisations within a 50-mile radius of the centre. Similarily to our project, Findhorn is seen as an experiment in conscious sustainable living and learning, where social and cultural aspects of sustainability are addressed equally with economical and ecological issues.

The program included both academic presentations and experiential workshops offering a wellspring of data, analysis, ideas, and practical applications. Paper presentations were held in 4 simultaneous sessions and workshops offered 8 different topics to explore every day, so the full scope of the event will become apparent when reading the proceedings. The broad scope of subjects ranged from more general issues such as discussing the ways societies can learn form intentional communites, to more specific topics, such as creating and managing local currencies or designing cohousing as an easily implementable way for creating economically, ecologically and socially sustainable lifestyles in both urban and rural settings.

I had the pleasure to present both a paper on my doctoral research as well as the poster introducing District Future – Urban Lab project. Interest in our urban renewal project was great. We have a lot of group-processes in front of us, and communal scholars and practitioners know much about creating and sustaining well functioning groups and networks. Bigger projects among the many useful contacts and partnerships that formed during the conference include an urban renewal project Future Lab in Vienna, and a project Models of Lived Sustainability introducing best sustainable ecovillage practices to German cities. Also the contacts of leading cohousing scholars and practitioners, as well as experts on facilitating community processes from across the world will be highly useful for redesigning the future district in Karlsruhe.

The rich cultural program was brimming with song, dance and storytelling. The conference finished with the traditional Gaelic celebration céilidh, also known as the social glue, giving everybody a taste of the personal sustainability benefits of living in a community.

Book of Abstracts