Urban planning - interdisciplinary, public, consensus-oriented, time-saving
(Saxony-Anhalt)
Gräfenhainichen (pop. 8,500) is particularly affected by structural problems (de-industrialisation, population loss and vacant housing) following the closure of the nearby lignite strip mine. Within the compact town area, there are three prefabricated concrete housing blocks forming half of the local housing stock. Gräfenhainichen took part in the federal competition "Stadtumbau-Ost" (City Redevelopment East). The urban development concept required for the competition was created with the aid of the Charrette procedure in Gräfenhainichen.
Source: Kegler
Charrette is a public, openly-designed procedure for supporting urban planning. This method, which was developed in the USA in the 1980s, aims to solve complex planning tasks.
An interdisciplinary group with five to 20 members forms the core of the Charrette. This team works out a joint solution for a defined task. The key condition for success is the direct and continual feedback of each step to the decision makers, owners, stakeholders or interested citizens. A Charrette is temporary and has a specific result as its goal. The exact form, composition of the core team and the work steps are adapted to each particular task.
In Gräfenhainichen, the Charrette served to mobilise the public to participate in the urban renewal and to optimise the urban redevelopment by involving all the stakeholders. The objective was to put together an entry for the federal "Stadtumbau-Ost" competition.
The city advertised a restricted competition for professional planners to form the Charrette group, from which a team of nine planning and engineering offices from different specialist fields resulted. A two-day mini-Charrette and preparatory seminars for issues regarding energy supply and housing construction formed an introduction for all those involved. A chapel was chosen as a central location to meet in Gräfenhainichen.
During the one-week Charrette, the main elements of the urban development concept (mission statement, renewal approaches for old building and new building areas, regional integration, cost-effectiveness) were compiled.
The bundling of tried and tested working methods and the continuous feedback to decision makers and the public led to a consensus result within a very short time. The work steps included site meetings, working group meetings, discussions on specific issues, interim presentations for the public, city council and housing companies and also visits and temporary participation of interested citizens and school classes. For example, school children participated by building a model of a concrete prefabricated housing estate and exchanged the prefabricated buildings with an architecture form of their choice. In order to organise the work with laypersons (citizens, community politicians) effectively, care was taken that the plans were as easy to understand as possible, transparent and comprehensively communicated.
The Charrette ended with a large public final meeting at which the new mission statement "Gräfenhainichen - Town with New Energy" and key materials for the urban development concept arose. Thanks to the short feedback processes with experts and administration within the Charrette, is was possible to make necessary decisions quickly, according to the town mayor.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| Dec. 2001 | Town council's decision to take part in the federal competition "Stadtumbau-Ost" |
| April 2002 | Preparatory seminars for the Charrette |
| May 2002 | One-week Charrette took place |
| 2002 | Award of 1st prize in the federal "Stadtumbau-Ost" competition |
| 2003 | Further Charrette procedures for individual issues |
| 2004/05 | Development of the urban development concept "City with New Energy" |
| 2006/07 | Implementation of the first measures such as demolition or redevelopment of prefabricated concrete housing blocks, construction of new blocks of flats with integrated energy generation |
| 2007/08 | Involvement in the urban network "Energetic Urban Renewal" (model projects as part of a BMVBS/BBR research project) |
Source: Kegler
First prize in the federal "Stadtumbau-Ost" competition
Source: Kegler
The Charrette is a flexible and efficient planning procedure which can be easily adapted to the local situation and local issues. Thanks to the high level of publicity, direct stakeholder involvement and continuous integration of all decision-makers, decision-ready and practicable results arise within the shortest time. The bundling of tried and tested forms of participation and working methods within one procedure led to the successful competition organisation and to a high level of acceptance for the urban redevelopment in Gräfenhainichen. Further potential of this procedure lies in the savings in time and money and the growth in motivation.
The project location can be directly translated into Google-maps. Project in Google-Maps
The projekt site ist to be found at postal code: 06773 - town: Gräfenhainichen - street: Gartenstraße.
Record inserted on 01.10.2003 by Lehrstuhl für Planungstheorie und Stadtplanung, RWTH Aachen and updated by theFederal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) within the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR).
Last update: 24.02.2010
