LED2LEAP Intensive Programme Nürtingen 2022

Braike neighbourhood architecture from the 1920's

Our workshop will look at alternative futures for the neighborhood's central square

Informal signs of place-making on the hidden river Steinach, picture from Max Strauch

Informal playscapes from the early 1950's

Sudetenstraße was planned to be a thoroughfare but never became one. Today is is oversized, picture made by Rehan Wasi

Unsere Braike - Diving into an everyday landscape

• Workshop dates: June 18 - 27, 2022
• Location: Braike neighbourhood in Nürtingen, Germany
• Challenges to be addressed: social integration, intergenerational and intercultural dialogue, qualification of open spaces, community empowerment, climate change adaptation, urban biodiversity, sustainable mobility

Welcome to Braike neighbourhood

Braike is a neighbourhood with about 4,000 residents. It belongs to Nürtingen, a small town at the southwestern fringe of Stuttgart Greater Region. Nürtingen itself has 45 000 residents. Stuttgart Greater Region is one of the most productive regions in Europea and home to 2,7 million people distributing across the 179 towns and communes of this urban agglomeration.

Braike neighbourhood is an example for various social and urban development trends, representative not only for Germany but also for many other European areas.

Here, too, demographic change is shifting the age structure: fewer and fewer young people live together with an increasing number of older people in the neighbourhood. These groups have different needs and usually few points of contact. Braike has always been a place of arrival, now for 100 years. People bring very different biographies and cultures to the shared neighbourhood, but currently have few opportunities to come into contact through shared activities and meeting places.

There is a lack of integrative communication channels and structures that go beyond the classic institutional contact points such as kindergarten, church and school and build bridges between generations and cultures.

'Unsere Braike' neighbourhood initiative

'Unsere Braike' is a group of committed citizens from the neighbourhood that has been working together regularly since December 2020. The goal is to raise ideas for bringing the community closer together. This process still continues in 2022. This LED2LEAP ERASMUS workshop will be part of it.

The group brings together representatives of the following civil society institutions and citizens:

• Evangelical Church of Reconciliation (Versöhnungskirche Nürtingen)
• Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Applied Sciences, the university is located in the same neighborhood
• representatives of the Seniors' Council
• representatives of the schools, kindergartens and social organisations in the neighbourhood
• the school association 'Die Braikianer'
• a contact person for the refugee shelter
• the local newspaper and the newspaper archives
• City of Nürtingen: Office for Education, Social Affairs and Family
• And committed citizens from the neighbourhood

The story so far

Within the framework of the first neighbourhood project, from September 2020 to April 2021, important cornerstones were already laid for a longer-term dialogue process. Unfortunately, the cooperation was very much affected by the pandemic. Nevertheless, it was possible to initiate a joint start to the neighbourhood dialogue. This consisted of an invitation to all residents and institutions to collect current and historical pictures that say something about their relationship to Braike. This low-threshold and 'non-contact' method has already succeeded in building new relationships through people exchanging images of their shared environment. We were also able to identify places that are important to the residents.

You can explore the material collected in the digital Braike community exhibition