Housing Development
Dietenbach is a new urban district of Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. This new district – currently one of the biggest urban developments in Germany - is located at the edge of the city center, covering an area of 100ha, supposed to house up to 14.000 inhabitants in 5.500 new dwellings.
Freiburg consists out of a collection well-defined districts with a distinct identity. Many of them are surrounded and separated from each other by linear landscape structures, such as the Dreisam River or major infrastructure routes. The masterplan aims to reverse this principle in Dietenbach. Instead of adding a new independent piece of a city surrounded by green spaces, the landscape structure is pulled right through the heart of the new district. This creates various small, diverse neighborhoods, organized by powerful green corridors. Together with a new tramline and excellent bike and pedestrian routs, the green lifelines connect Dietenbach to the surrounding quarters and the center of Freiburg.
The new urban district should not be understood as a residential settlement at the outskirts of the city, but as an interconnected urban district. Therefore the plan builds on an ambitious integrating spatial system, to create a spectacular variety of urban conditions: high and low density areas, mixed use city blocks and landscape related housing areas, vivid mix of housing types and apartment sizes, a miniature river delta, a compacted agriculture corridor, a lush yet monumental boulevard, a collection of distinctive district squares, interconnected slow traffic networks and an integrated school campus providing shared sport- and play facilities. Condensed and superimposed, all these structures create a lively urban district. A diversity of relations between built and outdoor program generate an enormous variety of environments to live, work and recreate. Dietenbach gets very pronounced character, while deliberately integrating itself into the overall urban structure of Freiburg.
