Cycling in stuttgart

CYCLING IN STUTTGART Cycle, Learn, Explore, Integrate

Mai Adel Reeham Sayed Integrated Research and Design Project, MSc IUSD, University Stuttgart, WS 2014/15 IUSD

LEARNING ASSEMBLAGES– CITY AND KNOWLEDGE Integrated Research and Design Project MSc Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design University Stuttgart Winter term 2014/15

CYCLING IN STUTTGART Cycle, Learn, Explore, Integrate

Responsible / lecturer: Prof. Dr. Astrid Ley, Marisol Rivas-Velázquez - SI Prof. Anje Stokman, Moritz Bellers - ILPÖ Guest lecturer: Josefine Fokdal, Daniel Schönle

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Data Collection Data collection was carried out in more than one stage throughout the process using different tools.

First: Unstructured interviews were used in the first visits for the three sites. Different actors have been interviewed for the sake of getting an idea about the different entities, their nature and the type of learning process taking place in them. Excerpts from these interviews are shown below.

Learning Conceptualization “Every path that people do on a bicycle, they cannot do on a car. On a bike you can discover the city more” said Clemens from Fahhrad fur Afrika A quotation that truly summarizes the reason behind choosing cycling as a topic for our project. The relation between cycling and learning does not only include the direct process where cycling is considered as the goal and we seek learning how to cycle and how to follow the cycling traffic rules. However, there is another indirect process – which Clemens was speaking about – where learning takes place through cycling. In this case, cycling is considered more as a tool used to explore the city from a different perspective or even a tool to get people from different backgrounds together.

Throughout the project, it became clear that these two learning processes are strongly interlinked. The improvement or deterioration of one process affects the other spontaneously.

The involved actors: 1.Mr Peter Beckmann from ADFC büro (the head of the events team).

2.Clemens from Fahrräder für Afrika (one of the chairmen of the NGO).

3.Two mothers who send their children to the traffic school (Jugendverkehrsscule).

Network of Cycling Facilities

Excerpts from the Interviews in the First Stage of Data Collection

Second: A participatory fact finding tool (shown on the right) was used to encourage actors to write their own opinions about the strengths and weaknesses of the learning process taking place in their organizations. This was used to get a clear idea about the positives that need to be strengthened and the negatives that need to be improved.

Cycling Facilities Identification As a start, a mapping of different cycling facilities in Stuttgart was made including: bicycle clubs, repair it yourself workshops, cycling traffic schools and bike shops.

Three main sites were chosen: 1) ADFC Stuttgarter Fahrrad bürow 2) Traffic school (Jugendverkehrsscule) 3) Fahrräder für Afrika (Technik und Solidarität e.v). These represent three types of organizations that will be analyzed in detail in the coming parts.

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The actors participating in this tool: 1. Mr Peter Beckmann from ADFC büro.

2. Volunteers from Fahrräder für Afrika.

The outcomes of these two stages of data collection are presented in the coming detailed analysis of the three sites.

Network of Selected Sites

The Participatory Fact Finding Tools and Photos with Participants

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Analysis of the Selected Sites The three chosen site range from the most governmental to the most voluntary. Each site will be analyzed regarding three main aspects: the nature of the organ-

Fahrräder für Afrika - Technik und Solidarität e.v. ization whether it is governmental or voluntary, the spatial analysis of the physical space and the type of learning process taking place inside.

Traffic School (Jugendverkehrsschule)

In Forststrasse

The most governmental entity is the traffic school (Jugendverkehrsschule) that works with schools and receives around 1800 children every year. Only children from 4th class attend these cycling classes in order to get their cycling licenses.

Policemen run those facilities, teach the children how to cycle safely on roads and teach them about cycling traffic rules as well.

From the site visits and the conducted interviews, it was clear how the space reflects the formality and strictness of the learning process taking place inside.

The indoor is a classroom where the policeman explains some rules for the children. And the outdoor is a controlled fenced park with paths that mimics the city street, signs and traffics lights to put the children in a real cycling situation and teach them how to react properly. The traffic school only aims at teaching children how to cycle properly following the traffic rules with no other offered activities what so ever.

At the other end, there is the most voluntary organization which is the Fahrräder für Afrika - Technik und Solidarität e.v. It’s a NGO mainly aiming at collecting donated bikes and sending them to African countries.

These bikes are used there as a means of transportation facilitating the lives of many people and helping many children reach their schools. This organization is mainly based on voluntary actions from the main executive board as well as volunteering youth and students.

Not only the Fahrräder für Afrika collects these donations in Stuttgart, also some African communities - especially the Eritreans - do the same thing. Cooperation exists between these different organizations where the Fahrräder für Afrika sometimes share its space in the wagenhallen with these communities allowing them to store the collected bikes until the containers come.

Besides this main activity, the Fahrräder für Afrika organizes many other events including repair it yourself workshops where children, Africans, refugees and other groups learn how to repair their bikes. There are also recycling workshops organized to teach people how to reuse the old bike parts in creating more innovative fun wheels.

Spatially, the Fahrräder für Afrika’s space in the waghenhallen is completely different from the traffic school.

It’s more of chaotic storage space with hundreds of bikes together with a workshop filled with tools needed for repairing and renewing the donated bikes.

It is a completely spontaneous space with an outdoor open area that is sometimes used for workshop events and at other times it is a place for cyclists’ gathering and holding donation campaigns.

When discussing the learning process taking place in such a space, it seems to be only related to learning how to repair a bike and how to recycle its old parts to make something useful out of it. However, it also plays a role in promoting more cycling through the city of Stuttgart not only by teaching the people to repair their bikes thus encouraging them to cycle more but also by promoting the critical mass movement which is trying to claim the right of bikes on the road and attracting more people to cycling.

Further Photos of the Site

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The learning process taking place in such a space seems to be only related to learning how to repair a bike and how to recycle its old parts. However, it also plays a role in promoting more cycling through the city of Stuttgart not only by teaching the people to repair their bikes thus encouraging them to cycle more but also by promoting the critical mass movement which is trying to claim the right of bikes on the road and attracting more people to cycling.

In Wagenhallen

Further Photos of the Site

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Stakeholders Analysis

ADFC fahrrad büro Between these two extremes, lies a very important entity which is the ADFC fahrrad büro; the main cycling club in Stuttgart. It’s a civil society organization with strong connections to the state and political parties.

The ADFC is a key player in improving cycling conditions in Stuttgart. Many of the effective ideas taking place on the ground were actually suggested by the ADFC to the politicians.

It is actually a huge organization aiming at promoting

In Breitsheidstrasse

cycling, providing all the services needed and organizing different events to achieve this aim. It works on different scales where it is divided into federal union, state association, district association and local groups.

Our focus was on the ADFC Stuttgarter büro that is responsible for the city of Stuttgart.

The ADFC provides many services for cyclists starting from selling needed safety equipment till teaching them what kind of bikes suit them to buy. Furthermore, The ADFC provides some private classes for elderly people and children to teach them how to cycle. These classes take place in the parks of the traffic schools after its closing hours. It also cooperates with “repair it yourself” workshops (Selbsthilfe workstatt) to organize courses teaching people how to repair their bikes. In addition, the ADFC provides a wide variety of trips and events for cyclists ranging from beginners to professionals. This includes mountain biking, tours inside Stuttgart and further cycling trips to other German cities.

Spatially, the ADFC büro of Stuttgart is surprisingly a small office in the ground floor of an apartment building without any signs showing that it’s a place related to cycling except a half bike hanging above its entrance. This place only hosts small meetings of club members and volunteers but any other activities take place outside.

However, this tiny place is home to a huge organization that contributes greatly to the learning process of cycling through its wide spectrum of activities.

It plays a role in teaching how to cycle, how to repair a bike, how to use a navigation system and even before that how to buy a suitable bike. Furthermore, ADFC contributes greatly through its events to increasing the percentage of cycling and increasing the city exploration through cycling.

Further Photos of the Site

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After understanding the nature of the different entities and their roles in the process of learning and improving cycling, a stakeholder analysis was made to show the different connections and interlinkages between these organizations. In addition, it shows the degree of influence of the different entities in improving both learning cycling and cycling itself.

This degree of influence is not the same in both cases, there are slight differences. In the case of improving learning cycling the greatest influence is for the ADFC büro, the traffic school and the repair it yourself workshops which are the orgaizations directly involved in providing learning processes. In this case the government does not have a direct influence in the process.

While in the case of the stakeholders involved in improving cycling in general the government starts to have stronger influence in addition to the influence of the main organizations mentioned before. In both cases it was clear that those small entities play a crucial role in the improvement and in creating a change.

The governmental support is crucial as well but it comes in a later phase.

Stakeholder Analysis for Improving Learning Cycling

Conclusion of This Phase: Any intervention or improvement plans should deal with these entities as an interlinked whole. We have to strengthen their relations and make the best out of it to create the targeted change of improving cycling learning processes and improving cycling as a whole.

Moreover, any change cannot just be a top down process coming from visions made by the state for increasing cycling percentage. It should start from these organizations that work on the ground and that have the capabilities and mechanisms of attracting more groups to the cycling activities.

Cycling Timeline While searching for methods to improve the two processes of learning cycling, a number of questions arose. What is the current status of cycling in Stuttgart and how was it in the past? What needs to be improved in the cycling learning process? How did cycling get improved in the past? Which factors led to its decline or strength over the years? How did these entities contribute to the evolution of cycling? What was their role especially in the context of Stuttgart?

In an attempt of answering these questions, the timeline of cycling in Stuttgart was analyzed. The timeline provides a wide set of information. The main line shows the changes taking place in the cycling status whether it is a decline, a rise or a period of unrest and transformation. The degree of inclination corresponds to the degree of the happening change. The timeline also shows the different factors that influenced the turning points in the history of cycling.

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Stakeholder Analysis for Improving Cycling

Conclusion of Different Interlinkages

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Cycling Timeline-continued The years of the foundation of our three entities are highlighted and their roles in the change are mentioned. Moreover, the different user groups attracted to cycling, the different functions provided by the bikes and the different types of bikes are mentioned.

For example, the timeline shows that the bicycle renaissance “Bicycle boom” that happened in the seventies witnessing a huge improvement in cycling status was actually caused by two main reasons. The first one is the oil crisis and the need to shift from fuel consuming cars. The second is the emergence of many citizens’ initiatives responding to the high rate of accidents at that time including the ADFC that was founded in 1979.

This proves the conclusion resulting from the stakeholder analysis that the change should come from the citizens themselves and from the organizations that are connected directly to them and that work with them on the ground.

It also shows that the rule of the green party started in 2012 and is considered a huge transformation towards more cycling promotion and improvement. This is of great importance in the context of Stuttgart since it is not considered as a bike friendly city due to its topography.

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This party has put a plan of reaching 20 percent of cycling in the modal split at the year 2020.

In our vision we targeted increasing this percentage of cycling in the modal split to reach 25 percent; a pretty ambitious value however it can be achieved using pedelecs. The pedelecs play an important role in facilitating cycling in this difficult topography thus encouraging more people to cycle.

In our vision, we also suggested initiating a new organization that brings together these three entities in addition to many other entities involved with cycling in order to have the power and strength of making decisions and creating change. This organization will be called “ STUTTGART CYCLING CHAIN”.

Regarding the user groups, the timeline shows that throughout the years different user groups were attracted to cycling and it is becoming more widespread.

Nowadays, it is used by all classes to get to work; it is starting to replace cars in indicating the social status.

It is also used more by mothers, by children and it is even used in transporting goods using cargo bikes.

Our future vision also focuses on attracting more diverse groups to cycling until we reach the targeted percentage.

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Conclusion of This Phase: Cycling in Stuttgart needs serious improvement where its current percentage in the modal split is below expectations. The timeline emphasized the importance of citizen initiatives and awarness increase in creating any required change and that is what we need to focus on. Finally there is always a need for attracting more user groups to the activity of cycling.

Making use of the data collected in the previous research, we started thinking about what would be our our proposal for improving the two processes of learning cycling leading eventually to enhancing cycling in the city of Stuttgart.

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The Proposed Intervention

The Proposed Intervention

The Approach

The Approach

Our intervention started by focusing on improving the indirect process of learning through cycling. The aim was to increase exploring the city through cycling since the spatial experience accompanying cycling is way richer than that accompanying a car trip. On a bike, all your senses are alert and you can perceive spaces and paths that cannot be even reached by car.

Furthermore, the social experience increases greatly when cycling. This is due to the physical (hand signs) and verbal communication with the nearby cyclists and pedestrians.

Through the studies, it became obvious that our aim of improving this indirect learning process could not be achieved directly.

Increasing this type of learning implicitly needs increasing cycling itself. By encouraging more people to cycle, more people will perceive the city and explore it from different perspectives. Therefore, we needed to increase the percentage of cycling in the modal split and reach the target of 25% outlined in our vision for cycling in Stuttgart.

Such an ambitious goal needs a long term plan and we thought that the best plan to achieve it is to focus on the younger generation “Children”. By creating a new generation that appreciate the bicycle as a means of mobility and as a tool for better spatial and social experience in the city.

“Today’s bike schools’ students are tomorrow’s urban cyclists of Stuttgart.”

Actually, children are a common actor in all of the three analyzed sites, however each of them provides different type of learning for children. In an attempt of understanding the entities’ relation with children, a third stage of data collection has been made. In this stage structured interviews were conducted with representatives from the three entities.

The involved actors in this stage: 1. Mr Peter Schwarz (the head of the traffic schools in Stuttgart) 2. Mr Peter Beckmann from ADFC büro (the head of the events team).

3. Other volunteers from Fahrräder für Afrika The interviews aimed at investigating how these entities contribute to increasing children cycling. Which activities they organize for them? And which children groups do they deal with?

Surprisingly, we found that the three entities deal with a diverse group of children. The ADFC, as Mr Peter said, is approached in many cities by Turkish and Iranian immigrant communities who seek organizing cycling classes for their boys and girls. It also organizes private classes for the German children who might have family problems and could not complete the traffic school and could not obtain their cycling license.

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The traffic school only deals with German children or children in the German educational system (4th class in the school.

Finally, the Fahrräder für Afrika organizes repairing workshops for children to teach them how to repair their bikes and as mentioned it also organizes recycling workshops to teach them how to reuse the old bike parts in order to create new innovative wheels.

The Fahrradar fur Africa is also connected to the African children whether those in Africa by sending them the donated bikes or those who are living in Germany.

These immigrant African children take part in collecting the bikes and attend some of the workshops.

Based on this analysis, we found that some of these groups are already attracted to cycling but need further encouragement and some don’t have the culture of cycling thus need further attraction to cycle through providing them with other activities of their interests.

Taking all this into consideration, our proposal is to strengthen the culture of cycling among this diverse group of young generation through creating an INTERCULTURAL CHILDREN CENTER. This center aims at bringing together children from different cultural backgrounds to take part not only in activities related to cycling but in other activities as well.

“An Intercultural center for cycling and beyond” The center will be run by the Stuttgart cycling chain organization - proposed in the vision- having organizers and volunteers from all the three entities and from the surrounding communities to run the different activities.

This proposal took into account the two conclusions that came out as a result of the previous analysis. Furthermore, its intercultural nature is also of great importance in the context of Stuttgart; a city that has 40% of its population coming from foreign backgrounds.

Such a center that focuses on integrating immigrant children of various backgrounds with German children would play an important role in increasing the level of tolerance and diversity acceptance in the city.

In this case, improving learning cycling or perceiving the city through cycling are not the only goals that we aspire to achieve any more. With this proposal, cycling is starting to be transformed into a tool that creates further integration, and inclusion of people from different backgrounds.

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The Proposed Intervention

The Proposed Intervention

Network Scale

Specific Site Scale

Map Showing Percentages of Immigrants in Stuttgart (source: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, (2009).

Housing and segregation of migrants, Case study: Stuttgart, Germany.

A network of sites that are eligible for creating the intercultural children centers in Stuttgart is proposed.

The proposed sites are in districts with high percentage of immigrants in order to use cycling and other activities provided by the center in integrating the community in these districts. Besides, these intercultural hubs will also act as tools for: - cycling promotion among Germans who don not cycle through attracting their children - cycling percentage increase among groups who did not cycle before and might not even have this culture.

Based on the map on the left, we proposed sites in Badcannstatt, Zuffenhausen, Stuttgart west, Feuerbach, Unterturkheim and Wangen. All the potential sites are either already existing open spaces or parts of parks so that they can suit the different proposed activities.

Nearly all of them are surrounded by schools, gymnasiums (high schools), sport halls or youth centers. Volunteering students and teachers from these surrounding functions will be attracted to take part in running the different activities of the intercultural hubs. This way, the community will start to get more engaged not only in attending the activities but also in organizing them leading to a stronger feeling of belonging and involvement. A thing that will strengthen the role of these hubs and lead to its success.

Detailed Network of the Proposed Sites and Their Surroundings

We then moved from the scale of the network into a zoomed in scale of a specific site. Out of the six sites suggested above, the site in Stuttgart west was chosen to be studied in detail reaching a more concrete idea of how this intercultural children center would look like, what specific activities it would provide and how it would interact with the community. The proposed center in this site will be taken as a guide for the other centers. It will be replicated in the rest of the sites with differences related to the nature of each site regarding the design and the suitable activities.

The chosen site to host the Intercultural Children Center in Stuttgart west is the site of the traffic school (Jugendverkehrsschule) in Forststrasse; the one analyzed among the three entities. The traffic school will move out of the site in the next couple of years therefore it would be extremely suitable for this project.

Proposed Network of Intercultural Centers in Stuttgart

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The Existing Condition of the Site of the Traffic School (Chosen Site)

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Intercultural Children Center

Intercultural Children Center

Analysis of the Activities

Activities’ Clubs and the Program

After deciding which site to start with as a host to the first intercultural hub in the network, we started studying what activities should this center provide to attract the intended groups. Our focus groups are as mentioned in the approach; the German, the Turkish and the African children.

Based on data from the conducted interviews and from the internet research, the different activities that can attract these three main groups were outlined. Such activities included: cycling learning, traffic rules learning, language courses for the newly immigrants, handicrafts workshops and excursions to Germany, Turkey and Africa as shown in the figure.

The choice of these activities was derived from the needs of different groups where for example: - Learning how to cycle or how to follow the rules is now of interest to Germans mainly. However we need to engage the newly coming Turkish children in learning cycling and embracing it as an everyday means of transportation. This culture will spread through them to their parents and their communities creating the intended change. The same should be done with African children who are new in Germany.

- Language courses represent an urgent need for any immigrant who arrive to a new country especially for children who enter schools in this country. In some cases lack of proper language knowledge hinder the progress of immigrant children in their classes.

Therefore, learning German is of huge interest to Turkish and African children and would encourage them to visit the center accordingly attracting them to cycling activities. Not only German language will be provided also English language which would be of interest to the three groups will be provided. Tandem courses will be organized where the children themselves help each other in learning the different languages leading to further integration and acceptance among them.

- Organizing excursions to visit Germany or Turkey or countries in Africa was considered to be of interest to all the groups. It would play a very crucial role in learning about the different cultures and increasing the level of diversity acceptance.

- Even though social counseling is not an activity practiced however it is of great interest especially to these children and their parents.

Moving to a new country with new traditions is not an easy thing for a child that is why such sessions are very helpful for supporting immigrant children. It is also important for German children who as mentioned before might suffer some family problems leading to

These diverse attracting activities were grouped into a number of activities’ clubs and translated into needed functions in the architectural program of the intercultural children center. The center is meant to provide an exciting after school program for children of different ages where they can learn different new things, practice sports through cycling and even have a place suitable for studying and doing their homework. Each club provides a set of different activities organized by different entities from the “Stuttgart Cycling Chain” as well as by volunteers from the supporting functions surrounding the site.

The main clubs includs: Cycling Club providing activities like: - Learning cycling classes for beginners (organized by ADFC volunteers and police men from traffic school) - Classes for developing cycling talents (organized by volunteering students from nearby high schools) - Learning traffic rules (organized by police men from traffic school) - Excursions and cycling tours to interesting place inside Stuttgart (organized by ADFC volunteers and volunteers from Fahrräder für Afrika ) Recycling and Repairing Club: - Repair it yourself workshops (organized by volunteers from Fahrräder für Afrika) - An open to public workshop space for repairing bikes - Recycling workshops teaching children how to make use of old bike parts (organized by volunteers from Fahrräder für Afrika) Language Club: - German, English and other language classes (organized by teachers from nearby language center in addition to volunteering high school students) - Tandem courses for learning the same languages (organized by the teachers with children and high school students as participants) Art Club: - Regular art classes (organized by teachers and some volunteering artists) - Handicrafts workshops (organized by teachers from African community with volunteering high school students) Related Knowledge Club: - First aid classes for the children which is very important especially when they learn how to cycle (organized by representatives from the nearby hospital) - Nutrition seminars to raise the awareness of our future cyclists about healthy food so that they can live a healthier life style. (organized by volunteers from the nutrition department in the nearby Gewerbliche schule) - Social counseling sessions (organized by teams from the nearby hospital and from specialized centers that deal with immigrant communities)

their delay in obtaining a cycling license or to decrease in academic performance.

- It was found that some of the schools that receive the donated bikes in Africa are specialized in making handcrafts and that they send some of their products to Germany to be sold there. Therefore handicrafts workshops would be of interest to African children.

The intention was to spread this type of skill to the German and Turkish children as well.

- Finally some immigrant groups are interested in improving their computer skills. Therefore different computer courses for different levels will be provided.

Photos of the DIfferent Attracting Activities

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Activities’ Clubs and Their Organizers

Interlinkages Between the Activities

Relations and interlinkages are developed between these different activities’ club. The interlinkage between the cycling club and the repairing club is spatial where both share the same workshop space. Another type of interlinkage is when learning languages takes place through cycling and physical activities. Children cycle while using only the learned language in their communication while being observed by their teachers. Another way of learning a language while cycling is having all the signs on the paths written in the different languages taught by the center so that the children always read them and eventually memorize them.

Furthermore, the old bike parts that will not be used in the recycling workshops can be used in art and handicrafts workshops to create some creative art pieces.

As for the computer club it should be teaching children programs that could benefit them in all the other clubs.

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Intercultural Children Center Site Analysis A detailed analysis of the chosen site in Forststrasse was carried out covering certain aspects including: the hierarchy of the surrounding roads, the climatic analysis identifying the sunny and shaded areas and a context analysis showing the functions of the surrounding buildings as shown in the figure below. The site lies in an area close to many schools which will contribute to the organization of different activities held in the center as explained in the discussion about the activities’ clubs.

Intercultural Children Center Conceptual Design The site is surrounded by a blocked street, a low-traffic street in addition to a pedestrian and bike zone at the eastern corner of the site. The proposed intervention makes use of these low traffic corridors by adding them to the area specified for the intercultural center and transforming them into pedestrian and cycling paths as shown in the proposed case figure. This is to create a sensed change in the neighborhood indicating the transformation of this site into an intercultural cycling hub.

The idea of the intercultural children center is to create a hub for after school activities for children from diverse backgrounds integrating cycling activities with all the other activities explained above.

The main concept was to focus on creating an interesting vibrant outdoor experience that incorporates a variety of activites. The outdoor is divided into 2 zones.

The first is more of an urban-like zone with cycling and pedestrian paths linking the different buildings. The cycling paths in this zone mimic the real streets with different crossings and traffic lights inspired from the concept of the traffic school. These paths are used by the policemen for their classes in the cycling club.

The second is more of a park-like zone- in the sunnier part of the site- that creates a more fun and free cycling experience for the children and other interested cyclists. There are cycling paths passing through the park and going into a zone with multiple ramps for fun cycling and for skating as well.

For the safety of children, the park is surrounded by bushes in the two outer sides closer to the high traffic streets to prevent children from reaching the street.

The internal sides are completely open and integrated into the fabric of the block.

Conceptual Diagram

The Proposed Circulation Routes and Paths

Analysis of the Current Situation of the Site and the Surroundings

Analysis of the proposed Intervention in the Site and its Relation with the Surrounding

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Intercultural Children Center Conceptual Design - continued This center consists of 4 buildings as shown in the layout. The main is the classes building hosting most of the indoor learning processes. The center takes the learning process out of the closed classrooms and integrates it with outdoor activities for an improved learning experience. Therefore there is an open area provided in front of this building to host these different class related activities. It is also suitable for making outdoor theater shows for the children or puppet shows or other activities depending on the age groups. The most interesting thing about this building is that its second floor is reached by an elevated cycling route.

Among the different cycling routes, there is this ramp that resembles some of Stuttgart sloped streets. Children can cycle on this elevated route not only for a more fun experience but also to reach their classes in the upper floor. When they arrive, they find an empty space designed to be a parking for their bikes.

There is also a special cycling track painted in yellow allocated especially for the youngest children to be trained in a safe zone on how to cycle before joining the higher level cyclists on the cycling path.

Then we find the repairing and recyclingworkshop; a transparent building with an open area in front of it for outdoor repairing activities. On both sides of this area there are two elevated platforms for exhibiting the workshops’ products. Innovative bikes created in the recycling workshops and handicrafts created in

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Conceptual Zoning of the Buildings

the handicraft workshops can be permanently exhibited on these two platforms. In addition, there is the handicraft workshop with an open area in front of it as well. Other activity spaces provided by the center include an outdoor children playground, a cafeteria for the parents and the children together with a small library providing books for reading in the park, and a skating and free cycling zone that enable them to improve their cycling talent.

This proposed intercultural center is just a step on the way of achieving our vision for improving cycling in Stuttgart and increasing the homogeneity and integration of its population. This center is intended to be used as a model or guide replicating it in the other proposed sites creating a new network of cycling hubs that can change the future of cycling for good.

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