Would you like to visit Vauban district?
You have found this website because you are looking for informations on “ecological model district” called Quartier Vauban , in Freiburg, Germany ? You are perfectly right here – I can offer guided tours, for example. I will respond to inquiries of journalists, mail preferred. See below for details.
If you want only one practical guide – print this page.
May I introduce myself:
I am an inhabitant of the district, I live in the first passive house as multi-family-house in Germany . Furthermore, I have been one of the responsible persons of the citizen’s organization (NGO) called Forum Vauban – they have been deeply involved in the urban planning with citizen’s participation which took place here. Plus – I have been for about two years one of the responsible persons of student’s self help project called SUSI . To explain my professional background, I’ve been working in two engineer offices as energy consultant and electrical planner for econzept and solares bauen . I am in no way affiliated to the city administration of Freiburg and we do not have any budget for public relations funded by the city. Currently, besides doing guided tours in collaboration with Freiburg Futour I am part-time employed in a private company.
More information on Vauban district
If you are looking for a good starting point, I’d like to refer to the noncommercial information site on Vauban district – you will find some English pages too. There is even a Vauban-CD available (in German, all English language documents of that CD are already on several webpages).
Guided tours
If you are looking for a guided tour, we can meet in person, but please contact
Freiburg Futour directly, or use our contact form – just in case you are only one or two visitors, we can often let you join another group for free or for a more symbolic fee (5 or 10 EUR). Besides, we can offer guided tours for your special interest – from 1 hour up to seminaires several days! If you visit us for several days, you will be seeing more than “just” Vauban district, and there is a lot more to see!
More questions
If you have questions about Vauban disctrict, please contact me by another contact form or via email: post@dellekom.de .
Important information for all visitors of Vauban district
Here you can find a map of the district . The orange tramway line no. 3 “Vauban” connects us directly with main station “Hauptbahnhof” and city center “Bertoldsbrunnen”. A 24 hour ticket for 1 persons costs 5 EUR, for five (!) persons only 8 EUR. Please leave your car at home. You will enjoy our almost car free district more when you follow this example, plus you will save energy and help the environment. We are especially happy if you do not fly.
General guidelines
First of all: We are happy that you visit us. But as there are usually more than five big groups with busses every day (!) – so we appreciate it very much if you follow the following “guidelines”:
- Please stay always on public roads and ways. Sometimes, it is not so easy to determine whether the land is public or privately owned – in case of doubt please refrain from entering gardens. If you feel you may be on private ground you most certainly are. Ask people before flashing into their private homes. We would, too.
- Please pay attention to bikes. We are a car-reduced district so this means we have more bikes than normal. Instead of ringing the bell always the cyclists appreciate your attentiveness.
- Please do not visit us on Sundays: Freiburg Futour does not offer guided tours on sundays: We want to protect the inhabitants and we do not want the inhabitants getting annoyed or upset so we’d not be able to show you the district.
- Please book your restaurant in advance, that is: Dont come with group of 20 and think our restaurant can handle it. They could sometimes – but usually your group will be only one among other three. Plus – they want to cook everything freshly, so they need some planning. The Süden offers inexpensive meals from Monday to Friday, 12:00 to 14:00 o’clock. Freiburg Futour can do all the booking for you if you like.
- For loud talking: Please seek open places like the main street or the market place – you are not the only visitor here and this is a residential area.
- You may take photographs, but only standing on public ground. Please do not upload photographs of people on the internet without asking their permissions first. Parents can have good resons that you do not take photographs of their children, especially if they have no clothes on. You will understand.
Reaching Vauban h3. By train or public transport:
Red line: Footpath to Vauban (approx. 25 min).
Blue line: Tramway no. 3 “Vauban”.
The right train station is “Freiburg im Breisgau (Hauptbahnhof)”, south-west Germany. You may find the train schedules here: Deutsche Bahn où SNCF
In Freiburg main station you’ll leave the train and you’ll see two bridges crossing the tracks. The blue one is exclusively for pedestrians and bikes. The other one has stairs up to the tramway station “Hauptbahnhof”, which you might use. (There is an elevator, too).
Take the tramway stop at the side directing towards the city center: You’ll see the cathedral if it is not too foggy. Take tramway No. 3, direction “Vauban”.
You may buy tickets at the red vending machine on the platform or even in the tram, if you don’t have much time. The vending machine inside the trams however will not take banknotes.
- For one person, its costs 2 EUR to reach Vauban, that is 4 EUR in two direcions.
- One person ticket 24 hours inside Freiburg costs 5 EUR.
- For two or more persons, there is a very good offer: an 5 person ticket 24 hour costs only 8 EUR. Even with a group of 50 it is quite easy to use the tram.
Please do not forget to stamp your ticket (not the 24 hrs tickets however) inside that tram! Once inside the right tram, you just remain seated until stop “Paula-Modersohn-Platz” (9th stop).
Usually, I’ll wait for you at that stop “Paula-Modersohn-Platz” – if not otherwise specified.
By private car
The address for your GPS is: Merzhauser Strasse 170 / Vaubanallee 2 dans 79100 Freiburg im Breisgau. The electronic maps often do not yet include the new streets on Vauban, so the best map you’ll find here
Aereal view by Google Maps
The green arrow is our meeting point. The images are from 2005.
By charter bus
Same place as by car, there is only one small difference:
You will reach Vauban on “Merzhauser Strasse” heading outward Freiburg to the next village “Merzhausen”, just follow the tramway tracks. You enter Vauban when you’ll see colourful window panels an a big building along the road to your left. Behind the traffic lights the tracks go right.
Now you’ll have to pay attention: You cross the tracks, but immediately after crossing them you turn right on the bus track, still before the nine-storied building. Visitors may leave the bus, but please do not clog the public bus road there. After having “unloaded” you drive right, again crossing the tracks, then right once more and you’ll see another bus stop. Please park your bus there, but between the bus stop and the traffic lights. Please do not block the bus stop.
For Journalists
Please understand that we are not able to provide “full service” for free. We have many, many requests every month. We are happy if you also would like to read the informations on internet before contacting us, if you’d like an interview in person, the first 30 min are usually free.
However: You and your questions (preferrably via mail) are welcome and answered for free.
Image material
You may use all images on the two websites vauban.de and passivhaus-vauban.de free of charge even for commercial purposes, – the only condition is that you might please mention the source of the images (website). Let us know if you need higher resolution pictures – please give us the exact filename of the image(s) you are interested in.
Andreas Delleske am 19. September 2008, 12:19