Max Schwitalla doesn’t believe in flying cars. “The idea that we are lifting private transport above our heads and that the sky is black as a result,” says the architect, is an “ugly” vision for him. But he can be enthusiastic about flying buses that land on so-called mobility hubs. Such multifunctional, multi-storey buildings, which function as district centers with mobility offers, but can also accommodate packing stations, shops or a daycare center with a roof terrace, are “very important city building blocks for the future” for Berliners.
Schwitalla has devoted itself to design and research focus on future urban mobility and urban development for nine years. As a source of inspiration, he was invited by the Munich Adult Education Center to the latest “Aubinger Talks”, which dealt with traffic management in the west of the city, especially the mobility concept for the new Freiham district. In view of the fact that around 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities in 2050 and therefore urban centers for three billion more people will have to be built around the globe over the next 30 years – which is as much as building Berlin 800 times there are new concepts, says the architect. No car cities that produce a lot of exhaust gas. And also no skyscraper “elevator cities” in which people are “stacked on top of each other like in a chicken coop” – without a chance to meet.
This is what the city could look like in the future: Districts that look like inhabited mountains appear green and varied. Simulation: Max Schwitalla / oh
(Photo: simulations: Max SchwitallA / OH)
“Urban mobility means bringing people together,” emphasizes Schwitalla. “That is why, in addition to product innovations, we primarily need usage innovations. Sharing offers that can be combined and which then create a system innovation.” His vision: to no longer think of the city linearly in terms of streets to be driven on by car. Rather, understand the city as a network of neighborhoods. With local traffic within the neighborhood, which can be done on foot, but also with modern e-bikes, cargo e-bikes, hoverboards or electronic unicycles, so-called one-wheelers. And with transfer traffic that connects the neighborhoods. With underground and suburban trains, but also express buses or trams that drive on their own lanes and are therefore extremely efficient. Or with alternatives such as gondolas. “We don’t always have to use the same mode of transport from door to door,” says Schwitalla. “We can switch from one mode of transport to the other. The interface is the Mobility Hub.” Once cars have been parked in the hubs, urban structures can be “much smaller, more human-scale”. Instead of walking through streets, for example, you could walk through water in summer. Neighborhoods could look like inhabited mountains that could be climbed up to old age with e-bikes over ramps: much greener and more varied than traditional urban planning.
In Berlin-Tegel, Schwitalla and his team have already planned a settlement with six mobility hubs, which will start as district garages with student accommodation on the upper floors. And a second project is underway in Hamburg: eleven mobility hubs are planned in an area for 15,000 residents.
“Architecture”, says the visionary, “should not only be thought of for the car”. Garages should also be able to be converted in the future, for offices, for example. The planning should be accordingly flexible, in that storey ceilings can be constructed so that they can be removed or entire parts of the building can be dismantled.
Cars are parked in central mobility houses. Simulation: Max Schwitalla / oh
(Photo: Studio Schwitalla)
The mobility concept for Freiham already provides for such “mobility houses” as a Munich pilot project for the second implementation phase: multifunctional buildings with space for stationary traffic, but also for sharing offers such as rental bicycles, e-scooters or cargo bikes. Or for parcel stations, social meeting points, a supermarket, a playground on the roof or restaurants. “There are no limits to the imagination when it comes to use,” says Elisabeth Nagl from the mobility department. The long-term conversion of the multi-storey car parks into residential buildings or something else has already been planned by the city. Underground car parks are difficult in Freiham because of the high groundwater level; they would also seal the subsoil and make it difficult to plant trees.
“Our goal is to keep the quarter free of through traffic in order to improve the quality of stay,” explains Nagl. That is why the district has already been designed with reduced cars. The parking space key is also to be reduced to half a parking space per residential unit in the second implementation phase in order to seal as little as possible. Parking space management in public spaces prevents cars from being parked outside for reasons of convenience. But the most important thing is the idea of the “city of short distances”: if you find everything you need on your doorstep, you don’t have to leave. “For this we had a ground floor report prepared by an external office,” says Nagl’s colleague Jonas Wurtz.
Instead of standing in a traffic jam and breathing in exhaust gases, cooling waterways are possible over short distances. Simulation: Max Schwitalla / oh
(Photo: Studio Schwitalla)
As bold as the hub principle may sound to some critics – “it works,” says Steffen Knopp from GWG. The municipal housing association installed a mobility station for its tenants on the corner of Bad-Schachener- and Echardinger Strasse last year, including car and bike sharing, shopping trolleys and e-cargo bikes. There is a godmother from the house who checks every now and then whether the wheels are in good condition. And a service station that is responsible for repairs. “The use takes place via a chip, is free of charge for our tenants and is very popular,” explains Knopp. In Freiham, the GWG is building more than a thousand apartments, and there will be mobility stations in all five construction areas.
The only problem that local politicians and many neighbors from the neighboring districts see is that Freiham is not an island. “Schools in Freiham are already being attended by children from other districts, and we have a high number of commuters,” said Aubing’s district committee chief Sebastian Kriesel (CSU). For him, the hubs are therefore “not the last word in wisdom”; rather, what is needed is a good bicycle network, small-scale development with buses and the quick extension of the U 5 to Freiham. District manager Reinhold Petrich advocates simply trying out new things. “In Copenhagen it took them at least 20 years for the traffic turnaround.” Munich, he thinks, is “on the right track” in this regard.