Press release
First IBA’27 Projects presented
The International Building Exhibition 2027 StadtRegion Stuttgart has selected 13 proposals from the Stuttgart Region as the first official projects. Further projects will follow.
The International Building Exhibition 2027 StadtRegion Stuttgart (IBA’27) has introduced the first IBA Projects. On Monday, 27 July 2020, IBA’s supervisory board officially announced 13 promising construction projects as IBA’27 Projects. The projects include several large-scale former industrial sites that are to be redeveloped as mixed-use urban quarters for housing and working. The list of projects features ambitious conversion projects for inner-city neighbourhoods as well as an experimental building for researching new building materials. Five of the projects are located in the region’s capital city of Stuttgart, while there are two in Wendlingen am Neckar and one in Backnang, in Böblingen, in Nürtingen, in Salach, in Sindelfingen and in Winnenden. Though most of the project initiators come from the municipal sector, there is also involvement by private contractors and investors as well as the University of Stuttgart. Further IBA’27 Projects will be announced at the upcoming supervisory board meetings.
Fritz Kuhn, Chairman of the supervisory board of IBA’27 GmbH and Lord Mayor of the City of Stuttgart, says: »With more than 100 entries, roughly 70 proposals in the IBA’27 Network and now the first 13 official IBA’27 Projects, we are delighted with the huge response to IBA’27 and its overall development. The projects selected won over the supervisory board because they meet all of the prerequisites needed for IBA Projects – they have to be exemplary from an ecological, social, economic and architectural perspective. In addition, they will be developed in a transparent, participatory manner at an international level together with the IBA’27 Team. This will result in ambitious urban development and unusual architecture running up until the exhibition year in 2027.«
»Together, the IBA’27 Projects tell a story«, explains IBA Director Andreas Hofer. »The common narrative is the Productive City with vibrant, high-density neighbourhoods where diverse types of housing for all social classes come together with spaces for low-emission industry and new forms of working.« In view of the most dramatic societal and economic upheaval in generations alongside the current climate crisis, the initiators of the IBA Projects recognised the need to tread new ground, says Hofer: »The projects indicate a willingness to face the social, ecological and economic challenges of an uncertain future. This is linked to an ambition to implement exemplary planning processes that include the people on the ground as well as international skill sets.« He says that when a project is announced as an IBA Project, the project initiators are obliged to show courage in pursuing this path.
Thomas S. Bopp, Vice Chairman of the supervisory board and Chairman of Verband Region Stuttgart, is pleased about the large regional spread of these first projects: »IBA’27 is proving itself to be a regional initiative. The first round of projects clearly shows the strong will and courage of municipalities across the entire Stuttgart Region to use the IBA as an opportunity to push the boundaries of conventional planning and to try out new approaches for a more sustainable future. Some of the council board resolutions were passed unanimously, which is further proof of the authorities’ willingness to dare to innovate. This solidarity at a regional level creates potential for the emergence of internationally respected models for liveable and futureproof 21st-century city regions by 2027.«
Karin Lang, CFO of IBA’27 GmbH, would like to thank the many people and institutions making contributions to the IBA: »IBA’27 has acted as a major catalyst. Nobody expected such a huge response and rich portfolio of projects. This high level of engagement shows the opportunities that an unusual format such as the IBA creates for the city and the region, but it also challenges us as an organisation.« In terms of the tasks at hand, she is encouraging participants to think big: »What we have to do is develop an exhibition by 2027 that attracts international attention and reaches a wide audience – all in a large region comprising 179 municipalities. To do this, we will need partners with strong professional, organisational and financial backing.«
Selection procedure: IBA’27 Network and IBA’27 Projects
In excess of 100 projects have been entered for IBA’27 since the call for projects was put out in October 2018. Roughly 70 entries that take a bold approach to the future of building, housing and working in the Stuttgart City Region have since been included in the IBA’27 Network. Together with the IBA’27 Forum – the open discussion platform for the IBA – a wide network of proposals, people and organisations has thus been established that enriches IBA’27 going forward to the exhibition year.
The interdisciplinary team at IBA’27 uses the network to engage with entrants to identify proposals with special potential for ambitious further development by 2027. The proposals are announced as IBA’27 Projects by the supervisory board on recommendation from the international board of trustees. The projects then receive intensive support from the IBA’27 Team. Several particularly ambitious large-scale urban development projects are to act as anchor points for the exhibition year 2027 as IBA’27 Neighbourhoods. The neighbourhoods will be identified during the course of the IBA up until 2027. The IBA’27 Network, IBA’27 Projects and IBA’27 Neighbourhoods will ultimately result in a curated exhibition that will make internationally relevant ideas for the future tangible for the visitors in 2027.
Background
What will our lives, homes and work be like in the future? One hundred years after the opening of the Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart in 1927, this is the question to be addressed by the International Building Exhibition 2027 StadtRegion Stuttgart (IBA’27). The IBA aims to provide examples to make this journey into the future visible and tangible – through ambitious (building) projects across the entire region. IBA’27 puts people at the heart of the project, using dialogue to come up with new answers to the question of how to accomplish the social, technological and ecological transition successfully.
The Building Exhibition is managed by IBA’27 StadtRegion Stuttgart GmbH under the leadership of Director Andreas Hofer and CFO Karin Lang. The partners are the City of Stuttgart, Verband Region Stuttgart (an organisation of local authorities in the Stuttgart Region) and the Stuttgart Region Economic Development Corporation (Wirtschaftsförderung Region Stuttgart GmbH), the Baden-Württemberg Chamber of Architects and the University of Stuttgart. The partners contribute to the ongoing funding of IBA 2027 StadtRegion Stuttgart GmbH in proportion to their shareholding. The State of Baden-Württemberg will provide total funding of EUR 2.5 million to IBA’27.
