Ecological settlement Geroldsäcker, Karlsruhe

The building group project was the result of a competition and was supported by the Department of Housing Construction (University of Karlsruhe, now the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) and the Karlsruhe city council. An ecological housing project was realised with all 42 developers under the legal form of a GbR. The neighbourhood plays a pioneering role in southern Germany in terms of the type of space created, the building structure, the ecological and building biology aspects, as well as the development of the building group idea, and has been published in many books and specialist journals in Germany and abroad.
The neighbourhood consists of 21 terraced houses, 16 multi-storey flats and office units with a communal building on the shared garage. The estate is only accessed when necessary and is therefore largely car-free. Paths, squares and building services are jointly owned and managed. Over the years, a sociologically very stable, supportive community with a good mix of generations has developed.

Location Karlsruhe
Building owner Private
Completion 1993
Energy standard Low energy
Miscellaneous Award for good buildings (for office buildings in the housing estate), Golden House '94 award, "Hugo Häring Prize", Karlsruhe's first ecological housing estate
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