image above: sketches of the concept for Stuttgart Rosenstein, 2024, Holder&Eckert
Stuttgart Rosenstein is part of the new urban area being developed close to the Stuttgart railway station. In 2024 the city council announced a competition to imagine how one of the most prominent areas called A3 could become a sort of prototyping field and entry to Stuttgart’s City of the future.
Together with my fiend and co-author of the hortopia concept, Prof. em. Eberhard Holder we handed in our idea as follows:
Hortopia gateway and garden of the future for Stuttgart Rosenstein; in four dimensions: inspiration, experimentation, degustation and contemplation.
«I define the garden as only territory where
man and nature meet, in which dreaming is allowed.
It is in this space that man can be in a utopia
that is the happiness of his dreams.»
Clément, 2008, p. 82f
Hortopia takes up this vision in the form of an urban garden of the future that lives from encounters, from dreams of the future, but also from transience, from facing challenges and from constant renewal. Hortopia is based on four dimensions inspired by the original geometry of the gardens of paradise (Pasargadae). These dimensions can be imagined as buildings, rooms, squares or places in the A3 field, which can also overlap:
IMPULSES Hortopia offers space for impulses from all over the world: visions, prototypes, studies, analyses or artistic concepts for the coexistence of people and nature in the city of the future. A curated platform for impulses and dialogue, which Stuttgart will continue to develop. Hortopia can also provide a forum for a global urban exchange for the International Building Exhibition – the world is city and the city is world.
EXPERIMENTS There will also be space for experiments to be tried out directly by the people of Stuttgart and the neighbouring Maker City. These could be participatory discourses, culture and entertainment, or pioneering achievements in urban production and agriculture. A laboratory as a gateway to Stuttgart Rosenstein: Hortopia opens up space for co-creation and also for experiments to be replaced by new ones and to continue to grow elsewhere.
DÉGUSTATION In the spirit of the edible city and urban agriculture, culinary pioneers in the Hortopia future garden regularly offer visitors from the region and around the world the opportunity to take part in a sustainable tasting of the future.
KONTEMPLATION Gardens offer moments that invite you to linger, stroll, wander or get lost, and always allow you to see the familiar in a new way. Hortopia plays with these moments and offers everyone who comes to the future garden, whether by chance or by design, space to discover new perspectives on Stuttgart.
In terms of urban planning, Hortopia draws on the diversity of Stuttgart Rosenstein, Maker City, the Europa Quartier and the Gleisbogenpark. As a gateway and a first taste, Hortopia gives a clear outline to the radically green city. A city that adapts to the changing needs of future populations and to the new demands for quality of life in urban areas brought about by climate change. The architecture of Hortopia will also be pioneering. For example, in the form of building greening that influences urban climatology, shading concepts, infiltration areas, the promotion of biodiversity and plus-energy concepts. To this end, we are also proposing the development of a Hortopia Charter and an advisory committee to develop Hortopia in a dynamic and sustainable way.
Read more about all the competition entries. You can also visit an exhibition of the entries from 9 to 24 November at Königstraße 1a, Stuttgart.