Bahnstadt - Heidelberg's youngest district designed for innovation

Above: view to the hotel and office head-quarters part of the Bahnstadt with the railway station beyond, from the Heidelberg congress centre (HCC)

Future Cities Forum saw first hand the developments around innovation and housing districts on its visit to Heidelberg last October. Known for its beauty, with its castle and picturesque views of the River Neckar, Heidelberg is nonetheless a city driving a future through science investment and innovation.

The Mayor of Heidelberg who will be speaking at our conference at Cambridge Science Park, is keen to stress that the city has one of Germany's oldest universities but is also first for start-ups per capita (2024). In his words, Heidelberg is 'loving the old, embracing the new'.

Bahnstadt - a new district in the city he says, stands for innovation in all its facets – from corporate diversity to climate- and family-friendly urban planning to modern forms of living. Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann agreed with this vision, when he visited this month during a tour of the city.

Mayor Eckart Würzner showed Prime Minister Kretschmann the Bahnstadt – one of the world's largest passive house settlements, which serves as an international model for sustainable urban development.

The Mayor's office described the visit:

The tour included the Bahnstadt campus with laboratory and office space, district quarters with various forms of housing – also in combination with workplaces – as well as some of the attractive open areas and green spaces. One focus was on how Bahnstadt protects the climate. All buildings are constructed using the energy-efficient passive house construction method: As a result, residents consume around 90 percent less energy for electricity and district heating than people in other parts of the city.

Above: residential part of the Bahnstadt with market area viewed from HCC

"Bahnstadt is a great lighthouse project that demonstrates creativity in implementation. For me, it impressively combines two things: sustainable construction and Heidelberg's special location for innovation. And that is also our common goal – to make the region a hotspot, especially in the field of life sciences. With the network of clinics, we have also made a very important decision for this. And a district like Bahnstadt not only functions as a further growth impulse, but also sends a bit of confidence," said Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann.

"Innovative, internationally attractive and sustainable: that's what Bahnstadt stands for," said Mayor Eckart Würzner: "Where freight trains used to shunt, today research-intensive companies in the future-oriented sectors of health and life sciences are lined up. From start-ups to world market leaders, everything is there – and just a ten-minute walk away, another future campus has been created with our 15-hectare Heidelberg Innovation Park. In addition, with Bahnstadt, we have shown how cities can grow while taking climate protection into account. We have created living space for 6,000 people, a conference centre, cultural institutions, a school, day-care centres and much more with the most modern energy concept of its time. Bahnstadt is and will remain a global role model."

Family-friendly with short distances: The compact tour started at the Bahnstadt promenade. It serves as an important cycle axis and has become a city-wide attraction with a variety of seating, extensive green spaces and three themed playgrounds. Two historic signal box buildings, which now house restaurants – and together with the event location Halle02, the tank tower or the railway depot are testimonies to the former use of the area, also contribute to this. Today, Bahnstadt is Heidelberg's district with the most births. The great family-friendliness was evident a few meters away: The day-care centre on Schwetzinger Terrasse was the first of what are now ten childcare facilities in the neighbourhood.

Above: Heidelberg Mayor Prof. Dr. Eckart Wurzner with Baden-Wurttemberg Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann by the new water basins along the Langer Anger (image courtesy Rothes / City of Heidelberg)

Sustainable living and working: The next stop was the water basins along the Langer Anger - they stand for the exemplary rainwater concept of the Bahnstadt and make an important contribution to environmental protection. Directly on Langer Anger, the "Elf Freunde" urban quarter of Deutsche Wohnwerte also stands for the characteristic Bahnstadt mix of living and working. 166 condominiums and three commercial units have been built in the complex. With different apartment sizes and hybrid work-life units that can combine living and working, the needs of a wide range of target groups are served.

Innovative and economically strong heart: The tour then led along the "Bahnstadt Campus". This is where the innovative and economically strong heart of Bahnstadt beats. After SkyLabs and SkyAngle, SkyOne is currently the third office and laboratory building of the Max Jarecki Foundation. A fourth (SkyField) is being planned. Students of the Schiller International University will meet employees of internationally active world market leaders in the area. Reckitt Benckiser has located its corporate headquarters for Central Europe and its research and development centre here.

Heidelberg Engineering is a global pioneer in imaging and diagnostic technology in the field of ophthalmology. And with Ascendis, a leading international pharmaceutical company for endocrinological and oncological diseases, it will soon move into its new location for over 300 employees. In addition, the refrigeration centre of Stadtwerke Heidelberg is the "air conditioning system of Bahnstadt". It supplies buildings in the immediate vicinity with cooling, has a capacity of 13 megawatts and an impressive, multifunctional photovoltaic façade for power generation.

Green Lung: With the Zollhofgarten between SkyLabs and SkyOne, directly opposite the HCC conference centre, the green lung of the district was the next stop on the program. The area, which is the size of a football field, offers recreational and sports facilities for all ages and the largest playground in the district. The paths in the Zollhofgarten are modelled on railway tracks and are reminiscent of the former use of the area as a freight station.

Modern and urban: The tour concluded with a visit to the new Heidelberg Congress Center (HCC) – directly at the south exit of Heidelberg Central Station and with a view of the urban Europaplatz. Below the square is Baden-Württemberg's largest bicycle parking garage (1,600 spaces). The HCC was inaugurated in 2024 and impresses with its visionary architecture and 6,600 square meters of usable space. The light-flooded 14-metre-high main hall can accommodate up to 1800 people and look out over Germany's largest permanently installed LED wall.

Image below: Heidelberg Congress Centre (HCC), courtesy of Future Cities Forum.