The Bächle of Freiburg

August 10^th, 2013

One of the most charming things about the city of Freiburg, Germany are the little channels of water running throughout most of the streets and alleyways in old town known as the “bächle”. This word comes from the German word for stream, bach, followed by the Alemannic diminutive “le” meaning little. Although many uses of the bächle can be seen today, not many know the history of these enchanting runnels.  

Fed by the Dreisam river, the original bächle were built to help irrigate agricultural land in the early thirteenth century.  Because the city of Freiburg is settled on a natural slope, the construction of these artificial waterways was a convenient and intuitive manipulation of the Dreisam to maximize use of the water supply.  

During World War II Freiburg was severely damaged and many of the bächle failed to make it through the attacks.  The city seemed to lose focus of the historical significance of the bächle, and they weren’t a priority in redevelopment of the city until citizens came together to fight for their restoration, leaving them in the state of which they are today.

Today, various social activities take place in and around the bächle through out the streets of Freiburg. These channels have many uses, ranging from children’s boat races to late night meeting places.  Residents of Freiburg use the bächle in their every day lives, and people from each age group seem to enjoy them in all sorts different ways.  It seemed as though mostly children would run and play through them, racing boats and laughing with their friends as a fun, accessible, free and simple way to enjoy the city with their parents.  Teenagers and college students chill their drinks in the bächle at all times of the day or congregate around them at night, something we observed every single night around multiple streets. On hot summer days lots of people can be seen dipping their feet in to cool off.

Over time, public uses of the bächle have evolved with the changes to infrastructure and the social fabric of Freiburg.  Residents have a strong social value of the bächle because the people before them had to work to convince the city that their redevelopment was vital to their love for Freiburg.  One Freiburg local, a middle-aged man with his wife and young son, commented that “[they are] what makes walking around through Freiburg unique- there’s an unspoken pride over them that many of us residents share.”  His explanation illustrates the attitude that most residents seem to have toward the bächle, whether they enjoy them by dipping their feet in on a hot day or simply observing the omnipresent love that people share for them. But beware if you are a tourist, as I learned personally from an old Freiburger with broken English, if a visitor accidently steps in a bächle then they are destined to marry a Freiburger!

-Maisie Borg

Arriving in Freiburg

Last Saturday, we departed from Copenhagen to Freiburg by train. Before we got to Hamburg, our train had to get on the boat. I was so excited because this was my first experience to pass through the ocean by boat but with the train. I think this was really sustainable idea that uses a right thing in a right place” The governments in Europe cooperated together and built railroads that connect to the boat. The European’ governments have not used other ways to let people arrive to the destination, such as build a bridge on the ocean, encourage people go by plane, or build a longer railroad which along the island. I think Eurail is really smart and connected transport design that transportation combine to another transportation. People not only easily arrive the destination, pay cheaper comparing to the plane, but also reduce their carbon footprint.

This is Eurail map that shows travel times for each trip. (Source: Eurail)

This view from the boat and this boat should be gone the opposite direction from Germany to Denmark.

After about 8 hours more travel time, we finally arrived to the hostel, Katholischen Lehrlingsheim. This hostel uses solar panels and heat pump as energy supplies, and has blinds outside the windows to help better insulate the building from heat.

Solar panels are built right in front of the hostel.

                                      The broad shows how many energy is being transferred by sunlight.

 The heat pump is installed in the back of the hostel.

The river’s water goes all the way down from the hill through downtown in little channels. It also flows behind the hostel, shown here.

The hostel also provides a garage for guests to park their bikes.

 The view from the hostel window.

~Chloe Cheung

On Monday morning we took the tram to the Fraunhofer Solar Institute and learned about many interesting technologies the institute is researching. We saw examples of flexible solar panels, electricity generating windows, and a solar air conditioning unit, but could not take photos of

We then picked up our rental bikes from the train station. This multimodal facility supports heavy rail, local light rail, buses, bikes, and cars. The bikes are the nicest we've had on the trip so far, but are much to big for many students. We all struggle to get on, which is quite a sight for people passing by.

After renting bikes, the class split up for a 4 hour break before lecture. I went to the car-free historic downtown with 4 other students. We found a large farmer’s market by the Cathedral, which had everything from flowers to fruit to bratwurst…lots and lots of bratwurst. The food was very good and relatively cheap. The prices here in general are much cheaper than anywhere else we've been.

Freiburg’s downtown has charming little canals, called bachle, on nearly every street. These canals are only a couple inches deep, but they provide amusement for children, and a refreshing place for adults to sit down or dogs to drink from. You can always hear the babbling of the streams in Freiburg.

~Sam Moffitt

Kastrup Sobad

Segun Adenola

Henry Deng

In our stay at Copenhagen, we explored a recommended summer spot near the coast of Copenhagen, the Kastrup Søbad Seawater. The Kastrup is a suburb located right in the middle of downtown Copenhagen and Copenhagen Airport. The place took about fifteen minute biking from our hostel.  There was a boardwalk, a sandy beach, parks, and an aquarium. The Solbad is a very innovative architectural design, basically it is an enclosed swimming pool with platforms for diving in the middle of the sea. This makes it a place for  tourist like ourselves want to go to because it is a great water for people to swim in, but it also has a great architectural design. The pool consist of a 100 meter long bridge that ends with circular wooden structure made of quality sustainable materials, azobé wood, which is resistant to saltwater. The design shows both quality and functionality as the circle shaped swimming area with a outer screen that block the wind for swimmers. The screen ranges from 1.5 meters to 8 meters.The architect’s target was to make this accessible to the setting for swimmers and a sculpture sight for a morning and evening stroll. We definitely recognize its beauty and attract visiting this place as well as seeing night pictures on the internet.

When we biked there that day, the weather was not all that great. It was not tanning weather since it rained pretty hard earlier during the last tour to ørestad.  When we went, there was some clear blue-sky from the beach to sea while the grey clouds were approaching behind us from the city.  So only a fair amount of people were there.  The Kastrup søbad display how sustainable the city of Copenhagen is because they are using inexpensive and renewable resources such as wood to create space for everybody to enjoy. This is also sustainable because they are using water which is already there to create a space so that people can come by and enjoy it. The area is also sustainable because there are green spaces all around the area that people can hang out in and do other activities such as sunbathing, play sports, and relax. The Kastrup Sobad is the perfect secret place for tourists to enjoy the city of Copenhagen

Biking in Copenhagen

Katie McCloskey

Jacob Aronoff

After nearly a week in Copenhagen, we are just starting to understand the Danish passion for cycling. After biking through miles of city bike paths, we were struck by the consistency of the paths, the beauty of the design, and the safety precautions taken to make bicycling not only safe and easy, but a superior alternative to the car or other forms of public transport. The paths varied slightly depending upon their location within the city, but all functioned very well.

Another aspect of bike culture in Copenhagen that struck us as interesting is the lack of bicycling gear typically seen in the United States. Women bike in skirts,  dresses and heels—all without helmets. Despite the heavy traffic and high speeds of the bikers, several locals described it as “unfashionable” or seen as a nuisance. With bicycle safety and helmet usage engrained in our minds from a young age, we were surprised that not wearing a helmet was so widely accepted. However, after a week of biking the city in a variety of weather conditions, traffic, and times of the day, we all felt very safe cycling throughout the city given the streamlined infrastructure.

During a lecture at the Danish Cycling Federation’s office in Copenhagen, we learned about the national biking campaigns made by Denmark to incentivize students and professionals to commute via bicycle rather than with car. We were fascinated to learn that only 1% of the money spent on car infrastructure was put towards bicycling infrastructure, which showed us that relatively small investments could have huge impacts on the ease of bicycling in US cities. Furthermore, the fact that bicycle infrastructure is much less expensive to create and maintain makes it an economically beneficial alternative that cities should look into.

                       

We concluded as a group that we got a very different view of Copenhagen by bicycle than when we were on foot. We enjoyed the city much more on bike as everything was much more accessible and the neighborhoods seemed to blend well when traveling at bicycle speeds.  We had so much fun biking around the city, rain or shine, and truly enjoyed our immersion into Copenhagen’s biking culture. Within the near future, Copenhagen hopes to expand their bike paths and increase bicycling accessibility within the suburbs with bicycle "super highways".  A majority of these highways are in the process of being built –and we hope to one day return to Copenhagen and see the changes! 

July 29 2013: Our First Full Day in Copenhagen

Leega Tran and Flora Carn

On our first official class in Copenhagen, Denmark, we had two guest lecturers. Bianca Hermansen, from Behl Architects, had a different perspective on sustainability and urban design compared to lectures we were used to. She pointed out that Denmark’s biking culture has to do with behavioral changes. She said, “People don’t change behavior when told to, people change when the context compels them to.” To change Copenhagen’s mentality of bikes and encourage bike ridership, the city invested in bike lanes through small changes in the street infrastructure. Now, biking is the way to travel, as 61% of Copenhagen bike for its convenience, regardless of social or economic class. Bikers can also use cargo bikes to drive their kids or friends around! We definitely noticed the investments in bike lanes when the class rented bikes. During our bike ride to Stroget , wider street lanes, abundant bike lanes, separate traffic lights for biking, asphalt ramps on curbs, and the priority bikes seem to have over cars made biking easier.

Mikael Koch, from the Green Building Council Denmark gave an informative lecture on how architectural designs, such as the type of material, the orientation of the building, the technology within the buildings, can simply green the building and make it more energy efficient. We also learned that new buildings or renovated buildings have to adhere to green building codes. This is very different than the U.S. because U.S. cities generally safety codes and sustainable buildings is becoming a trend, but not yet a basic necessity.

We also stopped by a plaza for lunch and noticed it was very popular. Similar to other successful streets and plaza we saw in Stockholm and Malmo, the street got enough sunlight, buildings were around four to five stories tall – not enough to block sunlight and many shops and restaurants with interesting storefronts to attract people to the area.

We then walked over a bridge to a highly populated swimming spot directly across from our hostel. Even though the weather was overcast, there were hundreds of people in their swimsuits with beer, wine, frisbees, and friends. The swimming area consists of an area insulated from the actual harbour by wooden walls and a short fence. There is a lifeguard tower, a high wooden dock consisting of steps that had a never-ending line to jump off the top (15 feet high), and a rectangular area where many people were swimming laps. There were families with small children, couples in their 20s and 30s, and people of all other ages all gathered to cool off in the harbour.

According to denmark.dk, this canal water was so polluted by sewage, oil spills, and industry only 15 years ago that swimming in it would have been impossible due to the health risks. The Copenhagen municipality worked to improve the water quality by designing waste treatment plants to remove salts and heavy metals, and modernized the waste system. Another sustainable design that improved the water quality were storm water management systems. The municipality built reservoirs that can store the rainwater if there isn’t enough space in the sewage system. Walking further along the waterfront we saw many more people just lounging with food and drinks and enjoying the sun. 

Sunday, July 27, 2013

On Saturday we spent our last full day in Malmo before having to depart to Copenhagen on Sunday morning. Prior to leaving Malmo, the class was able to spend one final day together on Friday at the Western Harbour which is dubbed the "Miami of Sweden". The weather was beautiful and very appropriate for the visit of the western harbour that was very remisnicent of California beaches today. The interesting thing about the western harbour is the industrial background that it has prior to its current development. All of the commercial and residential development is relatively new and is intended to accommodate the increasing Swedish population. The diversity of Malmo was very apparent in comparison to Stockholm and it created a different perspective of Sweden not noticeable before.

Saturday was our last chance to enjoy the town of Malmo and due to the nice sunny weather, it was very easy to enjoy the city as it was intended. Many students returned back to the Western Harbour for the beach-like feel that it projected. Students were able to have their bicycles for the final day in Malmo which allowed easier navigation throughout the city. The city is not huge in scale but the differences in biking and walking are visible and having a bike in a city like Malmo makes it easier to get around in.





On Sunday morning we left Malmo and headed to Copenhagen in Denmark, which is located right across the water from Malmo. It was a short trip, about a 40 minute train ride, and arrived at Copenhagen's central station around 12:30. Copenhagen's central station was built in 1847, and is the largest railway station in Denmark, it is also very unique because it was originally built out of wood, and has interesting architectural design.

From the train station we began our walk to the hostel, and got a brief tour on the way. During the walk  we saw the Tivoli gardens, which is a famous amusement park and garden in Denmark. Apparently it is the  most visited theme park in Scandinavia, and the second oldest amusement park in the world. Eventually we arrived at our hostel, Danhostel, which is located right next to the water, and got settled in. After about 30 minutes of getting situated we went on a brief walking tour through Copenhagen's city center, and ate some lunch.

Once we all reorganized we walked around the city center for a while longer, then some of us split up to go on a canal tour on a boat through Copenhagen's waterways. This was a really interesting experience, because we able to see parts of Copenhagen you wouldn't be able to see on foot, and learned a lot about the historical aspects of the city, such as how Copenhagen used to have a very large Navy, which was eventually taken over by the English. We also saw many historical as well as modern buildings with extraordinary architecture, such as Copenhagen's Opera House, which was designed by the architect Henning Larsen. Another fun fact we learned is that the Denmark flag, called the "Dannebrog," is considered to be the oldest flag in the world!

Finally, after the boat trip we headed back to the hostel, and everyone went their separate ways to enjoy  the Sunday evening that we had off.