URBACTConnecting cities Building successes
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City of ANDERLECHT City of KILKENNY City of EVORA BRASOV Metropolitan Agency City of FREIBERG City of BAYONNE City of BUDRIO City of ALMERIA City of VERIA City of DELFT
Next City of FREIBERG
Freiberg is located on the territory of the former GDR - in the metropolitan region "Sachsendreieck" (City triangle Chemnitz / Dresden / Leipzig). In comparison to this big cities Freiberg is a small town with 42.000 inhabitants. Today Freiberg is the capital of the district Mittelsachsen and although a very important city in tourism and history as well as for the Solar industry.
Due to its 800- year history as a mining region Freiberg is still the headquarters of the government mining administration in Saxony and Germany's top region for mining-related consultancy services.
A strong touristic factor is the new created terramineralia the biggest private owned mineral collection in the world situated in the renovated Freudenstein castle.
Local challenges
The historic centre is divided into different quarters, all with a lot of historic buildings and monuments. There are three main places in the historic centre, Upper market (with town hall), Under market (with cathedral) and Castle place (with Freudentstein castle). Without permission of the local government it's not allowed to change the appearance of a building.
The historic centre of Freiberg is a mixture of shopping and housing. Also high class apartments and joint residences like for student housing exists. Because of the increase number of the students the housing market gets more and more under pressure.
The lack of parking areas will be solved in Freiberg until 2012. Within these activities an increase of green spaces will be created.
New efficient bicycle paths are in planning and the new central bus stop was opened last year.
In cooperation with the university (because of the increase in students) the so called "Schlossplatz quartier" is planned and will be implemented in the next years.
There is a strong demand for living in the historical centre. Still there are some empty historic buildings that have poor accessibility because of commercial use inthe ground floor. Also historic buildings are renovated with eco efficient methods, to increase the quality of living in the city.
http://urbact.eu/en/projects/cultural-heritage-city-development/links/homepage/
Ruairí O'Brien presented his design for the historical Market Square of Freiberg which included his design for innovative Lighting masts concieved not just for "Night hours" but also to interact with daylight, he also presented his urban seating and the architectural lighting of the historical "Otto the rich" fountain, "star stones" and the city town hall.
Dr. Klippstein from "Aqua Saxonia" gave a presentation of the technical engineering involved in the development of the market square. The construction has begun and is due to finish in time for the cities 800 year celebrations in 2012.
