Civil engineer Prof Dr Felix Huber in a transfer discussion on the International Day of Cities

"Building in existing buildings is the great task facing us."

The "World Cities Day" was launched in December 2013 during the United Nations General Assembly and takes place annually on 31 October. This year's host city is Liverpool.

To mark the occasion, the Vice-Rector for Transfer, Prof Anke Kahl, meets urban planner Felix Huber above the rooftops of Wuppertal, on the 16th floor of the Stadtsparkasse tower block on Islandufer.

As head of the Environmentally Compatible Infrastructure Planning and Urban Development teaching and research area in the Transport Centre of the Civil Engineering section at the University of Wuppertal, the Bamberg native is at home in this field. With practical planning experience from numerous urban transport planning projects, he is currently working on questions of qualified urban planning responses to the consequences of demographic development and the requirements of climate protection.

Wuppertal: "Love at second sight"

The permanent motto of the International World Day of Cities is: "Better city - better life". In this context, Prof Huber sees Wuppertal as a city with special qualities. "Wuppertal has a very interesting topography; this notch valley that stretches for several kilometres, with a 170-metre difference in altitude between the valley and the hills, with buildings stretching up these slopes. It has an interesting history because it was once a pioneer of industrialisation. And it has an equally interesting social and religious history, he enthuses, admiring the commitment of the people who immediately pushed ahead with the reconstruction after severe war damage. As a result, many new buildings were erected in the city in the 50s and 60s.

For Huber, the exciting thing about this is the resulting conglomerate of a building fabric consisting of superimposed and juxtaposed layers of the city from different eras, which the civil engineer has to discover, uncover, preserve and reinvent.

This results in a planning situation that is not entirely simple, as urban planners must constantly build in and with the existing buildings. They have to preserve and yet sometimes take away what no longer meets today's requirements in order to develop the city further.

"Sustainability" is the keyword that has also found its way into urban development and is becoming increasingly important in the wake of climate change. "And here we are at the beginning," emphasises the scientist, "a city does not transform itself in one or two years, but in generations. In this respect, this is a generational task that we are working on."

Every citizen is called upon to help

This year, the people of Wuppertal still have the heavy rainfall of 29 May and this summer's hot spell clearly in their minds. And although the German government has only just abandoned its climate protection targets, "we citizens realise that we all need to do a lot more to support the climate targets," says Huber, naming the areas in which the cities need to take action. On the one hand, there is the issue of reorganisation, so that people in the cities can better cope with the coming heavy rain and heat events. The focus here is on reducing CO2 emissions, which can only be achieved by changing the behaviour of each individual. He continues: "In the building construction sector, for example, we can do something about building heating, air conditioning, thermal insulation and, of course, in the overall context of energy saving."

And the focus is on adapting the city and infrastructure to the impacts of climate change. The engineer working at the Haspel campus, whose faculty was hit particularly hard by the heavy rainfall in May, explains that science can also make a decisive contribution here. Parts of the roof structure were badly damaged. "We at the faculty ourselves," he says, "have learnt that in many areas we are not even in a position to react appropriately to such events. We can't quickly repair what the rain has destroyed. We can no longer improvise and get our buildings back into operation quickly. We can only build to new and maximum standards and these are simply very time-consuming and very expensive. A lot of research and development work is needed!"

The green city can become even greener

Wuppertal is known as a green city. But what does the city centre look like? Looking out of the Sparkasse tower, Huber says: "If we look out here and see how much bare roof space we have, there are certainly plenty of opportunities to make such roof areas greener in order to prevent the city from heating up. In order to filter fine dust better, he envisages a sufficient number of trees in the streets and better water infiltration could be achieved by unsealing the surfaces. Although he is aware of Wuppertal's green corridors in the Siepen, which extend to the city centre in the valley and carry cold, moist air with them, he also warns against development plans that could destroy these corridors.

The history of cities is 10,000 years old

In order to fully sensitise his students for their future activities, Huber attaches great importance to the history of urban and infrastructure construction. "I torture our students with this, because I think you have to think about the 10,000-year history of the city, the "success model of mankind". Civil engineers need to know why more than half of people live in cities and why more and more people are moving there! Because many things, and this is the exciting thing about urban planning that we have in our planning guidelines and building regulations today, are the result of some negative event or experience that we have had in the course of history.

As examples, he cites the fire in Rome in 64 AD, which led to the development of distance regulations for buildings, or the catastrophic hygienic conditions in the backyards of old Berlin, which triggered new urban planning models such as garden cities. "Our students need to know this so that we don't abolish anything that might make sense," he explains, citing a practical example to illustrate the basics of urban planning history. "When students come to my seminar, for example, they first place their water bottles in front of me. And then I ask them: if the Romans founded a city somewhere, what was particularly important to them? I usually see question marks in their eyes. And when I point to the bottles, the first reaction is one of recognition: "Water!?!". And you can see that these young people now take a functioning water supply so much for granted that they no longer realise that it is an essential foundation of a city."

Infrastructure is getting on in years

Infrastructure is the basis for all economic activity. Infrastructure costs money! But politicians have been stingy so far and engineers are not complaining. In the past, they have tried for too long to keep the systems running, often with few resources. "And then we get to the point where we can't go any further," says Huber, "and we suddenly have restrictions on an A1 motorway in Leverkusen, on the Rhine bridge, and lorries are no longer allowed to drive over it."

This suddenly creates a generational challenge, because "our infrastructure is getting on in years," he says. "We have, thank God, over 70 years of peaceful development; however, this also means that we have allowed the infrastructure to age. And now we have to do something about it! "We have new tasks," explains Huber, describing this radical change of course. "The tasks are now changing from new construction - which was still the task for my generation - to maintenance, renewal and rehabilitation. This is a completely new approach, and we have to train our young people for it."
 

And, of course, this new infrastructure must be attractive. But Huber also sees approaches in the Bergisch towns. Public spaces are being made more attractive, outdated buildings are being replaced and the typical Bergisch slate houses with their green shutters that characterise the landscape are gradually being restored.

Huber explains that the Bergisches Land can even be a role model for the rest of Germany: "We have huge potential for transformation! I'd like to mention the northern railway line, which is already an example of civic engagement in Germany. Overnight, the citizens have created a quality that is unique with energy and hard work and really also with a lot of their own money, so that experts are now making pilgrimages here to take a look."

The scientist hopes that the system will spread and that the networked routes with their wonderful leisure opportunities will encourage citizens to demand this for everyday cycle transport on normal roads in the cities, among other things to strengthen the cycling culture, because, he says, "since electric bikes, there is basically no excuse not to cycle in the Bergisch region."

Interdisciplinary work on energy and transport

Professor Huber believes that cities have a duty to invest more in road infrastructure in the coming years, i.e. to work contrary to the ideology of the car-friendly city. Road redesigns in favour of pedestrians and cyclists, green lanes for buses and the complete conversion of the electrical infrastructure. "We need to create electrical supply networks for electric vehicles and generate the energy locally wherever possible so that the vehicles can be charged," he demands, "we are also working with colleagues at the university who are very committed to this. And that also has implications for urban development, because we have to bring transport and energy together and link the different modes of transport." He therefore sees interdisciplinary work as one of the most important tasks that he wants to train students for.

Closer to the issues of the day through projects

And he really puts this into practice with his students. Many projects are presented directly to citizens. "That's always a very delicate moment for the students and for me too," he laughs, "because we don't know how the citizens will react! Only when the students are face to face with the citizens do they suddenly realise that planning is exciting because they are directly intervening in other people's lives. They feel affected and recognise the implications of their design ideas and plans. Then the degree programme is closer to the people and also closer to the issues of the day."

Rome as a model city

And which city in Germany scores best in terms of urban planning? The expert immediately thinks of "Münster or Erlangen for cycling and Karlsruhe or Erfurt for public transport". But his real favourite city is Rome in sunny Italy. "I just think it's fantastic how this city has been reinventing itself again and again for 2,500 years, constantly reorganising itself in the existing buildings and structures, constantly transforming itself. The Romans, who have endured being a world power and are now able to deal with being just one of the big important cities in a completely normal way. The Romans, who also have a culture. So, when lunch is served in a square like the Campo dei Fiori, the traffic is moved aside, tables and chairs are set up and then you sit in the piazza in a great atmosphere with a great stage-like silhouette and enjoy the Mediterranean food and good wine."

Huber would like to see a little more of this culture in this country too and says thoughtfully: "Sometimes I wish we had a little more culture of living, a little more culture of mobility and a little more culture in our dealings with each other, then we would have gained a lot."

As the old English saying goes, it's the people, not the houses, that make the city.

Uwe Blass (interview from 03/09/2018)

Prof. Dr Felix Huber is head of the teaching and research area of Environmentally Compatible Infrastructure Planning, Urban Engineering in the Transport Centre of the Civil Engineering section of the University of Wuppertal. He is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.