From Barracks to Commons – Practices of Sensitive and Future-Oriented Urban Transformation

In 2023, as part of the Bundesgartenschau Mannheim, a series of day tours explored the transformation of former military infrastructures under the title From Barracks to Commons – Practices of Sensitive and Future-Oriented Urban Transformation. The tours asked how cities can negotiate inherited infrastructures between historical responsibility, ecological repair and future use. In Mannheim, this question became especially tangible after the withdrawal of the U.S. military in 2009, which freed up almost five percent of the city’s territory and left behind robust building structures, layered histories and large areas in need of a new purpose.

Travel

The excursions brought together a broad range of participants, from the interested public to planners, practitioners, administrators and political representatives from across Germany.

At the former Spinelli Barracks, participants explored how vacancy and obsolete infrastructures can be approached as meaningful terrains rather than empty spaces. The route moved between past and present, material substance and social ambition, raising questions of what should remain, what needs revitalisation and how new uses can respect historical significance while responding to future needs.

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The former barracks became a lens for discussing wider challenges of urban transformation. The iconic U-Halle, later awarded for its adaptive reuse, stood alongside newly developed, nature-oriented green corridors, showing how building with existing structures can become an act of care and continuity.

Throughout the tours, historical classification and collective memory were connected with contemporary themes such as climate-responsive green space development, resource-conscious construction and the coexistence of housing, recreation and infrastructure for multiple generations.

Transform

The excursions helped participants reflect on how cities can evolve without erasing what shaped them. Mannheim’s conversion areas illustrated a careful yet forward-looking approach to the built environment — one that balances new urban uses with ecological repair, everyday recreation and historical awareness.

The collective learning was that inherited infrastructures are not only development reserves, but places where future-oriented urban transformation must negotiate memory, material resources and public value.