A new residential neighborhood where cars do not pass

In the German city of Mannheim, a former US military base will be transformed into a new residential neighborhood where there will be no roads between homes for cars to circulate, but rather a network of fully pedestrianized spaces: including playgrounds, streets and paths with fruit trees, and orchards attached to the houses. Funari Project, with an area of ​​27,000m2 and named after one of the districts of the former barracks, is a development of the Dutch architecture studio MVRDM together with Tramhaus, a company specializing in high-quality prefabricated housing.

The project aims to reinvent suburban residential neighborhoods by avoiding “gentrification and isolated community”, “socially segregated”, and the assumed image of perfectly aligned identical houses. Instead, developers promise heterogeneity from a Varied offer of housing types, with which they seek to attract different types of owners and demographic groups.

The “totally pedestrianized village” model wants to promote relations between neighbors through attractive public spaces that include the network of paths and paths that connect the accesses to the houses, sports and play spaces, and garden areas. It is also proposed that each house have its own attached garden that is a visual extension of the common gardens.

The neighborhood will not completely banish cars, they will be able to park in an underground car park, and an access for emergency vehicles will also be enabled. The neighbors will also be connected to public transport, it has an adjacent tram station.