Circularity in Urban Neighborhood Development

The community-led project "Climate-Positive Wehringhausen" successfully combines circular approaches with climate-friendly solutions. What makes the project particularly noteworthy is that not only materials but also project capacities are used in a circular way.

It is widely recognized that raised beds and tree pits require regular watering and occasional replanting. However, people are often less aware that circular processes are also essential for realizing projects such as a parklet—a wooden structure with seating that replaces a parking space to create a place for social interaction.

For a parklet, these circular processes include annually repainting the reclaimed timber used for its construction, seasonal planting, renewing permits each year, continuously raising donations, and rotating volunteer responsibilities. The project applies similar circular processes to its annual Parking Day, its free shop, its bicycle repair workshop, its community orchards, and its social and climate action networking activities throughout the Hagen-Wehringhausen district.

This workshop presents the neighbourhood-based work of this unique project, which brings together climate mitigation and climate adaptation, the circular use of materials, and the circular use of human resources and volunteer capacity. It also invites participants to an open exchange about both the successes and the challenges of such initiatives, including funding, institutional support, motivation, and the practical realities of implementing circular, climate-positive neighbourhood projects.

 Languages of the event: German and English.

Link for the online meeting:

https://meet.google.com/smj-rvou-rci