First Week in Germany: Stuttgart, Tübingen, and the French Quarter
My first days in Germany were spent in Stuttgart with our very first activities diving right into the scope of the course. From visiting the Impact Hub and Stuttgart 21 to the French Quarter in Tübingen, applications of sustainable development in Germany are not in short supply.
As a graduating senior, I had just completed my senior comps project in the fall of 2022 on green roofs in Singapore and how they promote biodiversity. During my research, I came across literature on Germany being a trailblazer in green roof development. I was able to connect this research to the lecture by Thorsten Denn, Head of Stuttgart Urban Planning Department, as he mentioned the competition between green roofs and PV (Photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight into electricity) and the experimentation of combining both on one rooftop. Such urban roof modifications were noted as urban climate adaptations. The research and lecture were all the more memorable as I was able to see the green roofs and rooftop PVs in person.
When visiting the French Quarter, in the city of Tübingen which is 40 km south of Stuttgart, I could not help but compare it to the strikingly different lifestyle in the United States. Around the French Quarter were numerous sharing bins for clothes and various objects and community spaces for playing basketball and crafting. This resonated with the theme of creating public spaces for people to meet which was emphasized by multiple guest lecturers including Thorsten Denn and Barbara Landwehr at Technisches Rathaus. I saw this idea reinforced by the various modes of public transportation in Tübingen and in the French Quarter that includes train, bus, biking, and walking. This contrasts with the lifestyle in the United States where individualism and commercial products dominate our everyday lives. Although there is a strong car culture in Germany, as we saw from visiting the Audi Factory and Mercedez-Benz Museum, it was interesting to note the simultaneous cultural significance of public transportation and being a walkable city.
When discussing the lifestyle of the French Quarter versus the lifestyle of Los Angeles amongst my classmates, there were distinct characteristics between the two that made us wonder if we would live in such a sustainable way. The initial hesitation from my classmates and I made me think further about our systematically constructed comfort with the destructive convenience that is the American lifestyle. It is convenient to order a package from Amazon with a 2-day shipment process. It is convenient to go on weekly Target runs and come out with more products than initially anticipated. It is convenient to buy cheaper lower quality clothing. It is convenient to be wasteful. America fosters a destructively convenient lifestyle that some are used to and participate in more than others. For the sake of the people and the planet, we have to learn to be uncomfortable and unwilling to participate in such destructive convenience. However, there are also important accessibility aspects at play where convenience is a necessity for the survival of some people. Finding this balance where people and the planet can coexist and thrive is critical and by visiting Germany that balance seems a lot less far away.
