International Building Exhibition IBA: The conversion of the city always remains unfinished

The International Building Exhibition IBA is coming to an end in Heidelberg after ten years. How will the knowledge society change a city? 20 projects, most of which are still under construction, should also provide answers.

IInternational building exhibitions (IBA) have been a proven format of urban development for 120 years. They already existed in Darmstadt, Leipzig and Berlin, in the Ruhr area and in many other cities or regions. So now in Heidelberg. From 2012 to 2022, the IBA dealt with the question of what contribution architecture and urban planning can make to making cities fit for the future in the age of the knowledge society. The focus in the university town was on scientific institutions and places of education. Many of the 20 projects were built or planned on conversion areas of former US barracks or an old freight yard.

The spectrum of the projects ranges from the extension of existing schools to the new district on the green field. The federal government also funded two of the projects: “Der Andere Park”, an unusual open-space facility, and the “Collegium Academicum”, a self-managed student residence that you built yourself. “The questions and reflections that the IBA Heidelberg has initiated are very valuable for the federal government,” said Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) at the opening at the end of April in the “Anderen Park”. “This applies in particular to the in-depth discourse that the IBA has conducted in its central fields of work: education, participation, conversion, urban redevelopment, material cycles and building culture.”