A car-free district of south-facing terraces in east–west rows, each row spaced from the one in front by the midwinter sun, with green spines, a tram on a grass track, a solar garage at the edge, and BedZED-type terraces with sunspaces, green roofs and wind cowls.
Vauban, on the site of a former French army barracks in Freiburg im Breisgau, was built between about 1998 and 2006 for some five thousand people. Its rules were simple and strict: terraces in east–west rows so that the houses face south; a low-energy standard for every building, with many built as passive or plus-energy houses; cars kept in garages at the edge, so that the lanes inside are for walking, cycling and play; a tram on a grass track down the central avenue; and green spines, with the barracks’ old trees, running between the housing clusters down to the stream.
The distance between the rows is a matter of geometry. At noon on the shortest day at 48° N the sun stands only 18.6° above the horizon, so a row casts a shadow three times its height; every gap in this town is computed from the height of the row in front. BedZED, in London, showed how to use that shadow: its terraces put the homes, with triple-height sunspaces, on the south side and the offices on the north, where they sit in the shade the spacing leaves and enjoy the steady north light.
The layout combines the two schemes and is not a plan of either.