Description
The parklet was first installed on 24 June 2016 as part of the “Parklets für Stuttgart” pilot initiative and was later removed, with a revised version reintroduced in June 2019. It was developed within a citizen-led process in cooperation with the city administration and linked to the broader “Reallabor für nachhaltige Mobilitätskultur” at the University of Stuttgart, which tested small-scale interventions to reallocate street space from parked cars towards public use.
The intervention temporarily transformed a predominantly asphalted, non-permeable parking area on Schützenplatz into a small-scale public space using pallets and upcycled materials. It introduced seating areas and informal meeting spaces in a context previously dominated by car storage (approximately 40 parking spaces before redevelopment). The parklet functioned as a prototype for “urban acupuncture”, demonstrating how minor spatial changes can temporarily shift the perception and use of underutilized urban surfaces.
The later 2019 version expanded the spatial and functional scope by occupying around 16 parking spaces. It included planters with trees, raised garden beds, seating elements, and bicycle parking facilities. These elements introduced multiple overlapping functions: social interaction and informal gathering, micro-scale urban greening with associated local cooling effects, partial stormwater buffering through vegetated and soil-based components, and support for soft mobility through bicycle parking. While not a designed drainage infrastructure, the replacement of sealed surface with planted and semi-permeable elements contributed locally to surface runoff reduction and microclimatic improvement.
The parklet was part of the wider Stuttgart parklet movement, which emerged around 2015–2016 through collaborations between citizens, students, researchers, and municipal actors. The movement originated from experimental formats such as Parking Day and aimed to test alternative uses of parking space, strengthen pedestrian-oriented public space, and explore more sustainable mobility patterns in dense urban districts. In Stuttgart, the initiative also contributed to developing administrative procedures for temporary and semi-permanent parklets and influenced municipal acceptance of citizen-driven street space transformations.
At Schützenplatz, the intervention was particularly relevant because the square had long functioned primarily as a parking area despite its potential as a public space. Over time, the pilot contributed to a broader re-evaluation of the site. In subsequent redevelopment phases, parking was significantly reduced (from roughly 40 to about 5 spaces), while trees, planters, and public space functions were increased. The parklet therefore acted both as a temporary activation measure and as a testing phase that informed longer-term spatial restructuring towards a more multifunctional, socially oriented square.
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