Visions for Werderplatz at the Südstadt Festival

On Saturday 9 May 2026, the ra:ve team took part in the 30th Karlsruhe Südstadt Festival by conducting a survey on Werderplatz. In the courtyard of the Kinderinsel Süd, a wide variety of stakeholders from the Südstadt presented their work to the wider community, and we were also represented there with the ra:ve project – Space for Change.

Werderplatz is set to become car-free in a few months’ time, and we wanted to find out from the residents of the Südstadt what their hopes and visions were for the space that would then be freed up. The aim was to collect this data so that it could then be analysed by students as part of the project seminar on transformative urban research in the neighbourhood.

To this end, visitors to our stand designed postcards and sketched their personal visions of a summer 2026 worth living on Werderplatz. There was a wide variety of colours and stamps to choose from, and participants could create collages by cutting out and sticking on text and images. Once completed, visitors had the option of posting their postcard from Südstadt, or alternatively, it was pinned to our large noticeboard on site. Alongside our data collection, we struck up conversations with local people and were able to gather many further impressions of Südstadt, as well as discussing a car-free Werderplatz and the potential uses for this space.