By Ana Rivas
The Steinhuber Miniblock is a street experiment implemented in Munich, Germany, over a three-month period from August to October 2023. It temporarily transformed two car-oriented streets into more liveable, people-centred environments. These interventions created opportunities for alternative uses and activities in spaces previously dominated by private vehicles.
The project aimed to enhance the quality of public space, promote sustainable mobility, and introduce additional greenery by converting 22 parking spaces into parklets with diverse functions, including mobility hubs, seating areas, tree installations, and urban gardening beds.
To learn more about the project, click on the different sections of the menu below.
INTERACTIVE MAP
PROJECT PLAN
On the interactive map below, click on the parklet number to see pictures of the intervention, for example: 
PLANS
ABOUT
The Steinhuber Miniblock is one of nine citizen-led projects funded by the City of Munich as part of the 2nd Münchner Mobilitätskongress (Mobility Congress) in 2023, initiated and led by Ana Rivas at the Chair of Urban Structure and Transport Planning (TUM).
Through these projects, the City aimed to demonstrate how Munich can move towards more sustainable mobility practices, climate-friendly, resource-efficient, and socially just, while simultaneously improving the quality of stay in public spaces (München Unterwegs, n.d.).
STEINHUBER MINIBLOCK IN SHORT
THE THREE MAIN GOALS OF STEINHUBER MINIBLOCK:
PROJECT FACTS:
| Project name | Steinhuber Miniblock |
| Location | Steinheilstraße x Enhuberstraße, Maxvorstadt, Munich. |
| Period of time | Three months (July 26 – 31 October 2023) |
| Project lead | Ana Rivas |
| Stakeholders | + Organisers: Chair of Urban Structure and Transport Planning, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Kollektivis, e.V.
+ Concept Design:SET – Street Experiments for Transitions + Implementation and Construction: Wow! Urbane Utopien + Citizen and City Liaison: Experience Consulting + Wanderbaumallee and Watering Partnership Coordination: Green City e.V. |
| Funded by | + Steinhuber Miniblock Project: City of Munich – Mobility Department
+ MiniBLOCK Party: Remaking The Street Summer School, EIT Urban Mobility |
| Budget | ca. 73, 000 € |
A BIG SHOUT-OUT & HEARTFELT THANKS
I would like to express my sincere thanks to everyone who contributed their time, expertise, and support to make the experiment possible.
Technical University of Munich (Chair of Urban Structure and Transport Planning) — Simone Aumann, Benjamin Büttner, Alina Karl, Luca Scotellaro, David Duran, George Liu, Julia Kinigadner, Maximilian Pfertner, Ursula Uhse, Gebhard Wulfhorst, Camila Barquero, Sarah Hutchings, Kabyl Oxikbayev and Angelina Atanova. Wow! Urbane Utopien — Elisa Maschmeier, Benjamin Domnick, and Simon Emmer. Bezirksausschuss 3 — Sigrid Eck and Svenja Jarchow-Pongratz. Green City e.V. — Sylvia Gonzalez, Baris Togay, and Yannik Hecher. TUM Plant A Seed — Hannah Thomas, Bárbara Mateos Perez, and the entire team. The University of Amsterdam (Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences) — Katherine Van Hoose and Luca Bertolini. The “Remaking the Street” Summer School — Cohort 2023. Lime — Kyrill Nussbaum. Evhcle, Emmy, and Miles.
To the City Of Munich (Mobility Department) and the EIT Urban Mobility — Funding institutions of the project.
And special thanks to all residents of Steinheilstraße and Enhuberstraße, whose acceptance made this project possible.
Ana Rivas
HISTORY
Back in Summer 2022, during the EIT Urban Mobility Summer School Remaking The Street organised by Ana Rivas at the Chair of Urban Structure and Transport Planning (TUM), implemented a non-commercial parklet at the corner of Steinheilstraße and Luisenstraße in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, directly adjacent to the TUM Main Campus.
That summer, as part of Munich’s Parklet Season, three additional commercial parklets were installed by nearby restaurants along the same street. Together, these interventions in the streetscape offered a glimpse into what a more liveable street, with other uses and activities rather than parking, could look like. This constellation of parklets sparked questions among organisers:
WHAT COULD BE THE NEXT STEP?
COULD THE ENTIRE STREET BE REIMAGINED AS A SUMMER STREET?
COULD THE ENTIRE STREET BE TEMPORARILY TRANSFORMED TO TEST NEW USES AND SPATIAL CONFIGURATIONS?
These reflections led to a broader inquiry: How can small-scale interventions like parklets can serve as the starting point for more meaningful transformation at the neighbourhood scale or even across the entire city?
The diagram below illustrates a possible pathway to achieve systemic change in cities through urban experimentation. It begins with the smallest intervention, a single repurposed parking space with a bench or a parklet, scaled up progressively to the street level in the form of a Summer Street, which if replicated or upscaled can evolve to the neighbourhood level such a Superblock and ultimately replicated across the city.
Source: TUM Chair of Urban Structure and Transport Planning.
Concept: Ana Rivas. Illustration: Angelina Atanova.
The Steinhuber Miniblock, the result of an intervention at the intersection of two streets, is positioned between the street-scale and neighbourhood-scale – an upscale from two parking spaces in 2022 to the transformation of two streets in 2023.
The name emerged from the combination of the two street names (Steinheilstraße and Enhuberstraße), reflecting both the physical location and the project’s unique identity.
TIMELINE
In January (2023), The City of Munich launched a call for application looking for “Citizen ideas” for public spaces. This was the perfect setting to follow-up and upscale the initial parklet into something bigger. The organising team got together, brainstormed some ideas, and the idea of a “Miniblock” was born.
By early February, the application documents were submitted, followed by a site visit with different actors from the city (e.g. Mobility Department, firefighters, police, etc) for approval. In May the project received budget approval, and by the end of the month the final concept was ready. In June the residents were informed about the project and consulted, incorporating their feedback in the plans.
By the end of July, the organising team and around 35 students from the Remaking the Street Summer School brought the Steinhuber Miniblock to life, with the installation of the “Wandering Trees” from Green City e.V. and an opening festival, the “MiniBLOCK Party”. The project remained in place during the summer, with a highlight being the Street Festival held during the Mobility Congress in September. Finally, it was dismantled at the end of October. Through its entire duration, an evaluation was carried out.
FOLLOW UP
2025
- Two of the original parklets were implemented again during the parklet season (April – October).
Additional Features for the Parklets
- Supported by the local district committee, the parklets were upgraded with new features such as a bicycle repair station, a pergola, tables and a small water pond.
Photo credits: Ana Rivas
2024
- Two of the original parklets were implemented again during the parklet season (April – October).
Petition for More Bike Parking
- In November 2024, a formal petition was submitted by Wow! Urbane Utopien to the local district committee (BA03), requesting additional bicycle and cargo bike parking on Enhuberstraße and Steinheilstraße.Status: The request was not approved, as the district administration argued that both streets already provide sufficient bicycle parking facilities.
Petition for Permanent Parklets
In September 2024, a local resident of Steinheilstraße initiated a petition to keep the two remaining parklets in place the for the entire year, emphasizing on the lack of public seating and its importance for older and disabled residents.Status: Unknown.
Photo of the petition initiated by a resident of the
Steinheilstraße. Translation to English:
“Hello everyone!
I have started this petition so that the project by TU Munich, with the seating areas in Steinheilstraße and Enhuberstraße, can remain in place and perhaps even be expanded. We have very few seating options in our neighbourhood, and they are especially important so hat older and disabled people can also enjoy a good quality of life. The students put in a great deal of effort, even providing flowers and edible herbs for everyone to use, and I am asking my neighbours for the support and appreciation. Scan this code with your phone and sign online. If you share this campaign, that would of course be wonderful!”
Photo credits: Ana Rivas
From Munich to Fürstenfeldbruck
- Seven out of nine parklets from the Steinhuber Miniblock were acquired by the City of Fürstenfeldbruck. The parklets were reinstalled in front of the municipal library, where they complemented an existing street experiment with street art. This not only extended the lifespan of the parklets but also exemplified principles of urban circularity.
Photo credits: Wow! Urbane Utopien
2023
Petition for more trees
- In October 2023, Green City e.V. launched a petition to plant more trees in the area, collecting 264 signatures. This was followed by a formal joint request by Green City e.V. and Ana Rivas to the district council in April 2024. Status: Pending.
GALLERY
PHOTO GALLERY
PARKLETS
MOBILITY HUBS
URBAN GARDENING
WANDERBAUMALLEE (GREEN CITY E.V.)
MiniBLOCK Party (Opening)
STREET FESTIVAL (MUNICH’S MOBILITY CONGRESS)
VIDEO GALLERY
A PODCAST ABOUT STEINHUBER MINIBLOCK
STEINHUBER MINIBLOCK IN SHORT
ABOUT 216 SQUARE METERS RECLAIMED
The pages SET Guidelines Kit (The Method), Steinhuber Miniblock (The Experiment) and Use of SET Guidelines Kit on an Experiment (Documentation), grouped under “Using SET” section, constitute the three media outputs of the media-based doctoral dissertation titled “From research to practice: A methodological framework to plan, implement and assess street experiments. A test application of the framework in the Steinhuber Miniblock, Munich.”, led by doctoral researcher Ana Graciela Rivas De Gante.
This dissertation is conducted at the Chair of Urban Structure and Transport Planning at the Technical University of Munich, under the supervision of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gebhard Wulfhorst (Technical University of Munich) and Prof. Dr. Ir. Luca Bertolini (University of Amsterdam).