On Friday, 29 March 2019, representatives of the Ganter Group from Waldkirch, the municipality of Breitnau and the local council as well as the participating project partners met for the ground-breaking ceremony for the senior citizens’ residential project “Sonnenhöhe” in Breitnau. This is the beginning and the excavation work in the Bodenacker construction area can begin.
By October 2020, a residential complex is to be built here – as long as winter doesn’t put a spoke in the wheel – combining the areas of care, senior citizens and tourism.
In view of demographic change, the topic of care and nursing in old age has become a new explosive issue. Particularly in rural areas – including the Black Forest – the supply structure is not yet sufficient: The need for care services for older people and the corresponding services differ considerably. The realisation of the senior citizens’ housing project now makes it possible for people in need of care to continue living in Breitnau. In view of this, the mayor of Breitnau, Josef Haberstroh, also speaks to the Badische Zeitung of an “absolute stroke of luck for the community that such a project could be realised”.
This is also shown by the positive response to the project, which has already attracted many interested parties: 17 apartments have already been reserved at the present time.
In the planning phase, which lasted almost three years, there were also setbacks and criticism. In December, the citizens’ initiative “Zukunft Breitnau” had handed over an open letter including 150 signatures in the town hall, in which open questions and concerns about the construction project were formulated. The community had attached great importance to citizen participation and the Ganter Group had tried to take these concerns seriously and to make the project development as transparent as possible. This approach was not only praised by the project partners.
Once the masonry work has been completed, the construction of the senior citizens’ housing project will proceed in rapid steps. The ceiling and wall elements as well as the balconies will be manufactured in the immediate vicinity of Holzbau Bruno Kaiser and then delivered to Breitnau. The advantage: two trades can be completed in parallel due to the timber construction – so timber elements can already be produced in Bernau during the bricklaying work in Breitnau. The production in Breitnau is weather-independent, so that this form of production is less susceptible to postponements. In addition, only untreated woods and ecological insulating materials from regional manufacturers.
Further information about this project and housing offers can be found here:
www.sonnenhoehe-breitnau.de
