Sauerland lakes habitat

Without the Sauerland-lakes, life in South Westphalia would only be half as beautiful and relaxing. With new projects within REGIONALE 2025, Biggesee and Listersee, Hennesee, Möhnesee and Sorpesee and their surrounding areas are to be further developed - into feel-good places for relaxation, living and digital work. The ideas and needs of the (young) people locally play a significant role in the joint project - also when it comes to the question of mobility around the lakes.

The Topics

The Lakes Cooperation has identified three focus topics for the process:

Life by the lake

The Sauerland-Seen cooperation would like to further promote the development of the lake region into an attractive leisure and recreation area for young and old. The target groups are both locals and guests who benefit from the diverse sports, cultural and recreational offerings on the lakes. The municipalities specifically coordinate their offerings and digital technology makes it possible to easily plan leisure activities from home.

Coworkation

The Sauerland-Seen cooperation would like to strengthen the lake region as a hotspot for a combination of business and leisure activities. Through innovative coworking spaces, skilled workers and work nomads from all over Germany find a creative working environment in the countryside. Companies offer their employees work opportunities in coworking spaces so that they can combine experiences, nature and creative work in a group. New skilled workers find temporary accommodation options in coliving offers so that they can test out life on the Sauerland lakes before settling down here permanently. Locals who work from home also benefit from the new offers, as they can move their workplace to a coworking space on a daily or weekly basis, where they can have peace and quiet and gain new inspiration.

Progress differently

The Sauerland lakes are known as a place of relaxation for guests and locals - and it should stay that way! The Sauerland-Seen cooperation wants to improve mobility on the lakes and at the same time calm the volume of traffic, which has increased significantly in some places. New forms of mobility such as sharing offers, transport hubs and shuttles offer locals and guests new ways to get from A to B in a comfortable and environmentally friendly way. Attractive mobility options invite you to leave your car behind and get around by bike or on foot. Digital visitor guidance also reduces the volume of traffic at the lakes by allowing guests to reach their destination directly.

The Creative Process

In order to bring these general topics to life, those responsible, supported by the participation agency Zebralog 2022, were looking for projects together with citizens. Project ideas could be submitted and evaluated digitally via a digital platform. In June 2022, a think tank will take place at each lake where anyone interested could contribute their ideas.

Details and results of the creative process are presented in the final report.

The Starting Projects

From the variety of ideas submitted, six starting projects were selected through constant consolidation, which will be applied for the second REGIONALE star in 2024.