ul class="overview_list " id="projectList">

  • Blankenburger Süden - Circular City

    The design is based on the concept of a "Circular City", a circular organised neighbourhood, and is guided by the spatial principle "Landschaf(f)tStadt": The landscape creates the city.

    A structural and design focus is on the blue-green infrastructure: a 60-hectare landscape park with garden, forest and water land not only offers various places for leisure, sport and recreation but also provides numerous ecosystem services such as climatisation in urban areas, rainwater management, food production and the strengthening of biodiversity.

    The neighbourhood is divided into four sub-sections, each with its own specific building and open space structure. All buildings open up to green space and offer a variety of affordable housing options. Construction with wood and recycled materials and the creation of blue-green roofs contribute to the neighbourhood's good climate balance. A new type of building, the so-called CYC Hub, acts as a circulation interface. It houses the technical infrastructure of the circular organised neighbourhoods - such as the energy station and the neighbourhood garage with a mobile station as well as socio-cultural and educational facilities such as a kindergarten, youth club, neighbourhood meeting place and neighbourhood management.

    completed

  • Exhibition: How to build 10.000 extra houses in Arnhem

    The Dutch government aims to address housing shortages by creating 1 million extra houses by 2030. Ministerie van Maak organized an exhibition during the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, showcasing solutions for housing construction, energy transition, and climate change adaptation. The exhibition featured a large Dutch model designed by 100 architects and urban planners. CITYFÖRSTER was one of the selected studios to conduct research into the development of 10,000 climate-proof homes within their 2 x 2 km area.

    Our site is located in Arnhem, close to the Central Station and including a portion of the Nederrijn. The site is characterized by a large industrial area, that is divided from a residential area by a railyard leading to Central Station. The river on the other side appears as an unused potential, as well as many undefined areas, that could use more clarity and densification.


    How to add 10.000 houses in this area? Our proposal is based on two main strategies:
    Former industrial areas are the favourite location for inner city developments. The new housing developments would be realized close to existing roads and transport and urban sprawl can be prevented. We suggest smaller scale infill into industrial areas at underused spaces such as parking areas and expansion areas and to make new connections to the river's floodplains.


    The other large potential to add quality by densification is in the low-rise neighbourhoods. Built in the 60's and 70's these areas are at the end of their first lifecycle, often inhabited by empty-nesters. We can add a couple of apartment blocks, diversifying the housing stock and the existing rowhouses could easily be topped-up with an extra layer. This creates both more housing opportunities and diverse neighbourhoods and is also an investment opportunity creating wealth on a small scale.


    Both of our strategies use the 10.000 houses not as a problem that needs to be solved, but as a great opportunity to improve our existing city.

    Idea
    2022

  • Munich North-East

    How can strong urban growth be reconciled with village structures? A question that is becoming more and more important nowadays.

    In Munich Northeast we orientated our plan to the existing villages, meaning that along the existing and future infrastructures (S-Bahn + U-Bahn) new dense, urban, and mixed-use quarters are growing, which structure the space. In this way, a district for 30,000 residents blends smoothly into its surroundings.

    A village and its church. Hybrid multi-story buildings in a mosaic of squares, gardens, and fields. A water landscape with an alpine view. Mutual references and soft transitions facilitate the emergence of diversity and a mixed city of diverse actors. A field of tension between anonymity and community, between central S-Bahn and historic village square, between the world of work and the field.

    Idea
    2019

  • Klimaquartier Schweinfurt - sufficient, diverse, circular, climate-positive

    What is a Klimaquartier (Climate Quarter) and how do you meet its requirements? With the Klimaquartier in Schweinfurt, we have created a possible answer that is not only about the CO2-neutral operation of the buildings, but also about the energy that has to be used to construct them and the recyclability of the materials. In addition, the focus is on minimizing as well as shifting the mobility of residents away from the car and towards environmental networks. To achieve these goals, the design for the Klimaquartier Schweinfurt follows these development principles:

    - Compact urban planning protects the valuable resource soil and offers plenty of space for self-sufficiency, rainwater management and recreational uses.

    - The large unsealed areas enable lush vegetation, which promotes biodiversity, creates a balanced microclimate and creates atmospherically strong places. This guarantees a diverse, healthy and livable habitat for humans and animals.

    - To promote the local rainwater balance, all of the rainwater on site is seeped away, evaporated or stored in cisterns for watering plants.

    - A diverse mix of uses consisting of living, working, supply and leisure activities creates a lively, "complete" quarter and reduces the need for mobility.

    - The approach of a sufficiency quarter reduces individual possessions (living space, means of transport, consumer goods, etc.) in favour of communal prosperity, and thus conserves the resources of our planet.

    - Sustainable building materials such as wood, clay, straw etc. are used and are installed in a way that they can be broken down according to type.

    - Flexible wood system construction and compact building volumes enable cost-effective construction.

    - In addition to the existing district heating, only renewable energy sources (Photovoltaics on roofs and partially on facades) are used.

    - Made possible by a multimodal mobility offer consisting of cargo bikes, e-bikes, e-cars, bicycle trailers, etc. cars play the least possible importance in the climate quarter.

    Idea
    2021

  • Köpenicker Gleislandschaften

    The development of the former freight station Köpenick offers a unique opportunity to create urgently needed living space and jobs in a central, well-connected location in the immediate proximity of diverse natural landscapes. The major challenge here is dealing with the noise emitted by the railroad tracks, the industrial activity, but also the new eastern ring road.

    An open space ribbon links the area with its surroundings, takes over important climatic functions and crosses the neighborhood with public open space uses. An elementary part of the band is the undeveloped area in the north-east along the tracks, which leads the forest into the quarter and is a local recreation area and important retreat for flora and fauna. Noise protection typologies oppose the noise sources in the area and form an urban noise protection. This allows for a quiet neighborhood core with quality housing, quiet open spaces, and working environments. Uses evolve from the surroundings and respond to the differentiated context. This creates new synergies and promotes a functioning neighborhood.

    The „Köpenicker Gleislandschaften" transform the former freight station into a diverse, mixed and sustainable urban quarter, creating a strong edge at exposed locations and high-quality living in the inner neighborhood.

    Idea
    2022-ol23

  • Ibbenbüren Tor West

    As the entrance to INOVA Park, „Tor West" productively brings together history and the future, offers elastic development possibilities and is supported by a robust open space structure. The central museum square offers a lively place to linger for arriving visitors, museum guests, users of the daycare center located there, and adjacent commercial workers.

    Three design guiding themes form the basis of the development concept:
    1. creation of a strong open space structure. This links the area in many cases via a robust and high-quality design with the northern Gleispark, the Osnabrücker Straße and the open cultural landscape in the south .
    2. integration of historic preservation and new buildings. With the preservation of monuments and integration of these into a clearly structured new building structure, a variety of spatial and functional relationships are created.
    3. the clearly structured commercial building areas allow the settlement of many small-scale to a few large-scale uses due to the efficient developments (delivery traffic, MIV, bicycle and pedestrian traffic) and the flexible building orientations and depths. Public generating functions are located at the entrance square and the museum.


    The open space performs important climate functions and, with its permeable structure, has good connectivity to the surrounding landscape. North-south connections support ground-level cold air flow for effective summer night cooling. A tall tree population binds fine dust, improves air quality, and provides a high level of comfort in the outdoor space.

    Idea
    2022

  • Framework plan federal district of Bonn

    In recent years, the Bundesviertel in Bonn has transformed into a successful business location and headquarters of the United Nations. Today, the district in the former federal capital faces new challenges to remain and become attractive as a location for companies, politics, international institutions and congresses and at the same time as a 'piece of the city'. The aim of the framework plan is therefore to show an integrated approach for future development.

    One of the main goals of the structural concept is to preserve and strengthen the identity-creating areas and to develop the inner potential areas structurally and openly in a sustainable manner. With the increase from currently around 4,000 to around 15,957 inhabitants, new needs arise in terms of supply and socio-cultural infrastructure.

    The Bundesviertel of the future is urban mixed, offers affordable and attractive living and working space, is characterized by social and cultural, sports, leisure and supply offers as well as high-quality open spaces. Through more and a variety of living spaces, commuters become residents. As a sustainable location, the Bundesviertel is changing from a simple office location to a work landscape ('work-life blending'). A crisis-proof and innovation-promoting mix of industries offer employees an attractive working environment.

    The concept is rounded off by a high-performance transport infrastructure that guarantees quick accessibility and good internal networking: An important role model for the traffic turnaround: cycle paths and footpaths are being greatly expanded and public transport is being strengthened.

    completed
    2022

  • Biotech Archipelago Mainz

    The Bio-Tech Archipelago is a great opportunity for the city of Mainz to build on its global reputation in the biotechnology sector and at the same time develop a city for everybody. Here, optimal conditions for research and development are combined with housing, leisure facilities and a vibrant landscape for people and nature. The design focuses on favoring cooling wind currents, networking local biotopes and preserving the expansive landscape and thus fullfill the requirements of the sensitive urban location and the associated responsibility for our environment.

    Located as a gateway to the city on Saarstrasse, it communicates structurally, spatially and programmatically between the cultural landscapes of the outskirts of Mainz and the biotech axis. It is both the entrance and keystone of the westward expansion of the city and generates a variety of added urban ecological values and offers for the local environment and the city as a whole. The urban figure opens up to the open landscape in spacious corridors. The building mass is divided into four sub-areas that unite to form a flowing archipelago-like urban landscape around a common open space.

    Idea
    2023

  • District Landscape Dietenbach

    How does a newly developed city district become a vibrant place to live?

    The characterful landscape of Freiburg with the surrounding Schwarzwald serves as the decisive basis for the newly designed district Dietenbach. The four emerging quarters will be connected by a ring boulevard. In contrast to the generous open spaces, which serve as decelerated exercise and relaxation areas and make a significant contribution to nature and species protection, pulsating life takes place here. The new city centre serves as a bracing supply center and community reference point with symbolic centrality. In addition to the 5,500 residential units, new jobs and schools will be created in the 108-hectare area, which will complete the new living environment.

    Integration into the urban, functional, and landscape context
    The new district Dietenbach is structured by the iconic landscape, especially the eponymous Dietenbach.

    The resulting open spaces ensure the supply of fresh air and a stable microclimate. The former course of the Käserbach river has been reactivated and serves as partially communal garden land. In the region of ​​the school and sports campus, this zone also includes play, sports, and recreation areas that can be used by the public.

    In contrast to this, the new centre of the district as a communal supply center offers space for weekly markets, city festivals, outdoor areas for restaurants, and water features. There are also retail stores, gastronomic offers, and services. The building plots of the compact quarters address different market segments. A large number of construction site sizes, building heights, building types, and locations provides a large typology mix and thus offers a lot for different target groups.

    Mobility concept
    The mobility concept pursues the goal of reducing motor vehicle traffic, car ownership, and the number of parking spaces. This makes an important contribution to an attractive living environment, affordable living space, and environmentally friendly transport. It is achieved by creating attractive offers for pedestrian and bicycle traffic, public transport with light rail, as well as offers for car sharing and e-mobility, and also by parking in district garages in less sensitive locations that are up to 200m away from the apartments.

     

    completed
    2018

  • Holtenau-Ost

    New urban coastal landscapes

    With Holtenau-East, a new urban coastal landscape is being created on a former military site on the banks of the Kiel Fjord, which interweaves previously separate settlement structures and natural habitats. Holtenau East is defined by two impressive local scenes. On the one hand the Kiel Fjord with its maritime waterfront, on the other hand, the Endmoränen forest with its distinctive topography. They not only create the stage for the new development but are protagonists by representing the climatic, ecological and cultural context. The design further develops these two elements in terms of landscape and urban development and combines their spatial and atmospheric qualities to create a new urban coastal landscape. The result is three urban landscapes with a strong character.

    Together they form a closely networked and circular district landscape developed from the site. The three quarters provide strong, site-specific answers to future living, work and leisure needs. They differ in their use of water through adapted and integrated flood and sponge city concepts that strengthen the local ecosystems. Diverse structural and open space uses close to the water ensure a high quality of living. At the same time, they improve the range of jobs, supply, cultural and leisure offers for Holtenau and the surrounding communities.

    The rainwater is collected decentrally on green roofs and retention areas and feeds a central wetland, which reduces the rainwater load on the drainage system during peaks of precipitation. The wetland saves supply costs and complements the public space with atmospheric elements. It also offers a habitat for birds and butterflies, offers potential for nature-educational offers and protects the area from flooding.

    Idea
    2021

  • Marienburger Strasse

    The focus of our project is, on one hand, the careful urban integration of approximately 43,000 m2 GFA (realization part) and 10,000 m2 GFA (conceptual part) of dense housing into the existing morphological and ecological context, taking into account imposed restrictions and desires. On the other hand, the identity of our project arises from intense coordination and integration of urban planning, architecture, ecology, and landscape design.

    Characteristic of the existing urban structure of the broader surroundings of the competition area is the loose construction with small and medium-sized structures. In contrast to this morphology, the future urban fabric east of the railway track is planned as an urban densified perimeter block structure (Munich Northeast Ideas Competition). Our project establishes a context-related connection to these two different spatial conditions while simultaneously creating its own strong local identity.

    To achieve this, our design is structured into overlapping levels of order, creating differentiated and precise spatial relationships: The construction structure is divided into four typologies. In the west along Marienburger Strasse, the existing structure of rowed, rhythmically offset, small-scale buildings is appropriately complemented to ensure spatial permeability. This is followed by a loose sequence running north-south of individual building volumes (urban villas) increasing in mass and height, set in a landscape park-like arrangement. A third row consists of elongated structures on the east and north sides, which are more monolithic and taller in the northern part, gradually transitioning to a sequence of architectural individual units towards the south.

    completed
    2023

  • Klima-Mosaik

    For the neighbourhood, a robust and at the same time adaptable concept is proposed, developed from the landscape and the context. Through a variety of qualified open spaces and a communal centre, neighbourhood, density and sufficiency can be thought differently.

    Approximately 250 residential units of varying design will be created in the neighbourhood. In order to create affordable housing, the focus is on multi-storey housing. With the building types row, point, angle and double, there are four variants of multi-storey housing in the neighbourhood. The diverse housing offer is complemented by 38 terraced houses. The neighbourhood cluster in the centre lends itself to cooperative development with complementary uses.

    The natural appearance of the neighbourhood is paramount. The use of sustainable materials offers ecological and technical advantages at the same time. Apart from the design specifications for typologies and spatial edges, the variance in facade and colour design, as well as in the open space elements of the individual neighbourhood clusters, ensures individuality and orientation. Design elements from the context create a sense of belonging to the surroundings, while communal spaces offer space for self-realisation.

    The "Klima-Mosaik" is characterised by strong open space references, diverse forms of housing and an active, communal neighbourhood centre (including a meeting place, co-working, special forms of housing). In addition, the neighbourhood hub bundles mobility services and other uses (e.g. workshop, parcel station, youth meeting place).

    completed
    2022

  • Time for Lausitz

    1 room | 2 engines | 3 fields

    With the cessation of coal mining and power generation, the region of the Lausitz is deprived of one of its central economic foundations. Many employees will lose their jobs as a result of the necessary climate and structural policy decisions. At the same time, the region is confronted with the ecological consequential damage caused by years of resource depletion.

    The crisis-ridden development shows that a sustainable economic, social and ecological development in the Lausitz can no longer be based on linear systems, but that a circular economy must be built up more and more and on various levels and standards. It is time to promote material cycles, energy cycles, the hybridization of infrastructure, the networking of sectors and value chains, to establish synergies and to generate meaning.

    The key to sustainable development in the Lausitz is a careful approach that is differentiated in terms of time and space. There are a handful of clearly identifiable development drivers that can add value to the region in the short- and medium-term. They form the drivers of regional development, so to speak, and also network the Lausitz nationwide. Promoting them in a targeted manner should be the first focus of the investment.

    With the conversion of the Lausitz into a model region for organic farming, sustainable forestry and resource-conserving timber management, it can not only open up new sources of income for the primary sector but also significantly increase the attractiveness of the region as a place to live, as a location and as a holiday resort/destination. The structural funding promised for the phase-out of coal should therefore also benefit the primary sector and thus strengthen sustainable value chains.

    completed
    2021

  • Life in Sandbachpark

    SUFFICIENT, DIVERSE, CIRCULAR

    The competition area is the first step in the restructuring of the existing commercial area into a mixed-use residential quarter. Between the cultural axis with a new metro connection in the north and the Sandbach with the future development of a park in the south, the area offers potential for a lively quarter with added value for residents, nature and the neighborhood with open spaces, buildings and services that can be used in a variety of ways. The design is based on a compact urban development that conserves the valuable resource of land and offers space for nature, rainwater management and leisure uses. The unsealed surfaces enable lush vegetation that promotes biodiversity, generates a balanced microclimate and creates atmospherically strong places. To promote the local rainwater balance, rainwater is retained on site, infiltrated, evaporated or stored in cisterns to irrigate plants. A diverse mix of uses including living, working, supply and leisure facilities creates a lively, „complete" district and reduces the need for mobility. A multimodal mobility offer organized in the neighbourhood garage consisting of sharing and e-mo-bility offers, cargo bikes, bicycle trailers, etc. reduces the space required and enables the cost-effective use of current technologies. The sufficiency district approach also reduces individual ownership in favor of shared prosperity, thereby conserving the planet's resources. Flexible (timber)system construc-tion and compact building volumes enable cost-effective construction. The sustainable building materials used, such as wood, clay, straw, etc., are used so that they can be decomposed by type. The necessary energy is generated locally as far as possible - PV on roofs and some facades, as well as geothermal energy, are used.

    Idea
    2024

  • Lune Delta°... designed as closed-loop cycles

    Taking into account the Cradle to Cradle philosophy, the Lune Delta forms an economic structure that provides design, ecological and social contribution even after the end of its period of use. The sustainable commercial area is based on the following principles: 1. integral: The structure fits into existing overall structures, arises and also benefits from them. 2. demand-oriented: Different requirements are covered by the initial cluster. The system of ditches forms its own ecosystem and areas for Commons are implemented. 3. diverse: Open space systems and the special sector mix resolve the contradiction between commercial use and landscape and contribute to creative and social diversity. 4.circular: Buildings, open space and infrastructures operate as material cycles. They support technical or biosphere principles and adapt functionally and in design. 5. sustainable: The use of renewable energies is a hybrid system, which is locally, infrastructurally and formally connected. 6. orchestated: The cooperative Development Company Lune-Delta controls processes, ensures synergies and promotes communication.

    in progress
    2017