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

  • At home in Gutleut-West, Frankfurt a. M.

    What potential does Frankfurt's city centre have for conversion and sustainable inner city development? The Gutleut district in the heart of Frankfurt has so far been an infrastructurally characterised transit area and largely isolated from the nearby banks of the Main. The concept pursues the vision of transforming the area into a productive city and combining urgently needed affordable housing with urban production and new neighbourhood infrastructure. Gutleutstrasse becomes a climate strip and connects the north and south of the neighbourhood as a linear open space. Green axes connect the neighbourhood with the water. Public and residential facilities such as a school, daycare centre, local supermarket and neighbourhood meeting point ensure frequency and short distances. Institutional spaces such as the sports hall and theatre open their doors to the neighbourhood.
    The banks of the Main will be designed as a sports and recreational area and, together with the Klimastrip, will create a new blue-green neighbourhood character. In the overarching urban context, Gutleut-West will in future follow the guiding principle of a high-contrast, loosened-up and green urban landscape. Striking landmarks such as the power station and the water reservoir characterise the cityscape and mark the transition to the city centre. The central idea of 'infrastructure as a lever' illustrates the transformative potential of human-centred infrastructures. Such infrastructures go beyond their original, purely technical function and create the conditions for positive social developments. They offer the opportunity to attract interesting stakeholders from different areas and thus create synergies that radiate far beyond the built environment.

    completed
    2024

  • Change Factory, Eschweiler

    Urban development
    The Change Factory combines flexible uses and high-quality open spaces along the river Inde and Indestraße. A four-storey high building with a roof terrace marks the main entrance and lends urban presence. The three staggered building volumes form a work yard to the north and terraces to the south for working and relaxing on the Inde. To the north, the buildings are stepped down towards the cemetery. To the east is a space-efficient mobility hub, which is directly connected to the main entrance via the internal Innovation Mile.

    Open space
    The Change Factory forms an identity-forming backbone of the public space along the Inde. A spacious forecourt with dancing trees and seating invites people to linger. To the south, open terraces will be created with a view of the Inde. Trees that are compatible with the urban climate and the integration of the local water balance into natural circulation systems ensure sustainability. Green roofs, vegetation and riverbank areas delay runoff and improve the microclimate.

    Organization of use
    The building is based on a modular construction grid of 8.1m x 8.1m x 4m or 5m on the first floor. All usage units are flexibly adaptable. The Innovation Mile connects the floors via a spacious staircase and promotes interaction. Upper floors offer communication areas, the first floor presentation areas. A café at the main entrance creates an inviting entrance. Space-intensive uses and laboratories are located on the first floor, while offices on the upper floors offer units from 30m² to over 1500m² and can also be divided and combined.

    Idea
    2023

  • Landesbehördenhaus, Bonn

    The site of the former state authority building is located in the framework plan area of the federal district in Bonn. In the „Laboratory" area of specialization, this formulates a diverse mixed quarter with a residential focus for the site. Following a study on the distribution of use and building mass, an urban development framework plan was drawn up in 3 urban development variants.
    This involves the preservation of two existing buildings with a gross floor area of around 45,000 m², the demolition of which had actually already been decided. Two urban residential courtyards and two high-rise buildings with a plinth level complement the existing „Liegende-8" and „L-building" to create a quarter with clearly defined urban spaces and, together with the green forum, form the robust basic structure.

    To the north, a 120m high-rise building with the Secure Digital City Campus (SDC) and additional office space in the base leads across the opening square into the center and into the quarter. Privately financed residential housing is planned above the base. The counterpart to the high-rise building is the hybrid usage module at the southern corner with a three-storey primary school and daycare base and a small residential high-rise (max. 40 m), which houses subsidized apartments for students and trainees. The schoolyard is located under the existing trees along Nahum-Goldmann-Allee, while the outdoor daycare area is located on the roof of the base level.
    One storey will be added to Liegende-8 in lightweight construction, accommodating the local supplier in the northern section and otherwise being used entirely by the city administration. The first floor areas form a generous arcade towards the green center and the 120m high-rise building. Two spacious residential courtyards (including the existing L-building) with active first floor uses towards the center (gastronomy & retail) complement the existing „Liegenden-8" to create an urban quarter.

    in progress
    2024

  • Köstra Reuse, Stuttgart

    The proposal for the revitalization of Königstrasse 1ab is based on the following 5 guiding design themes:

    Development of a building structure that completes the ensemble of the hotel and Königsstraße 1c, which incorporates heights and gradations, creates addresses and forms the prelude to Königstraße through its orientation towards the train station.

    Creation of lively, green passages with small-scale retail, gastronomy and areas for culture and events in the interior of the ensemble and a generous setback on Königstraße to provide more space for planting and passers-by.

    Enabling maximum exchange between inside and outside through diverse and generous entrances and transparent façades.

    Creating modern retail, office and restaurant layouts that can react flexibly to changing future requirements.

    Reuse of the existing load-bearing structure and individual components to minimize energy consumption and thus reduce CO2 emissions.

    Idea
    2023

  • Hirschberg-Quarter, Biberach

    Sufficient, community based, green.

    The former site of the district clinic in Biberach is an urban area in a central location in the town and offers a rare opportunity to create an exemplary and forward-looking residential quarter. The site is characterized by its hillside location and impressive tree population, which presents special challenges and opportunities for sustainable development.
    The aim of our design is to create a diverse residential quarter that offers a home to many residents. Particular emphasis is placed on affordable and diverse living as well as the creation of a car-free interior. Efficient use of the land and the promotion of a vibrant community are at the heart of the planning. Our approach deliberately disregards the requirements of the competition by avoiding the construction of detached single-family homes. Instead, so-called neighborhood islands will be created, integrating different forms of housing and comprising 40 to 60 residential units per island. These islands are embedded in a communal open space designed to promote social interaction and encourage encounters the so-called commons.
    At the center of each island is a car-free meeting place for residents, while the private gardens are oriented towards the outside. The communal open space offers play areas, meeting points and public green areas. The adjacent wooded slope remains largely natural and offers space for vegetation, orchards and wildflowers as well as a picturesque view of the surrounding area.
    This innovative residential concept is intended to provide a sustainable and social response to the housing needs of the city of Biberach by creating diverse, green and community-oriented living options in a central location.

    completed
    2022

  • High Q, Hanover

    Urban integration creates a neighborhood
    In its immediate surroundings, HIGH Q picks up on the typological and urban development characteristics of its neighborhood. The existing principles of block structures, incisions and polygonal high points are transferred to HIGH Q in order to create a harmonious overall urban image.
    On the west side of the construction site, a neighborhood square with outdoor gastronomy will be created at the interface between the office and the hotel, creating a lively meeting place for everyone. This square also serves as an entrance to the hotel lobby.

    Striking appearance creates identity
    Whether viewed from a passing train, as a pedestrian or from a bicycle, the HIGH Q always looks different and yet is unmistakable. The special façade design with 6 partial façades makes the high-rise appear slender and without a rear side, creating ever new impressions.

    Recognition value and an identity-creating design are an important requirement for this building in this exposed location. On the one hand, the façade and the striking shape create a variety of impressions depending on the viewing angle, while on the other hand the building also offers diverse and special situations in its immediate context. The undercut to Celler Strasse with its forecourt forms a clear address, the neighborhood square offers a common center for the neighborhood and the differently designed facades improve orientation and create different places.

    Idea
    2024

  • Life in Sandbachpark, Ratingen

    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

  • Blue-green neighbourhoods, Münster

    The design taps into the potential to create a green, climate-adapted and carfree district for Münster Hiltrup that blends harmoniously into the existing landscape and settlement structure. Four compact neighborhoods with a large contact area to the open space will be linked by diverse green corridors in the interior (Green Delta) as well as a close-knit network of cycle paths and footpaths and attractively connected to the outside. Motorized traffic is reduced to a minimum and parking spaces are bundled. Within the neighborhoods, the mobility hubs form everyday hubs. A small-scale, differentiated development structure with ground floor uses at the neighborhood squares, social functions and various, mixed typologies suggest a people-centered scale with a rural character. In conjunction with an innovative climate adaptation concept and high ecological and energy standards, a future-oriented neighborhood development is being created for Hiltrup.

    Rainwater management follows the principle of the sponge city with the aim of minimizing intervention in the natural water balance, achieving near-natural rainfall-runoff behaviour, ensuring sufficient purification of the surface runoff that occurs, preventing flooding in the settlement area and reducing the runoff peaks into the watercourses to a natural level. Implementation is carried out as far as possible using near-natural methods with a small proportion of technical structures. In addition to the purely water management aspects, ecological benefits such as increased biodiversity and heat reduction are achieved. At the same time, blue-green structures are created that allow residents to experience the element of water.

    Idea
    2023

  • 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

  • Sponge City Hefei, Hefei/Anhui

    What does sustainable urban development with a special focus on the sponge city principle in China look like?

    The flagship project Sponge City Hefei relies entirely on decentralized drainage, which should lead to an answer to the flood problem and the extreme weather events that will become increasingly stronger in the future. Our focus was on the planned parks as central and profiling elements of the city, which will become the "green living room" of future residents.

    With low-threshold and barrier-free access, the offers of the residential neighbourhoods are supplemented here and the informal meeting, which is so far untypical for China, is promoted. This is achieved through the targeted use of, for example, generous seat edges, freely movable furniture, and picnic areas.

    With the aim of creating a metropolis with a low climatic footprint and a small impact on local ecosystems, four large parks with large unsealed areas are being created. The special sponge city principle provides for working with instead of against the water and implementing it as a characteristic element of Hefei. This helps the green-blue city to regulate the climate - especially in the very hot summer months. In addition to the climatic advantages mentioned, our argumentation of integrating the local river, which was originally supposed to be led around the city, creates a number of added values ​​for Hefei.

    The four emerging parks will each have their own characteristics, depending on the respective demarcation area. For example, the ground in the west with many adjoining office buildings serves primarily as a place to relax during work breaks on the one hand and as an extended conference room with options for flexible work on the other.

    The project, besides providing spatial qualities and creating urban spaces that promote
    social interaction in cultural life aims to serve as an innovative hydrological system to protect the city in the event of more extreme weather occurrences and to ensure sustainable urban development.

    As a result of all the interlocking concepts, Hefei forms a richly linked city with different biotopes and parks that work together with the social infrastructure and create a high-quality living space for the new China.

    Take a look at how we continued by planning the first park here.

    in progress

  • Sponge City Hefei - City Terraces, Hefei/Anhui

    The city terraces give the centre of the airport city a lively and representative face to the dam. They bring the urban character and the mix of functions right down to the water's edge and create a versatile waterside edge with a promenade, shady urban trees, spacious open terraces, a bathing island, a marina for sailing and rowing boats, viewing platforms and flexible areas for events and catering.
    The shore area is divided into an elevated, flood-safe area with a pedestrian walkway and cycle path and a lower, temporarily flooded shore zone close to the normal water level of the dam, which opens up a wide range of opportunities for interaction with the water. The raised quay and promenade areas offer sweeping views along the water's edge, while the traffic-calmed riverside road creates space for markets and sporting events. Sponge city elements such as retention soil filters and rainwater overflow basins are integrated into the waterfront design as green inlays. Lush rain gardens compensate for the sealed surfaces and also enable effective buffering and natural purification of the rainwater produced.
    The northern start of the area is formed by a bathing island in front of the dam with heated swimming pools, which allow for an extended season of use. In the colder months, the island can be used as a versatile event venue. The city terraces combine urban life and water space to create an attractive and multifunctional meeting place.

    completed

  • The Brandenbusch-Eck, Essen

    A new entrée to the Villa Hügel

    Based on the design principle "Landschaf(f)Stadt", the new Brandenbusch-Eck is a forward-looking and iden-tity-creating entrance to the Brandenbusch neighbourhood and the Villa Hügel in Essen. A neighbourhood that is being developed sustainably and serves as a centre of life for a broad range of residents. A small-scale and diverse density creates a lively place, uses resources sparingly, utilises infrastructure efficiently and relies on the mobility of the future - eco-mobility.
    Building on the strong scenic framing of the Brandenbusch neighbourhood by the Kruppwald forest and the preservation of valuable biotopes and existing trees, the "green carpet" completes the new entrance to a closed biotope network. This public green space is designed as an inviting gesture to the Hügelpark and the Villa Hügel itself.
    Brandenbusch-Platz, as a publicly effective square and protected new centre, links the new neighbourhood with the existing listed estate and promotes interaction. A new connection is created at the usage level: the social and cultural facilities in the neighbourhood are placed in a new context by the design. The connection between the church and the school is created by the Brandenbusch corner.

    Idea
    2023

  • Masterplan Wasserlagen, Herne

    The projected population development up to 2035 also shows the trend towards a housing shortage in Herne. Despite this development, vacancies and underused space potential characterize the waterfront area. Due to the strong commercial and industrial character of the area and the dominance of large infrastructures, the existing residential areas are exposed to high levels of noise pollution. A lack of open spaces and cultural facilities, difficult permeability for pedestrians and cyclists, as well as major weaknesses in local mobility, which is too strongly oriented towards private motorized transport, exacerbate the problem of isolated residential areas and the associated social imbalance in the area. Underused areas, vacancies and wastelands lack a coherent development perspective. Added to this are the deficient conditions in the housing offer and the external influences of the climate, energy and health crises with their very own challenges. This downward spiral must be counteracted by integrated and future-oriented planning for the entire area of the water locations. The planning objectives therefore focus on a diversified range of housing with a high degree of social diversity and programmatic mix; on the integrated development of high-quality commercial areas and the harmonization of housing, work, industry, open space, leisure and transport. A multimodal, transport connection and the structural, open-space networking of the entire area are the key factors. The planning objectives therefore focus on a diversified range of housing with a high degree of social diversity and programmatic mix; on the integrated development of high-quality commercial areas and the harmonization of housing, work, industry, open space, leisure and transport. Multimodal transport connections and the structural, open space networking of the entire area play a key role. Overarching climate goals come into focus and are linked to ongoing processes such as the coal phase-out or flood and heat protection through the Emscher conversion and sponge city principles.

    completed
    2022

  • Theoretikum Halle - Der adaptive Campus, Halle an der Saale

    Closing the gap between the university hospital in the north and the biotechnology campus in the south, the THEORETIKUM complements the science and business location in the north-west of the city of Halle an der Saale. The development site is simultaneously integrated into the urban space, functionally connected to the research and teaching facilities and integrated into the landscape. The proposed concept sees itself as a gradually growing, learning and responsive campus that integrates the existing and takes a holistic view of the new. With innovative research and technology clusters, attractive teaching and learning facilities as well as new service and communication areas, functions are bundled, synergy effects are created and potential for supra-regional impact is generated. As an adaptive campus, the THEORETIKUM is more than its individual clusters.


    The urban structure is formed by the campus loop as an address-giving backbone, a functional overlay of the clusters, building plots with adaptive development options and the integration of landscape qualities. Buildings with independent appearances (old - new, small - large, flat - high, square - rectangular) fit together playfully and, along with the uniform open space design, form a versatile, coherent overall picture. The slightly twisted structures create interesting and surprising room sequences and integrate existing elements (buildings, trees, paths) during the various expansion stages. Three existing high-rise buildings will be retained in the long term as a highly visible ensemble and will be integrated into the campus development.
    The northern entrée forms a counterpart to the UKH and is visually and functionally linked by the redesign of the junction. The pandemic center as the first building block is set back slightly and, together with the campus kiosk, conveys the leap in scale from the existing high-rise building to the loose residential development in the surrounding area. The southern entrance is designed at the mobility hub with an active ground floor. The technology and research centers will be realized as compact building blocks with inner courtyards or atriums and base floors. The active heart is formed by the service and communication center at the intersection of the urban north-south and green east-west connection.

    Idea
    2023

  • Könecke Areal, Bremen

    Hemelingen on the move - A new urban neighborhood Könecke-Areal

    The revitalization and reintegration of inner-city industrial areas is one of the most important planning tasks of the day. These areas are usually excellently developed in terms of infrastructure, which supports sustainable development, and can save a lot of gray energy. Complex ownership, emission sources and soil contamination are challenges that require innovative, robust and flexible urban planning concepts. The design takes advantage of the unique opportunity to free the area from its infrastructural island location in order to reconnect the districts of Hastedt, Seebaldsbrück and Hemelingen by building an urban bridge. Together with the southern (former) Coca-Cola site, which was part of a former urban design process, it forms the new center of Hemelingen.
    The vacated areas will provide what the district needs now and, in the future, - that is an affordable and diverse housing mix, adaptable spaces for working, learning, leisure and culture, but above all it is urgently needed public green space. The new neighborhood park forms the green heart of the entire district and creates a strong address to the future premium bike route that will connect the neighborhood with the center of Bremen.

    Idea
    2023