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.

From an Mining Hole to climate-positiv urban destrict

The Jüchen South urban planning competition deals with a largely unanswered question: How do we want to deal with the post-mining landscape? And in particular: What does a settlement look like that is built on such an area? Do we leave it at the legally stipulated reclamation and pursue settlement development on a greenfield site? Or do we try to live up to the responsibility that comes with urban development and use the opportunity to make a fresh start, to make amends and to mitigate the damage done to the landscape and the global climate?

Our contribution formulates a district as a symbol of this new beginning and an exemplary path for the future. It is based on the circular bioeconomy as an innovative economic model. Based on circular principels, the concept focuses on the sustainable value creation of local resources, especially soil, and thus creates the basis for an attractive and healthy living environment. The concept envisages laying the foundation for a new cultural landscape in Jüchen - the Jüchener Stadtwald - on the artificially created landscape area of the former open-cast mine. This forest forms the landscape architectural foundation for the settlement development, has top priority as an efficient ecosystem, is the basis of a sustainable healing process and a central element of the circular economy. It stores CO2, provides climate-positive building materials and food, produces energy, functions as a sponge forest and retention area, protects against noise, wind and dust and offers diverse leisure and local recreational functions. The urban forest in its various typologies forms the economic, urban structural and identity-creating basis of the new urban district.

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.

The Klimaquartier Würselen is characterized by strong open space references and clearly defined urban spaces. It mediates between the new and existing settlement bodies, the various neighborhoods and the open landscape in the east. In order to meet the current climatic changes and the scarcity of resources, the neighborhood will be developed in a space- and material-saving manner using timber construction; water and other resources will be used locally and treated on site.

The new neighborhood landscape complements the existing open block perimeter while forming defined neighborhoods with intimate courtyards that combine village courtyard structures with play streets. The small-scale buildings surround the Green Center, which forms the heart of the neighborhood and functions as a meeting space for the surrounding neighborhoods.

All buildings are based on the same construction grid, which corresponds to the deep garage grid of 5m. The bulkhead construction method, optimized for timber construction, forms the basis for the feasibility of the various building typologies. At the same time, repetitive building elements and construction principles ensure efficient planning and minimized construction times. The efficient basic structure allows for a variety of floor plan types - from one-room apartments to row houses to group apartments.

Like a coat, the development wraps itself around the greened-out Ludwigsfeld estate. It does this conceivably loosely and discreetly over open spaces. The dissolution of grains and densities of use is small-scale in relation to the existing buildings and protects them from noise at the edges.

The concept proposes four different urban building blocks to complement the Ludwigsfeld settlement: green residential courtyards, active neighborhood houses, a cautious addition to the existing buildings, and flexible neighborhood garages.
Through compact and green residential courtyards with a diverse appearance, a variance in the number of stories and vertical greening, the targeted density is achieved with high residential and open space quality. In relation to the existing buildings, the residential courtyards dissolve into an open development, which also adapts in terms of the number of stories and mediates via community gardens.
Four neighborhood houses at a central location in the neighborhood link the living with base areas for supply, social facilities and community uses. As project building sites, special forms of housing can be implemented here in alternative development models. Through a striking design and the active ground floor areas, they are crystallization points in the public space.

The design supports the goal of a sustainable and CO2-neutral neighborhood development. The infrastructures required for the planned energy concept are integrated into the urban design and areas for energy generation are demonstrated accordingly.

The starting point of the urban development concept is the creation of two strong open space connections that act as a green bracket, embedding the new quarter in the urban context in a variety of ways and interweaving it with this context. The green bracket links the very different and previously separate urban open spaces of Gleisharfe and Hauptfriedhof. The two open space sequences structure the hitherto unorganized urban space and give the neighborhood development a clear contour.

The adjacent greenery flows into the neighborhood and picks up on the existing space-creating structures such as groups of trees and fallow land to interweave them with the neighborhood spaces. This creates a lively place with its own identity in a central location. The guiding ideas of BAHNSTADT are consistently developed further. In the midst of the green brackets, a compact and densely mixed urban quarter is created, which is divided into sub-segments by three axes across the green spaces. They create direct path relationships and clear orientation in the urban space.

„Think about people first, then about traffic routes. A good city is like a good party. People stay there longer than necessary because they feel good." This quote from Danish urban planner Jan Gehl sums up our planning understanding of the Parkway well.

The Parkway is a place that is finely networked, that relates building and open space uses in a variety of ways, and that actively supports climate resilience. A green and diverse space that constantly links the opposites of MOBILITY and DISTURBANCE. Due to the valuable and spatially defining existing trees in the Patrick Henry Village as a starting point, the route was designed in such a way that as many woody plants as possible are preserved. Rainwater is stored in swales, infiltration trenches and rain gardens as a valuable resource, benefiting plants and groundwater. The paved areas are reduced to a minimum and designed as light-coloured surfaces.

The paving material is a newly developed and market-introduced climate stone which absorbs rainfall and can evaporate as much water as a meadow surface (50% instead of 11% to 18% as with conventional paving stones).
The Parkway fulfils the function of a linear park with a high quality of open space, encounter and stay, serves as an inner and outer distributor for the Patrick Henry Village and provides a safe framework for a broad variety of urban mobility types.

The Magnum site's DNA of industrial heritage and landscape succession forms the starting point for the transformation into a climate resilient neighborhood. The unique character of the former steelworks is expressed spatially in the overlapping of the scales of human, machine and nature and of the atmospheres between narrow alleys and wide squares.

This productive interplay continues to write the history of the Magnum site in constant change. Three subspaces (water courtyards, forest campus, factory cluster) derive from the site, each with its own independent profile, which form synergies with each other and with the neighborhood. The Magnum Mile connects the three subspaces as a lively backbone of the quarter and the adjacent urban spaces to the west and east.

For the quarter, own systems for the handling of water and soil are developed. They will be used for irrigation, gray water utilization and cooling of the quarter. The goal is to minimize erosion and soil exchange. As much accumulating water as possible is to be collected, filtered and reused. To do this, it will be stored in building-integrated cisterns. Materials collected are reused as much as possible. Existing structures, such as the grove or also hall structures are integrated and the character of the open space and the building structures are developed. The transformation is designed as a gradual, learning and appreciativ process.

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.