Guiding Principle - Diversity

Entries to competitions that form part of IBA 27 should combine high architectural quality, experimental building methods and social and ecological aspects.

This concept envisages a dynamic, socially-mixed urban quarter that offers high-quality design to a range of user groups while retaining the existing trees.

The design seeks to create a transition between the area of small-scale detached houses to the north and the large-scale, high-rise development to the south, while combining these two typologies with the help of an esplanade that crosses the district from east to west.

The urban quality of this esplanade enables it to act as both the entrance to the quarter and a place for meeting outside the buildings. It stretches from Schozacher Straße to the sports pitch and is lined with commercial buildings, social facilities and the kindergarten as well as open areas that can find specific uses at a later stage.

Hence, the esplanade connects a series of places that encourage diversity and exchange – which are essential components for a high quality of life and identification with the quarter.

Typology – a horizontal and vertical garden settlement

The two typologies of small-scale detached houses and large-scale high-rise buildings make it possible to offer a wide range of types of home that are suitable for people at very different stages of their lives, while also encouraging coming together and a sense of community and ensuring high levels of both identification with and diversity in the quarter.

The design proposes a one to two-storey development in the form of private detached houses of varying sizes that are carefully positioned between the existing trees. Private, clearly enclosed gardens are consciously preferred to a large, inactive semi-public intermediate space.

These intimate, private spaces, into which families can retreat, ensure peace and relaxation, while the esplanade is a central place for coming together and communicating.

With their generous balconies and loggias, the towers, which taper upwards to optimise the natural watering of the planters, can be interpreted as a vertical garden city.