BARCODE A40 RUHRSCHNELLWEG
WILHELMSBURG MITTE HAMBURG-WILHELMSBURG
STUTTGART MUSEUM OF ART STUTTGART
spaces
Eichbaumoper Essen / MÜlheim
ENERGY MOUNTAIN HAMBURG
CULTURE BUNKER FRANKFURT AM MAIN
heroes
Urban Pioneers Berlin
joker
BARCODE A 40 – THE BEAUTY OF THE MAIN ROAD
RUHRSCHNELLWEG
Bochum-Wattenscheid, 2007 - 2010
The A 40 autobahn, or Ruhrschnellweg, is the main traffic artery of the Ruhr region. Over 120,000 vehicles use it every day, and tens of thousands of people live and work alongside it. A trunk road that runs through such a built-up area is always part of the city. With a view to integrating the autobahn better into its urban environment, the Barcode A40 project has given local residents and autobahn users an opportunity to decorate a section of the new noise barrier that is being built in Bochum-Wattenscheid as part of the upgrading of the road to a six-lane highway.
The »Barcode A 40« project enables local people to make the noise barrier a part of their everyday experience and culture. It shows the importance of road-building in shaping the built environment. It enables people to participate in planning and construction concepts and thereby to take control of their everyday space, shaping and decorating it in areas where this used to be prohibited. It may only be the use of paint or colour, but it is nonetheless an important move.
One hundred and sixty of the 1,290 entries, each for an eight-metre section of the noise barrier, were combined into an overall pattern three kilometres long. Each contribution tells a story, such as the road as a place, a symbol or a state of mind, with references to the Ruhr region, including its local soccer clubs.
The artistic »Barcode A 40« project is linked to a master plan that was agreed with all local authorities through which the A 40 runs. The project makes uniform provisions for future repair work or extensions to the autobahn. A design manual lists ideas and makes suggestions, for example on colours to be used in designing further noise barriers.
Project planners:
orange edge, Gelsenkirchen
www.orangeedge.de
Design concept, corporate design and website:
act&react Werbeagentur GmbH, Dortmund
www.act-and-react.com
Client:
Straßen.NRW. Ruhr regional office, Bochum
www.barcode-a40.de
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WILHELMSBURG MITTE – From an inner-city suburb to a new centre
Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg, 2009 - 2013
The geographical centre of Hamburg’s Elbe island of Wilhelmsburg is crisscrossed by major transport routes that tear the entire district apart and have hitherto prevented the creation of an attractive central area for the district. Internationale Bauausstellung Hamburg (Hamburg International Building Exhibition) aims to build new bridges that transform the centre of Wilhelmsburg by means of numerous projects into an urbane city area.
The key to regaining quality of urban living is to combine two transport infrastructures by relocating a four-lane federal highway, the B4/B75, to the existing railway line. In addition, Hamburg is hosting an International Garden Show in 2013 that will give Wilhelmsburg-Mitte an attractive green centre. The plans include a »new kind of people’s park« with a wide range of different sport and leisure facilities for people with all kinds of cultural backgrounds and origins. The sports hall complex that is to be built as a part of the Garden Show will, along with the new building for Hamburg’s Urban Development Department and its 1,400 employees, be a representative gateway to this important location.
Housing construction will also be moved forward with the experimental building projects of the »building exhibition within the building exhibition«. Trendsetting case studies for housing in the twenty-first century are to be built here, case studies that address the challenges of our time in relation to sustainable building and living together. In time for Internationale Bauausstellung Hamburg in 2013, about 160 exemplary housing units are to be built for the four subject areas of hybrid houses, smart material houses, smart price houses and water houses.
Architects:
Masterplan:
Jo Coenen & Co Architekten, Luxembourg, with Agence Ter,
Karlsruhe / Paris
www.jocoenen.com
www.agenceter.com
International Garden Show Hamburg 2013:
RMP Stephan Lenzen Landschaftsarchitekten, Bonn
www.rmp-landschaftsarchitekten.de
Berta-Kröger-Place:
APB.Architekten BDA Wilkens / Grossmann-Hensel / Schneider, Hamburg
www.apb-architekten.de
Wilhelmsburg S-Bahn station:
Gössler Kinz Kreienbaum Architekten BDA, Hamburg/Berlin
with Ingenieurbüro Wetzel & von Seth, Hamburg
www.gk-arch.de
www.wetzelvonseth.com
New Hamburger terraces:
Beyer-Schubert Architekten, Berlin
www.beyer-schubert.de
Georg-Wilhelm-Höfe (urban planning study):
Büro Düsterhöft Architektur und Stadtplanung, Hamburg
www.duesterhoeft.de
Clients/contracting parties:
Internationale Bauausstellung IBA Hamburg GmbH, International Garden Show 2013 GmbH, Ministry of Urban Development and Environmental Affairs, Hamburg
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STUTTGART MUSEUM OF ART – ART BUILDS BRIDGES
Stuttgart, 2004
Good use was made of the opportunity provided by the building of the new Stuttgart Museum of Art to give the most important area in Stuttgart’s city centre, a traffic intersection slabbed over since the 1960s, an urban development upgrade.
In a classic urban development approach the clear, new corners of the building outline and define the square and the street area. The architects were determined not to design anything dazzlingly or intrusively postmodern that would obscure the future use of the building. They created a quiet, elegant structure, a free-standing building that makes constructive use of traces of the past and forms an ensemble with its surroundings.
The exhibition area for the museum’s collection gains an unmistakable character of its own from its unique layout. It is housed in the base of the new »Kleiner Schlossplatz« where there are two split-level tunnels. Originally used for road traffic and trams to pass through, the tunnels are no longer needed for this purpose. The aim was to achieve a combination of surfaces, with the quiet, introverted art rooms on the one hand and the lively communication areas on the other.
The ground-level glass cube, visible from afar, encloses a stone cube that looks rugged on the outside and creates an almost archaic impression. Inside it provides peace and quiet to enable visitors to concentrate on the works of art, while its upper surface houses a museum restaurant that is clad in glass on all sides, giving a spectacular panoramic view of the city.
The new Museum of Art is a public building that both takes up space and creates it – inside and outside. The museum and its surroundings are no longer an isolated facility; they make a contribution toward the city’s public life.
Architects:
HASCHER JEHLE Architektur, Berlin
www.hascherjehle.de
Client:
State Capital of Stuttgart, represented by Lord Mayor Dr. Wolfgang
Schuster, Stuttgart
www.kunstmuseum-stuttgart.com
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Essen und MÜleim, 2006 - 2009
Thirty years ago the U18 railway line between the cities of Essen and Mühlheim marked the dawn of a modern, mobile Ruhr region. Today Eichbaum, one of the stations on the line, poses a problem. Hemmed in by an inhospitable tangle of dual carriageways, vandalism and assaults on people have made it »something of a nightmare«. Structural changes and appeals have had no effect. The »Eichbaumoper« is an unusual opera project aimed at bringing about a positive transformation to this place.
It was in 2006 that the »U(topia) 18« project was launched to find ideas of hope and utopia for the Ruhr somewhere between the cities of Essen, Mu_lheim and Duisburg. The result was a unique panorama of the history of the U18 line. The method employed, a mixture of analyses and discussions, was the starting point from which the project developed – the »Eichbaumoper«, a plan to transform the Eichbaum Underground station into an opera venue.
The idea was to combine architecture, theatre, music and city. The concept led to two strategies. One was to call on artists to write music and librettos for the Eichbaum site. The other, to be undertaken together with artists and local residents, was to transform the station both physically and socially. Their joint result was the staging of the Eichbaum opera.
In the project development phase an opera site office was set up at the Underground station. It provided space for the tradespeople and artists, for events and workshops, as well as an opportunity to focus on people and their experience of the station. As a result, a continuous transformation began that made the location more humane even before the opera premiered.
Architects:
raumlaborberlin, Berlin
www.raumlabor-berlin.de
Organiser:
Community production Eichbaumoper / raumlaborberlin, in cooperation with Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen, Ringlokschuppen Mülheim and Schauspiel Essen
www.eichbaumoper.de
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ENERGY MOUNTAIN – FROM GARBAGE MOUNTAIN TO PEAK OF RENEWABLE ENERGY
Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg, 2009 - 2011
A garbage mountain is to become an energy mountain that will supply over 2,000 households with electricity generated by wind power, solar power, landfill gas, biomass and geothermal energy. At the same time the mountain, currently a no-go area, will be transformed into a public vantage point with an information centre.
Its problematic history began after World War II when rubble and domestic waste were piled up on the Georgswerder landfill site, later to be joined by industrial waste such as paint and varnish. In 1979 the site was officially decommissioned. A few years later highly toxic dioxin was found to be leaking from the foot of the 40-metre garbage mountain into the ground water. The landfill site and subsoil were then made safe at great expense.
As part of Internationale Bauausstellung Hamburg (Hamburg International Building Exhibition) the garbage mountain is now to be converted into an energy mountain and will thus be a symbol for the use of renewable energy. For this purpose a new wind farm that generates at least three megawatts is to be created along with about 5,000 square metres of photovoltaic plant. In addition, in May 2009 the Häfner / Jimenez and Konermann Siegmund planning team won an award in a landscape architecture and building construction competition for a design based mainly on an artificial promenade around the energy mountain peak. It will provide an unimpeded panorama and an especially magnificent view of Hamburg’s city centre.
A proposed visitor centre is intended to provide information about the history of the site and about what regenerative energy can deliver nowadays. All in all, an inner-city no-go area will be made accessible to the general public after decades of being sealed off.
Landscape architecture:
Häfner Jimenez Büro für Landschaftsarchitektur, Berlin
www.haefner-jimenez.de
Architects:
Konermann Siegmund Architekten, Hamburg/Lübeck
www.konermannsiegmund.de
Client:
Ministry of Urban Development and Environmental Affairs, Hamburg
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Frankfurt am Main, 2004
Die Umgestaltung des 1912 eröffneten Osthafens ist eine der großen sRedesigning the Osthafen (East Harbour), which opened in 1912, is one of Frankfurt’s greatest urban development challenges. The area around the central market hall is in the throes of structural change ahead of the construction of the new European Central Bank building. In the no man’s land behind it a World War II bunker has been put to new cultural use by transforming its roof into a rooftop building site.
The high cost of scarce city-centre building land in Frankfurt led in the 1990s to a closer look at the possibility of using World War II bunkers for creative, low-cost nursery school projects. A few years later a defective roof gave rise to the question of how a bunker in the harbour area could be used in the future. Demolition was prohibitively expensive and thus out of the question. The idea was to put the bunker to new cultural use in an effort to trigger a large scale transformation.
The bunker building is the massive base or plinth for a new superstructure – an overhanging wooden box enclosed by steel grating. The new structure houses artists’ studios and the Institute for New Media across two floors. By opening up the entire building the communal area is expanded as far as possible, providing a direct experience of a heterogeneous environment. The bunker’s concrete core houses rehearsal rooms for musicians.
The Culture Bunker, with its first-ever addition of extra floors to a WWII bunker, is a pilot project for Frankfurt and also shows what new opportunities can arise from developing unusual city sites that have hitherto been overlooked.
Architects:
INDEX Architekten BDA, Frankfurt am Main, in cooperation with the Municipal Building Department Frankfurt am Main
www.index-architekten.de
Light installation:
Artemide GmbH Deutschland, Fröndenberg / Frankfurt am Main
www.artemide.de
Client:
Municipality of Frankfurt am Main, Municipal Department of Science and
the Arts
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URBAN PIONEERS – URBAN DEVELOPMENT BY MEANS OF TEMPORARY USES
Berlin, 2004 - 2007
Due to its specific history and the change to its economic structure, Berlin has enormous land resources at its disposal. They provide long-term potential for urban development. At the same time, however, they are unused wastelands where the classic instruments of urban development fail to take effect. Temporary uses enable urban pioneers to demonstrate new development perspectives and contribute toward a revitalisation of urban space.
Nearly 100 temporary uses were recorded in a study undertaken in Berlin in 2004 - 06. Forty projects were documented as examples in »Urban Pioneers«, published in 2007. The project list reads like the catalogue of a new metropolitan lifestyle: skate parks in abandoned industrial sites, pony-keeping on the strip of land that used to be the Berlin Wall, flea markets in disused warehouses, music and fashion labels on sale in empty shops, or climbing courses in gaps between buildings. These temporary activities enrich the cityscape more than in any other major European city.
For urban development new opportunities can be opened up when temporary uses lead to sustainable concepts with a long-term development horizon. That is why temporary uses are increasingly playing a strategic role in urban development. As a result of the study’s findings, individual Berlin districts have set up coordination centres for temporary uses.
Urban pioneers rediscover places, vitalise existing resources and make use of opportunities to take them over and shape them by means of personal commitment. They show how extensive the range of possibilities can be when courage and imagination join forces in the city.
Project planners:
studio uc. klaus overmeyer, Berlin
www.studio-uc.de
Graphics and publisher:
Unverzagt. Visuelle Kommunikation, Leipzig, Jovis Verlag, Berlin
www.jovis.de
Client and publisher:
Senate Department of Urban Development, Berlin
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Berlin, 2007 - 2008
In Berlin-Mitte, a neighbourhood right beside the former Wall that until 1989 divided the city into East and West, traces of this enormous urban intrusion are still in evidence. On corner plots that face each other three residential blocks have now been built in two joint building ventures.
In Berlin and other German cities a new model of housing construction, the joint building venture, has taken shape in recent years. People who are interested in building and in urban neighbourly living join forces in ventures of this kind. As well as growing together during the planning and implementation phases there are further benefits, such as individually designed ground plans and, above all, the opportunity to save on the cost of using the services of a developer.
The two matching buildings and the adjoining freestanding solitaire comprise 12 and 11 modern flats respectively, with shared areas indoors and outdoors that invite residents to live together in a friendly environment. The central location delivers all the benefits of excellent urban connections. A special feature of both projects was the decision to entrust the design for both the shell and the exterior of the buildings to the Berlin architects zanderroth.
The mirror-image housing project not only occupies the north-facing corners of a Berlin block but also creates a new public urban space by virtue of the particular arrangement of the buildings. It casts light and is also a landmark for residents and neighbours alike. In addition, the site is an exemplary instance of partners in a joint building venture sharing responsibility for their immediate surroundings and the city as a whole.
Architects:
zanderroth architekten, Berlin
www.zanderroth.de
herrburg landschaftsarchitekten, Berlin
www.herrburg.de
Client:
Sc11 – Bauherrengemeinschaft Schönholzer Straße 11 GbR, Berlin
RuSc – Bauherrengemeinschaft Ruppiner/Schönholzer Straße GbR, Berlin
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Were it not for Alexander Gérard and Jana Marko, Hamburg’s spectacular Philharmonic Hall (Elbphilharmonie), currently under construction, would not exist. And were it not for Klausmartin Kretschmer, many a gem of Hamburg’s building history would long since have vanished.
With just two computer graphics the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron convinced the Hamburg Senate in 2003 to press ahead with plans for a philharmonic hall in the new HafenCity district to thereby gain a new landmark. It is thanks to the architect and urban planner Alexander Gérard and the art historian Jana Marko who broke the initial resistance in the city and played a part in ensuring that over 60 million Euro was raised in private donations. The philharmonic hall is now under construction and will be opened in 2012. Gérard and Marko are already working on a new project: new living arrangements for patients suffering from dementia and their families.
Klausmartin Kretschmer, who styles himself a cultural investor, saves dilapidated properties – forgotten gems of the built environment. They include »Rote Flora«, an autonomous centre that used to be occupied by squatters. He bought it from the Senate and gave it the city’s alternative scene to keep it out of the property market’s grasp. He also saved the »Oberhafenkantine«, one of the last coffee stalls – simple snack bars for workers – in the Port of Hamburg and a rarity in expressive brickwork. The »Oberhafenkantine« is now the site from which Kretschmer generates the impulse for a creative neighbourhood that is to include studios, exhibition facilities and offices for artists and creative people.
These examples are by no means the only ones to show that it often takes visionary loners to make outstanding urban development possible and push the boundaries of what can be achieved.
Initiators of Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie project:
Alexander Gérard, architect and urban planner, Hamburg
Jana Marko, art historian, Hamburg
»Genius Loci« –New forms of housing for dementia patients and their families
Initiator of the Oberhafenkantine and Rote Flora projects:
Klausmartin Kretschmer, investor in culture, Hamburg
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© Tatzu Nishi
»For me, art justifies its existence by giving ordinary, everyday things a different or a new aspect. People react to my work openly, directly and indiscriminately because they do not know what my installation is and whether my installations are art. At first glance they cannot be identified as works of art. This direct reaction allows my work to sneak into people’s lives and their everyday world,« says Tatzu Nishi, describing the public’s reaction to his work. Tatzu Nishi turns what is public into something private. His site huts, which are set up in unusual places, take the everyday as their starting point and enable the observer to gain a different perception of architecture. Just as childhood imagination transforms everyday objects into dreamlike structures or just as differences in sizes are put into perspective in Gulliver’s Travels, Tatzu Nishi zooms in on objects at eye level.
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