Over the past three years, a new residential quarter with 381 apartments has been built on what was once a largely wooded area on the eastern outskirts of Nuremberg. The Siedlungswerk Nürnberg (SWN), as the client, and the architectural firm Behles & Jochimsen have implemented a remarkable project here, which, despite numerous challenges, provides affordable living space with attractive urban planning and architectural quality.

The planning for the “Bunte Mischung” district was initiated in the mid-2010s. At the time, the Free State of Bavaria was scouring its land portfolio for areas for low-cost, high-density residential construction. The 3.9-hectare site between Regensburger Strasse and the railroad line had already been secured under planning law, albeit with an outdated development plan from the 1970s that provided for open construction, low utilization and use as a public administration building. The city of Nuremberg was cooperative in adapting the development plan in terms of density, use and building form.

In 2016, Siedlungswerk announced an urban planning ideas competition, in which a team from the architecture firms Behles & Jochimsen and Topos Landschaftsarchitekten won first prize. The original competition design with 480 residential units and a GFA of 2.0 was further developed into a master plan in dialog with the offices involved, whereby the density was reduced to 381 apartments and a GFA of 1.75.

The urban development concept divides the site into four building plots surrounded by a ring road. The perimeter development along this ring road has a closed design and is bordered by a preserved woodland fringe. This closed construction method serves as effective noise protection against the considerable impact of traffic and commercial noise. Each building plot has a green courtyard around which the buildings are arranged in line with the street. The courtyards are connected by gaps and passages. Narrow alleys run between the building plots and intersect at a small square, which is created by shifting the building blocks towards each other.

The development consists of rows of houses whose independence is emphasized volumetrically by staggered heights and kinks in the ground plan. The buildings in the outer ring of buildings are higher, while those in the interior of the district are lower, with the corners being emphasized. In order to achieve an urban character, the distances between the buildings along the alleys have been minimized, while the courtyards are more generously dimensioned.

A particular challenge was the massive noise pollution on the property from traffic (rail and roads) and commercial activities. A sophisticated noise protection concept was developed: An office building on the corner of Hans-Kalb-Straße along the railroad, a combined heat and power plant as the southern gatehouse and a parking garage act as a noise buffer for the residential development behind it. A small high-rise building on Regensburger Strasse marks the start of the quarter. The arrangement of common rooms towards the railroad and Hans-Kalb-Straße was avoided, and living rooms and outdoor seating areas were oriented towards the quieter courtyards wherever possible.

In order to give the district an urban character, a controlled colorfulness and diversity was aimed for. The mostly plastered perforated façades vary even in front of similar or identical floor plans. Each house has its own color identity within a given spectrum. The street façades are more varied and solid, while the courtyard façades are quieter and more delicate, which helps to differentiate between public and private spaces.

For reasons of noise protection, the window sizes of the street façades were minimized and dimensioned room by room to ensure minimum lighting. In order to avoid the banality of the resulting façade patterns, the windows were playfully distributed, particularly in the stairwell areas. Wide chamfers around the windows visually enlarge them. Floor-to-ceiling French windows dominate the courtyard façades, while loggias and semi-circular balconies give rhythm to the views.

The quarter comprises various building types: An eleven-storey “low-tech high-rise” with commercial space on the first floor and second floor, and nine storeys above, each with four apartments. The “Regensburger Straße” building type, a three-storey building with balconies in front, was used where the noise problem was less severe. On Hans-Kalb-Straße, along the railroad and to the side of the August-Meier-Heim, two-storey floor plans with “noise protection floor plans” were used. Other special building types are the corner houses, the gatehouses, the office building, the boiler house and the parking garage.

In addition to stores for local supplies, a daycare center with a family center will be located on the small neighborhood square. This is in keeping with the scale of the existing listed buildings to the east. The nursery is the only white building in the colorful neighborhood and has its own garden with protected English oaks. The kindergarten rooms are located on the first floor, with the crèche rooms above. The multi-purpose room can also be used for events.

The interior of the district is designed to be traffic-calmed throughout and largely car-free. Most of the parking spaces required by the parking space regulations were accommodated in a six-storey multi-storey parking lot with 365 parking spaces, which also acts as a noise barrier to the railroad. Further parking spaces are located in an underground garage beneath the high-rise building and along the ring road. Around half of the bicycle parking spaces are located in communal bicycle rooms and private tenant cellars and the other half in outdoor bicycle storage sheds.

A key challenge was to realize high-quality and affordable housing for rent in times of rising construction prices. Simple building structures and constructions, the modularization of the floor plans and the standardization of many components helped to reduce costs. The shell was deliberately constructed using conventional sand-lime brickwork and partially prefabricated ceilings in order to appeal to a wide range of bidders for the shell construction work.

Of the 381 residential units, 45% were subsidized and 55% privately financed. The design of all apartment floor plans was based on the guidelines for income-oriented subsidies. All apartments have the same construction standards and almost all are barrier-free.

The total investment volume amounted to 141 million euros. The construction costs for one square meter of living space were 2,350 euros gross (cost groups 300 and 400). The privately financed apartments are offered by Siedlungswerk Nürnberg for less than €12/m² of living space, while the subsidized apartments are correspondingly cheaper, depending on the subsidy model.

Despite the dense development, numerous ecological measures were implemented. An attempt was made to preserve as many of the existing trees as possible and supplement them with new plantings appropriate to the location. A lizard biotope was also created and nesting boxes installed. The roofs and a number of suitable façades were greened. Despite the high density and difficult soil conditions, precipitation is completely drained away on the property itself.

The district was built to the KfW 55 energy efficiency standard. As no district heating was available, a biogas-powered combined heat and power plant was built in the Torhaus Süd, which supplies the district with electricity and heat (combined heat and power).

The construction work, with the exception of the daycare center, was awarded to the general contractor Max Bögl in spring 2021 on the basis of in-depth design planning with key details. At the client’s request, Behles & Jochimsen took over the execution planning on behalf of the general contractor, while the Munich-based GAPP office was responsible for quality assurance and overall construction management for the client. Construction work began in summer 2021 and was completed in October 2024.

The “Bunte Mischung” residential quarter shows that a high-quality and affordable residential quarter can be realized even under difficult conditions such as noise pollution and rising construction costs. A well thought-out urban design, efficient layout planning, standardized components and a conventional but solid construction method have saved costs without having to compromise on attractive architecture and ecological qualities. With its controlled colorfulness and scale, the quarter offers its residents a pleasant living environment with identity-forming qualities despite its unfavorable location between the railroad line and a busy road.

Read more about Nuremberg’s old town, the Augustinerhof by Staab Architekten, here.