The most exciting competition results of the last two weeks and everything you need to know about them – from landscape architect Heike Vossen. February 2/2

Interested in the latest competition results in landscape architecture, but hardly have time to look at them properly? In the G+L competition overview, Heike Vossen provides monthly updates on the most exciting competition results.

With the “Lengerich Line”, Franz Reschke Landschaftsarchitektur won over the jury in the competition to realize the redesigned city centre. The trough and guiding strip forms the spatial and design backbone of the city center, along which the five squares are connected. The outermost squares also form the representative entrances. The line leads through the pedestrian zone and signals priority for pedestrians. The planners differentiate between the linear movement space of the street and the squares as green recreational areas, the “green breaks”: a uniform, calm paving carpet in rows defines the pedestrian zone as a unit. The individual squares – by changing to the non-directional arrangement – stand out like fitting pieces in the urban fabric. “Green inlays” of perennial plantings form the back of each square; multi-stemmed trees and fountains fitted into the squares accentuate the areas as places to linger and slow down movement.

Open space planning MediTech in Oldenburg, 1st prize chora blau landscape architecture, Hanover

chora blau impressed the jury with the idea of “guiding currents”, which divide the open space of the MediTech quarter into varied areas and create exciting spatial sequences. With this analogy, which is derived from the various currents in the human body, the planners have succeeded in developing an address-forming and atmospherically dense open space. Towards the neighborhood square, the streams open up into spacious recreational areas and green islands. Striking paving channels and cut edges accentuate the guidelines; however, the format and surface of the paving clearly delineate the areas of the district center, district axis and secondary axes. The quarter axis offers the employees of the MediTech Quarter activity areas for play and sport, including a boulder wall for climbing and giant swings. In the secondary axes, quiet recreational areas are created along larger planted areas. The slightly lowered paved surfaces temporarily collect rainwater, while an overflow leads to the neighboring planted islands.

Bahnhofplatz Süd in Karlsruhe, 1st rank bauchplan ).(, Munich, with berchtoldkrass space&options and dwd Ingenieure

The district development of the station area in the south of Karlsruhe’s main station calls for a redesigned south portal. bauchplan’s “climate watch” proclaims a sustainable square design for the southern station square – and derives the approach from the complementary juxtaposition of the north and south station squares, both functionally and atmospherically. The new square in the south connects the flow of movement of different road users and addresses the microclimatic and acoustic challenges in terms of content and design: It is a place of identification for the young modern quarter, but its southern orientation favors heat accumulation and the flanks of the high-rise buildings create whirlwind zones. The design defines the square as a sustainable multifunctional prelude that offers a high quality of stay as an urban climate-friendly oasis. A textile spans the portal on the south façade of the track as a striking element and opens up at the entrances. The perforated concrete covering allows water absorption and delayed evaporation. Clouds of mist and a water field generate cooling in microclimatic hotspots, while trees slow down the whirlwinds and shade the square.

An apartment building in Leipzig closes a gap in a Wilhelminian-style perimeter block development, creating a homogeneous streetscape. Read more about the architects from KO/OK Architektur BDA closing the gap here.

The gap between buildings in Leipzig-Connewitz

The architectural firm KO/OK Architektur BDA, based in Leipzig and Stuttgart, has closed a narrow gap between buildings in Leipzig-Connewitz. At the end of the Second World War, a gap was created in the otherwise completely closed, Wilhelminian-style perimeter block development in this district. The reason for this was an unextinguished fire.

In the following years, the area was mainly used as a parking lot for cars and as a storage area for equipment. This resulted in garages with no aesthetic value. At the same time, the structure around the property has remained largely intact. Both the historic structure and building style as well as the view of the green inner courtyard are still recognizable, despite renovation and redensification work over the years. Today, the entire street in Leipzig-Connewitz is a listed building.

For this reason, the new apartment building, which was developed by the architectural firm KO/OK Architektur DBA, also had to comply with the requirements of the monument protection authority. The street-side façade of the new building blends in with the Wilhelminian-style neighborhood. As a result, the streetscape remains homogeneous despite the closure of the gap.

The apartment building by KO/OK Architektur closes the gap

The façade of the new apartment building in Leipzig-Connewitz is clad in diamond-shaped concrete slabs with regional granite aggregate at the base. In this way, the architects wanted to pick up on the plinth theme of the neighborhood and implement it in a high-quality design language. The façade of the upper floors has a scratch coat in the color “quince”.

The windows of the building are floor-to-ceiling and made of wood. They are evenly distributed across the façade. Above this is the mansard roof, the pitch of which represents a certain independence in the street. This gap closure created seven residential units, each with between 50 and 135 square meters of space.

On the first floor of the building there is space for a bicycle storage room, a garbage room and three parking spaces. A covered passageway to the garden is modeled on the typical Gründerzeit structure and, according to KO/OK, is intended to offer “a certain generosity for arriving, meeting and lingering, which is otherwise rarely found in new buildings”.

Classic apartments

The apartments in the new building are located on the first to third floors. They are organized on one level as classic apartments. The entrance to the apartments leads into a central hallway with a checkroom and bathroom. The living and dining areas with balconies are openly connected to the hallway on the courtyard side. Thanks to the west-facing orientation, they are flooded with light. The bedrooms are located on the street side and face east.

The two top-floor apartments are two-storey units with internal access. There are individual rooms and bathrooms on the lower floor, while the attic space consists of a living and dining area as well as a terrace overlooking the inner courtyard. According to KO/OK, the exposed wooden roof in the shape of a mansard is expected to create a generous, cozy feeling of space. The large skylights to the east and the terrace as a roof incision to the west create a clear connection to the outside world.

The architects from KO/OK Architektur have chosen simple, sustainable and durable constructions and building materials for this gap closure. They want to construct a building for the coming decades that avoids complex and error-prone structures. In addition, the house should age appropriately and function beyond its depreciation period. Accordingly, the exterior walls are made of highly insulated bricks. The interior walls were constructed using non-insulated bricks. Only the storey ceilings and the stairwell core are made of concrete. The roof is made of stacked timber elements with wood wool insulation and standing seam cladding. The interiors feature solid oak parquet flooring, as well as exposed concrete, exposed screed, wooden windows and doors and powder-coated steel elements on balconies and in the stairwell.

Incidentally, Leipzig is also home to the Sächsische Aufbaubank, designed by London-based ACME. You can read more about the building with its grove of columns and curved glass façades here.