Living in the city in a spacious, modern home with plenty of privacy, great outdoor areas and parking facility: that’s the best of both worlds. With their project Schottehöfe in Erfurt, Osterwold Schmidt + Exp!ander Architects have succeeded in combining a high quality of living with a very careful integration in the historic city center of Erfurt. After many unsuccessful attempts by various developers to develop a feasible plan on the derelict site an architectural competition ultimately led to this project. The assignment was enormous complex: high quality new housing, energetic renovation of existing buildings, the famous German parking ratio, a lot of rules for building in the tight historical context and, last but not least economic feasibility.
These architects have added great added value to the project: a very careful integration of new housing at all levels and a smart solution for the energy renovation of existing blocks.
Developing attractive housing in the European inner cities is very important to keep these areas livable and mixed. This project shows that you need a client with guts and a good architect to get this done.
ANA goes Europe 