#2 the German Midfield

In may 2015 we visited 10 German cities, talked to 16 stakeholders and drove 2237 km in only 5 days. This speed-trip to the German Midfield learned us what the combination of political consistency, social innovation and initiatives by architects can bring to the housing assignment.

ANA on the road

ANA goes Europe

Intergenerational Housing
Germany is the most aged country in Europe; 20,6 % of the population is over 65. Intergenerational solidarity is the leading theme of the German policy. On a national level Germany is supporting the development of Mehrgenerationshauser, community buildings in which activities are organized that facilitate the interaction and thereby solidarity between different generations. When families live spread out all over the country, the neighborhood should work as a new ‘family’-network that helps to be self-supporting in a society that can no longer organize every form of aid top down. This principle is also translated in new housing concepts.

We have visited several of these ‘Mehrgenerations’ housingprojects. Karmeliterkloster in Bonn is a very sympathetic project in which families live together with older people and form a small community behind the walls of an old convent. The size of this project, 70 housing units, guarantees a balance between collectiveness and privacy. In Pöstenhof in Lemgo, a smaller project with 34 units, the collectiveness is emphasized through the organization of access. This project is open to the neighborhood and integrates daycare for elderly who still live at home. Both examples have waiting lists, and prove that mixing generations could be an interesting solution for an aging society, when organized well.

ANA at Karmeliterkloster

ANA meets office03

Housing in shrinking & growing Towns
Germany has been dealing with shrinking towns for more than ten years and has developed consistent strategies for transformation of existing buildings and areas. At the same time Germany has so called ‘Schwarmstädter’, cities that grow strongly.

We have visited both sides of Germany. Freiburg and Tübingen are two small university cities in the South that attract a lot of young people. These cities are growing fast. Freiburg chooses to densify the city in the existing housing areas. The city struggles with developers to build delicate solutions and getting public support for these developments.. Tübingen, also a citiy that densifies, chooses to buy land and sell plots to baugruppen. Tübingen uses a consistent strategy for development that guarantees public support and that leaves room for new insights. This consistency in combination with a process of learning from mistakes leads to very consistent and coherent neighbourhoods.

On the other side of Germany we have visited Halle and Leinefelde, two former DDR towns with big plattenbau neighborhoods. The population of Halle Neustadt has shrunk with 50% since the ‘90’s. The city of Halle lost 80.000 inhabitants after the reunion. Most part of this loss is subscribed to Halle Neustad. The measurements undertaken by the city aim for renovation and demolition of the existing housing stock. During the recent years 13.500 dwellings have been demolished. Leinefelde has also demolished large amounts of buildings in a very short period of time. The remaining stock is being renovated as far as the exterior is concerned; behind the fresh new stucced facades the old plattenbau plans without elevators remain. The city of Leinefelde has followed a very consistent top down policy but didn’t leave much room for new insights or bottom up initiatives. Whereas these insights are needed for sustainable urban development both in terms of growth and shrinkage.

Empty highway in shrinking Germany

ANA in Halle Glaucha

ANA meets Tino Hartlep in Leinefelde

ANA meets Pieter van der Kooij in Freiburg

Sustainable Housing
Germany is leading in Europe when it comes to sustainable energy policy. Already 25% of German energy is gained from sustainable resources. One of the more interesting building experiments is the energy contest taking place in Frankfurt. The two major housing corporations are ‘competing’ in building energy-plus-apartment-buildings. Neussauische Heimstadt has almost finished a small energy-plus-apartment block in Riedberg, on the outskirts of Frankfurt. The even bigger energy-plus-project of ABG Frankfurt in the city center is still under construction.

These buildings generate a surplus of energy to supply all the housing related energy demand and facilitate several electrical cars.
These energetic ambitions do have an enormous impact on the architecture. Roof and south façade are filled with solar panels to a maximum amount. Balconies and roof terraces are banned to the other sides of the building or skipped completely. One can wonder if integrating energy generating systems in housing projects to such an extent is the right solution for the future of housing.

ANA at solarsiedlung in Vauban

ANA at energyplushaus Frankfurt

Bottom Up Housing
Tübingen is one of the more extreme examples of the self build town. Tübingen has fully professionalized ‘bottom up’ town planning. In the nineties this town has started to give room for Baugruppen. We have visited ‘Französisches viertel’, the oldest area and ‘Die Alte Weberei’, the newest development area. This phenomenon of Baugruppen has started in the smaller towns as a means to build affordable housing for young people. But now also some of the bigger cities start to see the plusses. In Köln we have visited the project Baufreunden of Office03, in one of the first development areas in Köln with plots for Baugruppen.
In the Netherlands this phenomenon of self-build-housing has been given an enormous boost during the recent housing crisis. Now that the housing market is recovering again the discussion has started to preserve this way of developing. It brings a lot of variation, housing quality and social sustainability to cities but it also demands a strong government policy to get and keep it organized. Tübingen is a good example in this perspective. It has chosen to follow this way of developing because of the qualities it brings to the city even in times of strong pressure on the housing market.

ANA meets Gert Kuhn in Tubingen

ANA meets Martin Rasch in Tubingen

German Architects in housing
German architects have always had a bigger responsibility compared to Dutch architects. German architects operate as main contractors and are also responsible for the other advisors and the builder. On the one hand this gives the architect more possibilities to control the quality until the end. On the other hand it leads to architects taking less risks in the design of the technical detail.
Also in the many baugruppen-projects architects are often the initiator, which makes their position even stronger. It gives them more control to guarantee a typical German high building standard. Recent developments in the Netherlands show more often the architect in the role of initiator. This gives them also the possibility to claim a stronger role in the process. If Dutch architects could combine this with their conceptual and typological approach to the design this could result into an integral high quality in housing.

ANA meets Torsten Kleinebekel & Christian Becker in Lemgo

ANA meets Osterwold-Schmidt in Erfurt

What ’s next?
The trips to Scandinavia and Germany have shown us a part of Europe that is doing well, by healthy economies as well as by a well-organized society. Things function, policies are executed.
In October we will visit Spain & Portugal; the Southern survivors. This part of Europe has had more trouble to survive in a turbulent context of large financial problems, immigration overflow and a less stable political history .

A book and new European prototypes
What do these trips bring us? Future housing themes are being answered with new design solutions all over Europe. We have started a collection of housing prototypes, new solutions to future housing issues: New European Housing Prototypes. And we are preparing a book about our discoveries in Europe. More about this in next posts.

Mehrgenerationswohnen: Pöstenhof Lemgo & Karmeliterkloster Bonn

cohousiThe medium-sized town of Lemgo with about 40,000 residents is seriously aging. Wohnbaugenossenschaft Lemgo (WBL) owns a large number of familyhouses, and has to deal with this problem. They took the initiative to explore a new way of living. On a vacant site they have worked with HSD architects on a ‘Mehrgenerations’ housing concept in the project Pöstenhof.

The idea of the project is to mix generations in a small scale courtyard building. Based on a first sketch a group of interested people has been selected to participate in de process of developing a cooperative housing project with rental apartments for mixed generations. The residents are very mixed, from young to old (0-81 years). There are 21 children in the project and multiple nationalities. The project includes a day care for the elderly, which is rented to a healthcare organization. This is used by residents from the project and from the neighborhood, who depend on the care of others, but still live at home.

Pöstenhof – outerfacade

Pöstenhof entrance court

The building consists of two buildings that are half open to the street. A raised gallery filters the access of the garden to a public entrance square. An important aspect of the project is the commonality. The wide corridors are orientated to the collective garden and function as important meeting places, along with the collective garden and a collective room on the ground floor.
The outside of the block is the private side. The architecture of the outer facade expresses the individuality of the inhabitants. The fragmented articulation of the volume also connects the building to the small scale of family houses in the surroundings.

Pöstenhof – extra wide galeries

Pöstenhof

The inhabitants of Pöstenhof commit themselves to contribute to a mixed-generations-living community. The residents have signed an agreement with the owner (WBL) to make it possible to regulate all new rentals themselves. They take care of maintenance in the collective areas and organize activities in the collective space. New candidates are selected by a committee of inhabitants. For the inhabitants it is important that new people choose for the concept , and not just for the house.

The project Karmeliterkloster in Bonn is a bit older and bigger. The project has been initiated by the architects: Fischer – von Kietzell Architekten on the site of an old convent. The project contains 70 housingunits in different types around a spacious garden to create an attractive mixed generations area. In contrast to Pöstenhof there is less mixture within the different building parts. Famlies mainly live in the rowhouses, seniors mainly occupy the apartment blocks. In the renovated part a collective meeting room has been realized that is used for all kind of activities, also accessible for people from the neighborhood.

Karmeliterkloster garden

The inhabitants that have shown us the project tell us that it is particularly this bigger size that attracts them. It creates more privacy and distance then we have seen in Pöstenhof. But at the same time the enclosed garden, the orientation of the houses and the way the project is organized creates a collective atmosphere.

Karmeliterkloster garden

The Miracle of Leinefelde?

Leinefelde, is a small town in former East Germany that doubled in population due to the construction of a large cotton mill in GDR times. Nowadays the town is joined with Worbis to stay strong even in times of severe population decline. The population of Leinefelde has shrunk with the same speed as it grew after the Wende and after the closure of the cotton factory. Leinefelde has since demolished large amounts of buildings. On the outskirts of Leinefelde Sud, the first large flats, that were only built in 1991, were already demolished again in 1998.

Thanks to a visionary mayor the city has had a very consistent policy, with architectural quality high on the agenda. Now after several years of refurbishments in the southern city, the original plattenbau is hardly recognizable anymore. All the buildings have been either renovated or demolished.

Refurbishment by Petzet

One of the few refurbishemnts with elevator

As a result of competitions, two architects were selected who have shaped the major part of the transformation. The first phase is designed by Meier, Scupin, Petzet architects from Munich. The second phase by Stefan Forster from Frankfurt. Both have been able to design and execute an integrated plan. In terms of urban planning, housing typology and architectural appearance their designs have given a new identity to the neighborhood.
The town villas Forster are the most iconic. These slabs have been downsized from 6 to 4 layers, and parts have been cut out, leaving a row of urban villas. The precast concrete walls are finished with stucco in fresh colors and new balconies so that the association with plattenbau has completely disappeared.

Refurbishmentproject Stephan Forster

Urban villa’s by Stephan Forster

The renovation of Leinefelde South is very convincing, due to the consistent approach. It has changed the image of the neighborhood tremendously, but it also raises a number of questions. Tino Hartlep, head of technical services at Wohnungsbau und Verwaltungs GMBH Leinefelde, tells us that after the demolition and renovation only two of the buildings in Leinefelde Sud are equipped with an elevator. That conflicts with the strong aging of the area. The ownership situation and thus the type of residents has not changed. The beautifully renovated houses are still rented out for social rent. People with a high income cannot live there.

Despite these questions in Leinefelde the added value of the architect is greatly appreciated. Tino Hartlep confirms this with his story on recent experiences of WVL. On a very limited scale WVL builds new barrier-free housing with varying experiences. They have noticed that, in a traditional process with all parties in independent roles much more quality is achieved for the same price, as a design and build process. In future plans WVL holds on to the vision that good design should be leading.

Halle, Schrumpf oder Schwarm?

Halle, capital of Saxony Anhalt has about 230,000 inhabitants. The old city lies on the eastern bank of the river Saale. West of the Saale the gigantic neighborhood Neustadt was built during DDR times. In the 90s Neustadt was inhabited by about 93,000 people. Nowadays there are only 45,000 inhabitants left in Neustadt.
About sixteen years after the Wende, Halle doesn’t shrink any more. The population is stable, according to Lars Loebner, head of the planning department of the city of Halle. There are however big differences between the different city districts. The old quarters of the city now slightly grow, the large plattenbau areas shrink even further.

Halle Neustadt

Halle Neustadt mainstreet

Halle Neustadt demolishment area

Halle Heide Sud

Halle Glaucha

Halle Landsbergerstrasse

When addressing the shrinkage problem Halle has stimulated investments in the towncentre and the old quarters around it, with success. In Neustadt only some apartments have been refurbished. On the edges a lot of buildings have been demolished.

The predominantly social housing in Neustadt is now mostly occupied by elderly people who started living there before the Wende and by immigrants. For a durable development of Neustadt, new generations have to move in. In order to stimulate that Lars Loebner wants to give Neustadt a ‘cool’ image. During an international design workshop with students the idea was suggested to connect Neustadt and Heide Süd. In Heide Süd you can buy a plot to build your own home. The question is if this strategy will work. The two areas are not well connected and very different.

Neustadt still has some fantastic empty plattenbau- buildings. These buildings are perfect to develop as ‘klusflats’ (cheap casco appartments, infill by the inhabitants) . Maybe such a strategy would be more successfull in making Neustadt ‘cool’.

Pilotproject Laubengang

Neustadt Plattenbau for sale

Erfurt – Innercity housing

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.

collective garden

private terasses

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.

old and new buildings in the street

old on top of new

What happened to Freiburg?

Freiburg for us refers to ecological districts, renewable energy, solarsiedlung and Vauban. With the development of the Vauban district in the ’90s and ’00 Freiburg gained an eco-image at a time when sustainable building was hardly an issue in the Netherlands. We are very curious if Freiburg has managed to keep up this leading position..

Solarsiedlung Vauban

Street in Vauban

We cycle through Freiburg with Pieter van der Kooij, a Delft-trained urban planner who works at the municipality of Freiburg. Contrary to earlier demographic predictions Freiburg is growing rapidly. The city is mentioned on lists of so-called “schwarm ‘cities; German cities that attract many young people and thereby grow significantly. Freiburg, however doesn’t own the land to facilitate this growth after the development of the major sites Vauban and Rieselfeld.

Vauban is such a success that it is now seen as an area for the eco- elite unaffordable to most Freiburgers. Therefore, the politicians have decided not to continue with similar developments. The city now aims at densification within the city limits and at affordable housing. With Pieter we see some more and less successful examples. A number of recent less successful infill projects have led to increased resistance to densification. This makes it difficult for the city to generate support among the population for new developments.

Densifying the open corner

Densifying courtyards

Densifying the city within existing urban fabric is a complex assignment. This is clearly a challenge for architects, careful densification demands integrated spatial solutions on all scales. When more volume is required a delicate architectural design is of great importance to make a project appreciated. Proof for this statements is found in one of the more successful projects; student housing in Seepark. This area, developed in the 60’s -70’s, is characterized by student housing in small towers with precast concrete walls in a green park. The new interpretation fits both in terms of volume as well as in the architectural expression very well in this context.

Studenthousing Seepark

Tübingen, stad van de tussenmaat

Freiburg was de eerste stad die ruimte maakte voor bouwgroepen, maar Tübingen heeft dit fenomeen tot een zeer consistente vorm van stadsontwikkeling weten te ontwikkelen.

Al sinds de ontwikkeling van het Französisches viertel, vanaf het begin van de jaren ’90, werkt de stad aan een hyper democratisch en transparant stadsontwikkelingsmodel. Op alle niveaus hebben de stad Tübingen en de daar werkzame architecten zich weten te professionaliseren in het bouwen van sociaal duurzame, gemengde, stedelijke wijken waarin bottom up en top down in balans zijn. Dit gaat zelfs zo ver dat de Deutsche Bahn nu ook de gemeente, vanwege haar expertise, heeft gevraagd hen te helpen met het integreren van bouwgroepen in de verder vrij traditionele ontwikkeling van het Güterbahnhof areaal, waar DB grondeigenaar is.

Franzosisches Viertel

De architectuur is krachtiger geworden in de meer recente gebieden die de stad heeft ontwikkeld, zoals bijvoorbeeld de Alte Weberei in het stadsdeel Lustnau. De tussenmaat overheerst nog steeds in de stadsontwikkeling in Tübingen. Dat doet ons denken aan recente discussies in Amsterdam, waar tijdens de crisis veel ruimte ontstond voor kleinschalig ontwikkelen, maar door de oplevende woningmarkt de tussenmaatse ontwikkeling nu weer onder druk staat.

Alte Weberei

Bij de toewijzing van kavels in Tübingen wordt geselecteerd op sterke concepten en dat biedt veel ruimte voor experimenten op het gebied van techniek, zoals hoge duurzaamheid en massiefhoutbouw, maar ook op sociaal gebied: bijzondere doelgroepen, werkruimtes en buurtvoorzieningen. En dat biedt weer kansen voor architecten om innovatieve concepten te initiëren en samen met bewoners te realiseren.

Alte Weberei

Verkavelingsplan Guterbahnhof met in blauw de locaties voor bouwgroepen (bron: http://www.tuebingen.de)

Energy-efficiency contest in Frankfurt

Nausassiche Heimstadt claims to have build the very first plus energy-apartment building in Germany in Frankfurt Riedberg, a large new housing area on the northern outskirts of the city.

Both the tilted roof and the closed parts of the south façade are completely covered in Photovoltaic cells which provide the single energy source of the full electric building. The building, which has a peculiar shape, due to the site, contains 17 apartments in different sizes.

Energyplushaus Frankfurt Riedberg

The nicest part of the building is the light and spatial central staircase. German fire regulations did not require a second or closed staircase, therefor the architects could make an open staircase with light from above.

A lot of technical spaces are integrated under the roof and in the basement: rooms for batteries, air treat system, heating system, etcetera. An underground ice storage is used to warm air and water for household use. The apartments are equipped with floor heating and heat recovery ventilation.
An underground parking is provided for ten electric cars. Calculations show that the building generates an energy surplus that could facilitate ten electrical cars to drive 13.000 km per year.

Building an ‘energie-plus-geschoss-haus’ is a complicated assignment. This project is not an apartment building with additional installation technique, but a consistent design in which well integrated technique. If the building fulfils its promises, then it shows that in order to build energy efficient, architectural concessions are not necessary in order to reach the energetic ambition.

Interesting is to mention that the competitive housing corporation of Frankfurt is building an even bigger ‘activ-stadt- haus’ in de centre of Frankfurt. If housing corporations compete with each other like this, these type of experiments can generate new integrated concepts and hopefully evolve into architecturally attractive mature energy efficient buildings.

Köln – Buchheimerweg

Also in Germany the renewal of postwar residential areas is a major challenge. The solution that has been realized in the Siedlung Köln Buchheimerweg is seen as a successful example throughout Germany.

The incorporation of 434 new homes in the existing fabric has been done very subtly. The area has been densified, but you hardly notice it. The new buildings are also subtly different. The slightly bent blocks are positioned slightly closer together. The bent blocks provide a stronger defined space without breaking the open layout.

The green space has been redesigned with a high quality and a clever solution to the expensive German parking ratio of 1 car per house. In public space a number of parkingspaces is defined as a reserve zone. This zone can be used as a playground for the time being, as long as car ownership among the low income group that lives in the building does not increase. Not-Dutch is also the scale; 434 apartments in 18 identical-looking 4-storey buildings. Typically Dutch strategies as the introduction of more differentiation in price, ownership and typology are also not addressed. The same people still live there, and the social rent is not increased. The area seems to function quite well.

Architect: ASTOC Architects and Planners
Client: GAG Immobilien AG
Landscapedesign: jbbug johannes böttger büro urbane gestalt, Landschaftsarchitekten

Köln – Baufreunden

Baufreunden, a project of office03, is one of the first building-group projects in Köln. The architects, who also live in the project, have aimed for quality in the typology, stacked wide maisonettes with either a garden or a roof terrace. In addition, they have drawn a few smart, simple rules for the facade. With the introduction of two windowtypes there was freedom of choice for residents and a consistent overall facadedesign. The inhabitants have made their own floorplans with or without the help of the architect.

For these architects it was the first time to work for a building-group. Around a hundred evening meetings have been necessary to achieve this convincing result. Now, they ask themselves whether they want to do this type of intense process again, especially if it doesn’t generate more quality and such an intense process is not profitable for the architect. The question is how democratic a process should be to achieve the advantages of building groups: more participation, quality and social cohesion and lower costs.
We will also visit Tübingen, this city has a lot of experience with this phenomenon. We wonder what insights we gain there.