With the new building of the day care centre, another educational and social facility is integrated into the existing urban situation of the city. A spacious forecourt including parking spaces forms the entrance area and offers enough space for daily exchange among parents or for events of the KITA. Various climbing and balancing facilities, a covered sand playground and other play and retreat facilities create a sensory stimulating play experience for all age groups. A separate movement area for the crèche contains further play and learning elements for toddlers. The outdoor space is complemented by beds for all children to sow and harvest their own crops. The generously planned terrace also offers the opportunity to taste delicious fruits and herbs from the snack garden.

Urban integration ❘ The campus of the Max Planck Institutes in Mülheim an der Ruhr is completed by the new building for the analytical departments. The building fits in between the lecture theatre building and the laboratory tower without being subordinate. The desired representative, semi-public connection from the main entrance in the lecture theatre building to the high-rise laboratory building is created via a connecting corridor oriented towards Lembkestraße and visible from the street. The design of the new building utilises the opportunity to combine living and meeting spaces that are visible from the outside with modern working environments. The central element of the “living room” on each level at the transition to the high-rise building with a view towards the city centre illustrates this and provides insights into the world of the researchers from the street space. Just as the oldest and representative building of the former Kaiser Wilhelm Institute on the square of the same name forms a striking prelude to the campus to the south, the new building now does the same in addition to the high-rise laboratory building on the north side facing the city.

Open space quality ❘ The centrepiece of the campus will be the new, green living room in the courtyard, which extends the range of communicative break and retreat areas beyond the actual courtyard area. The courtyard itself fulfils all requirements for deliveries and escape routes and provides enough space for small and large parties. Sealing is kept to a minimum. The levelling of the green areas is achieved by terracing the lawns with seating steps that invite people to linger. The gradients on the lower courtyard level lead the surface water visibly and tangibly towards the green areas. The striking materiality of the surfaces in the area of the new CEC buildings in the form of polygonal slabs is continued in the courtyard in order to standardise the design. The existing attractive grass planting will also be continued wherever active open space utilisation is not possible, such as on Lembkestraße or along the new CEC building in the north of the courtyard.

For the open space, an attractive sequence from public to private green is proposed – from the “green centre” on the slope, to the more intimate residential courtyards with meeting places and tenants’ gardens, to the private gardens directly at the house – generous balcony zones and façade greening also enable greenery on the upper floors with their own cultivation possibilities. The largely car-free neighbourhood is accessed from the outside, and sufficient parking spaces are provided for stationary traffic on the peripheries. For emergency vehicles and individual deliveries, parking areas and visitor and handicapped parking spaces are available at a maximum distance of 50 m from each building, quiet play streets allow direct access to each flat.

The urban structure of the new Garden City Allendorf will be embedded in a green area with lush planting of various tree species as well as shrub, perennial and grass plantings, with the aim of achieving a high degree of biodiversity and creating a diverse habitat for humans and animals. A low degree of sealing is aimed at in order to form a high urban climatic comfort. The aim is to develop the garden city into an attractive landscape space with an interflowing green structure that has a park-like character and thus creates a high degree of open space quality. The open space structure of the neighbourhood features private, semi-public and public open spaces that offer the residents places of retreat and places to come together, thus generating a diverse and attractive range of places to stay. The urban structure creates several semi-public inner courtyards, which are barrier-free places with multifunctional use and mediate between the residents spatially.

A new centre for the organ city

The design concept for the town centre area of the organ town of Borgentreich envisages an upgrading of the historically significant ensemble of church, organ museum and the surrounding half-timbered houses. A strong, green framework will create a central square where the church and the organ museum are located, thus creating a new centre that is appropriate to the location. This square offers space for intergenerational stays, festivals, markets and meetings in front of the church. Appropriate shading and evaporation areas and the use of light-coloured materials will create a climate-adapted urban space.

In the existing building, the organ museum and the church are located on different sides of the street without any connection to each other. There is also a lack of spatial edges around the buildings that would define a common space. By creating a green framework, the necessary boundaries are created. The intensive green framework also forms a sustainable green space within the city. Additional trees will be planted to provide shade and retain moisture in order to minimise the heating of the open spaces in summer. The existing lawns around the church will be transformed into a church garden with herbaceous areas and shrubs. This will allow much more rainwater to seep away and evaporate. When selecting plants, a variety of species is taken into account so that plants are always in bloom throughout the year and thus provide food for insects. At the same time, the plants are robust against longer periods of drought in the summer months. The existing trees will be integrated into the new structure. Individual benches along the church invite visitors to linger in the new church garden.

The open and free square created within the lush, green framework forms the new ‘heart’ of Borgentreich’s town centre. The square is divided into three areas – a church forecourt, a small central town square that extends in front of the organ museum and a further, more secluded square behind the museum. The direct entrance area of the church will have a carpet of large-format, used natural stone slabs. Here, people can stand in the trellis for weddings and socialise after church services. At the end of the carpet, the existing wall to the south merges into two steps that lead down to the street. This further defines and accentuates the church forecourt. Thanks to the natural topography of the square, the church can be accessed barrier-free via the square without any structural installations.

Inden Schophoven’s new green heart.

Open space concept ❘ Over the coming years the entire surrounding area is due to undergo major transformation. An expansive industrial zone, currently inaccessible, will give way to an extensive recreational area with a lake, and this will be made accessible to the public. This will mean a radical change too for Inden Schophoven. This transformation offers a huge opportunity for sustainable development, since the whole region will not only be facing substantial demands due to the change in utilisation, but also climate change. Our design responds to both these key factors. The future park will become part of the region’s tourism concept and at the same time provide a sustainable local recreation area with blue-green infrastructure, while also creating a vista stretching from the Müllenark estate to the lake. Alongside the design for the park, the Müllenark estate will also be incorporated into the project. Here, in future, the focus will be on tourism with the creation of a green inner courtyard incorporating comfortable seating areas for both gastronomy and hotel guests.

The blue-green ribbon ❘ The park stretches from the Müllenark estate to the edge of the future lake. A meandering path connects these two places in a natural way. The path is flanked by a similarly curved retention basin, which splits as it reaches the lake, forming an island. The concept envisages not only the collection, infiltration and evaporation of rainwater within the park grounds, but also channelling rainwater from the surrounding publicly accessible areas into the park and then into the retention basin. Following heavy rainfall, this will create a watercourse leading into the lake. During periods of normal rainfall, individual puddles will form within the trough thus producing constant fluctuation between a water-bearing depression and a dry, utilisable hollow. A selection of resilient plants emphasises precisely these features. In addition to the central depression, some of the remaining areas are also slightly deepened, so they too can serve as retention areas during periods of heavy rainfall.