Urban Concept Planning for the Outskirts of the City of Offenburg
The aim of the competition was to create an urban design including drainage design for the southern outskirts of the city of Offenburg. The main ideas of the urban design are the following:
3-storey building blocks along the Ortenberger and Fessenbacher streets are serving as noise barrier for the new residential area, by its continuous road construction. At the town and neighborhood entrances, 4 storey "tower blocks" inaugurate the new neighborhood.
Characteristic of the new residential area are residential houses in a differently graded density. Condominiums within building blocks, together with duplex and row houses, create courtyards in the northern neighborhood and consistently carry on the edges of space of the southeastern quarter. To the south, high stacked maisonette-apartments, developed as point-buildings, are lined up along the east-west green corridor directly related to Riesbächle. Particularly striking are the terraced residential courtyard buildings, integrated into the hillside, in the southeastern quarter, dispersing towards and into the landscape and providing a smooth transition to the natural preservation area. A number of different building typologies ensure a balanced mixture of different income groups. A mix of in-line, double- and single-family residential houses develop residential courtyards with protected interior areas that can be used in various ways. The protected interior areas also contribute to the neighborly interaction and communication. The plots of the land are designed to offer a large flexibility of building types. The water-bound surfaces of the turning circles of the residential buildings provide opportunities to meet and play. Every courtyard building has its own access to the landscape promenade, and emphasizes the high quality, landscape-related living near the border of the village.
Existing pedestrian connections were deliberately included in the concept and linked to the new foot and cycle paths. The integration of the “Käfersberger Weg” with the green node of the new center of the quarter is characteristic for the new development, as well as the landscape promenade that runs along the terraced courtyard buildings in the Southeast. The North-South green corridor, linking the western city with the new quarter by foot, also ends in the green node.
