Südlich Auf’m Tetelberg
Scope and initial situation.
Düsseldorf is the seventh largest city in Germany. The city has been growing continuously for years and currently has over 630,000 inhabitants. Many areas are abandoned, bequests from the city’s industrial past, with new neighborhoods emerging in the city center. The planning area, which borders the southern ring of the inner city and the district of Hamm, is located on the western edge of the Bilk district. With around 40,600 inhabitants on an area of 6.07 km², Bilk is not only one of the most populous districts of the state capital, but also one that, according to demographic forecasts, will continue to grow more until 2025. In this context, Bilk plays an important role as a residential location for the city as a whole. The city of Düsseldorf is pursuing the development of a school location on Völklinger Straße, a service and commercial location on Südring and the creation of new residential neighborhoods within the planned area “Südlich Auf’m Tetelberg” in the Bilk district. It is relevant in this context that the planned development on Südring and Völklinger Straße assumes the functions of noise mitigation for life within the planning area.
Competition procedure.
In order to achieve a high quality of urban development of the “Südlich Auf’m Tetelberg”, the city of Düsseldorf has announced a cooperative urban development competition according to RPW 2013 (guidelines for planning competitions). Five planning teams composed of urban planners / architects and landscape architects were invited to participate. In order to reach a broad social consensus for the implementation of the project, citizenship was involved in the process in two participatory comparisons. In a first public dialogue on 11 July 2019, the objectives, tasks and participants of the competition were presented. Citizens had the opportunity to discuss ideas and suggestions for the activity with the sponsor, the jury and the participating offices. In a second public dialogue on 1 October 2019, the concepts were presented by the respective authors and clarifications were provided to citizens’ questions and further suggestions were received. The suggestions were taken into consideration in the jury meeting of 2 October 2019 and will be integrated into the further elaboration of the urban project.
Jury opinion.
The tortuous two-way development, consisting mainly of four-story houses, is striking for its successful interaction with planned development in the west and existing buildings in the east. Inside and outside the new residential area there are open spaces and well proportioned spaces that invite to a variety of private and public uses. Both the location of the center of the district, with the open space facing west in front of the the high school, and the proposal to create a solitary building with a cafe in the north of the green area as a keystone for the space, are welcome. The central part of the district remains without cars, considered an excellent solution for the revitalization of the district. The density of the buildings allows the creation of a relatively large coherent green space, which allows to maintain the existing green structures and the courtyard buildings. This is viewed positively as the opening of the green area to the planned sports hall. Their distance from the residential area allows conflict-free use. As part of the overall development, it is suggested to coordinate the structure of the southern residential area including the green space and the development structure on the south ring. The concept is seen as an excellent contribution to the development of the new district.
Project details
Design: POLA Berlin + Dichter Architektur
Project Location: Düsseldorf, Germany
Typology: Competition (Winning entry for the city of Düsseldorf competition)
Year: 2019
POLA
POLA stands for Poetic Landscapes.
Beauty is simply a source of happiness. We make people happy by designing beautiful spaces. Our designs focus on the history and atmosphere of each site we work on. As every place has its own unique story, we rethink and transform each space into a new poetic landscape.
POLA was founded by Jörg Michel in 2009 as an internationally operating landscape architecture studio. Their approach is based on a design-driven, process-orientated practice that creates, restores and enhances the urban and natural environments. The idea of cultural and emotional resonance is paramount to what they design. POLA offers implementable solutions that improve the quality of life and promote the sustainable use of resources.