Urban planning competition Weihersberg

1st Prize

LOCATION

The location of the design awaits clarification. It is part of a kind of diffuse comet tail of natural spaces, intermediate spaces, scales and utilisation structures. Fractal and fragmented, the current image of the site gives no hint of spatial and atmospheric coherence. This contrasts with the dense, tightly knit head of the comet, located directly on the Rednitz, the centre of Stein. The task is therefore divided into different levels. Firstly, the location of the town between the watercourses of the Grundbach to the west and the Herbstbach to the east appears to be relevant. Both flow into the Rednitz and define the wider landscape. They create structure and direction in the landscape. The urban development concept utilises this presence of the watercourses and connects them in terms of open space. This connecting sequence of open spaces incorporates the particularly valuable open space of the Höllgarten in the west and links the eastern settlement area and thus the Herbstgraben with the new district. An initial urban development order is emerging. To the north of Weihersbergpark, on the edge of the fraying city, and to the south as the new edge of the city in spatial relation to the sports and school centre.

CITY SPACE

Within the new city districts, the focus is on creating comprehensible scales and thus spatial qualities. Appropriate localisation of the hotel/conference building blocks as well as mobility and festivities offer urban spatial potential for this. The fairground for the Kirchweih is an important place of collective understanding for the citizens of Stein. A centre. Not a functional area that is squeezed between a supermarket and a multi-storey car park for noise protection reasons. It is the Kirchweih that gives this event its name. And even if there will no longer be a church building to mark the occasion in the new plans, this place still plays a decisive role in the self-image of the new Weihersberg neighbourhood. Very lively during a certain time of the year, ideal for markets, sports and games during the rest of the year. A real reference space for the new residents. A quality and generosity of space that is spatially integrated into the northern neighbourhood and offers a new type of sunlit urban space with its slight westward orientation due to the topography. Surrounded by all public uses on the ground floor, it is spatially related to the higher, more strongly defined small neighbourhood square, the "parlour" next to the "town hall" of Kirchweihplatz, if you will. This is where the hotel is located, the gastronomy uses the favour of the south-west orientation of the open-air bar area, opposite a building block for a medical centre and assisted living for the elderly and other neighbourhood uses. The southern neighbourhood modules are accessed from Weihersberger Strasse. Between these building blocks, which are spatially open to each other, the structure of the district interlocks towards the park and from there further north to Höllgarten, the fairground, the new underground railway and on to Stein's city centre.