Kassel (DE)

Inhabited milieu's challenges

Kassel is located in the geographical center of Germany and with around 200,000 inhabitants is the third-largest city in the state of Hesse. The city has been experiencing dynamic development in recent years, which is reflected both economically and in increasing numbers of inhabitants. The Kassel housing market has been characterized by rising rents and property prices in recent years. The housing supply, especially for households with low incomes, has deteriorated.According to the 2020 housing supply concept, around 8,000 homes would need to be built by 2030 based on population growth forecasts.
The major challenge for the city of Kassel is to create the necessary housing on the one hand and to achieve the desired climate goals on the other. The previously undeveloped northern outskirts area in the Wolfsanger/Hasenhecke district is of particular importance for settlement development, as the area is one of the few outer reserves for building development. The focus is on the development of the approximately 15-hectare area used for agriculture in the northern part and the approximately 10.5-hectare residential area of the 1960s with high-rise buildings and block buildings that adjoins it from the south.
The special urban and open space planning challenge lies in the balancing act between developing a new residential quarter with a qualified «green» settlement conclusion and integrating it with the existing settlement context and the adjacent landscape. This requires both a sustainably designed and at the same time compact, innovative and experimental housing construction and the use of internal development potential through opportunities for internal densification and improvement of the living environment in the existing neighborhood.

Questions to the competitors

The task is to develop a sustainable, innovative and experimental urban planning model that shows what compact, ecologically and socially sustainable housing development on the outskirts of a city might look like. Climate protection and adaptation, including minimizing land use and soil sealing, sponge city ideas, rainwater management, shading and cooling, and biodiversity, are given particular consideration.
How can a lively neighborhood emerge? What kind of housing does a socially sustainable housing development need that cor- responds to today’s heterogeneous society? What does a socially just, mixed (residential) neighborhood look like? What uses can be combined with living to generate a vibrant neighborhood? What building typologies are necessary for this?
How can communal living forms find a place? How do seniors live? How can a combination of living and care succeed in the neighborhood? What needs do large and small families, single parents, or students have? What might adaptive floor plans look like? How can a climate-friendly, climate-positive neighborhood be realized? What measures for climate protection and adapta- tion do you propose? Can climate protection and adaptation be understood as a design task?
What open spaces does a social, sustainable neighborhood need? How can meeting places be created where the neighborhood can meet? How can retreat spaces be designed? How and where are prominent public areas like small neighborhood squares or multifunctional street spaces where children can play found? What do semi-private open spaces look like? How can the new neighborhood be optimally integrated into the settlement and landscape?