Ingolstadt (DE)

Inhabited milieu's challenges

The city of Ingolstadt is located in southeastern Germany and is the second-largest city in Upper Bavaria after Munich. Today, the northwestern urban area is characterized by a heterogeneous settlement structure of commerce, offices, housing, gray infrastructure, vacant lots, parks, and agricultural land, and is under significant growth and development pressure. The challenge is to design a new, lively, mixed-use district in the project area while considering traffic. The large roundabout, known as the Audi-Ring, can remain in its current form or be completely reimagined if a plausible alternative traffic solution is proposed.
The study area includes the roundabout, the northward adjacent commercial area with large-scale retail, and the areas to the east consisting of green spaces and gray infrastructure. These include the adjacent garden show grounds (a recently constructed, intensively maintained park), a green space with sports fields and agricultural land south of Richard-Wagner-Straße, and Fort-Haslang-Park. These fragmented green spaces are intended to be conceptually integrated into a cohesive unit in the Europan design and become a component of the city’s future second green ring.
We are seeking designs that demonstrate a forward-looking perspective for the northwestern urban area. The new district should serve as an important step in the direction of the future as a mixed-use urban block.

Questions to the competitors

The task is to develop forward-thinking urban planning ideas for the area around the current roundabout.What uses are neces- sary to create a lively district? What do the ground floor uses and connections to public spaces look like? What building typologies are suitable for multifunctional buildings? Should the roundabout be preserved? In its current form? Should it be rebuilt? Or disappear entirely? And if so, how can traffic be organized? Show us your ideas for mobility of the future.
How can a vibrant urban space be created in the project area that is ecologically and socially sustainable and offers attractive habitats for people, flora, and fauna? Social aspects can be found in the possible spatial program and in the formulation of the structural designs - where are meeting places, where can synergies be created through multicode design (e.g., living, working, social infrastructure)? How can «community» be promoted through structural settings and offerings? What are the private, public, and semi-public areas in the district, buildings, and open spaces?
How can flexible, adaptable building typologies be created that serve many, even changing, user groups and generate a social mix? What will happen to the asylum seekers currently in temporary containers in the project area? What does ecological urban planning look like, particularly with regards to climate protection and adaptation? How can land use and surface sealing be minimized? What are your plans for rainwater in the new district? Are there graywater uses? Animal-aided design? How can the city of the future be cooled?