Urban living on a former barracks area
(Saarland)
Source: GIU mbh
The Federal state capital Saarbrücken (pop. 182,000) was one of the big German cities to experience the largest decreases in population in the past decades. Apart from the effects of structural change, cost-effective demarcation of building land in the surrounding communities, especially also in the French area Lorraine, and a lack of attractive and family-friendly housing offer in the city also played an important role. St. Arnual is in the south-west of the city centre of Saarbrücken and has good regional and transregional traffic connections. The historical urban district was incorporated into the Federal state capital in 1906 and is a fixed part of the central urban area today.
The inner city can be reached quickly, even on foot. The urban district is characterised by an extensive range of shops for daily and non-daily needs, surgeries, law firms, schools and kindergartens, and last but not least attractive gastronomy. Scenic, charming surroundings and attractive recreational areas easily reached on foot complete the location of St. Arnual.
Source: GIU mbh
On the site of the former artillery barracks in St. Arnual, an urban residential area with approx. 60-70 building plots for single and multiple-family houses is being built on an area of 3 hectares. The new neighbourhood is emerging in the interior of a block structure grown around the barracks area in the past century. The plots of land are characterised by their high flexibility regarding location, possible utilisation and permitted coverage depth. They all have small layouts (sizes from approx. 120 to max. 450 m²) and therefore only make up a comparatively small share of the costs of the whole building amount.
Characteristic for the complete area are, apart from the old trees, listed buildings and architectural elements from the time of the utilisation of the barracks (gateway, walls). They were - as far as possible - preserved and integrated into the urban development concept. The middle of the neighbourhood is dominated by a green ring of sycamore trees planted around 1898, to which the garden areas of the adjacent plots of land are allocated. The car-free playpath around the sycamore tree square complements the abundant opportunities to play in the close surroundings.
Quiet residential/play streets open into u-turn areas. Since the walking area is on the same level as the driving surface, this makes the street space especially easy to use as a play and communication area. Parking places were positioned at the outskirts of the neighbourhood as far as possible.
Footpath connections to the surrounding neighbourhoods, the shopping streets and the former town centre around the St. Arnual market exist and are extended through the new neighbourhood. This ensures good interlinking to the adjacent neighbourhoods.
In order to avoid coordination problems in the construction sequence and to utilise the cost-saving potential in the construction process, an extensive consulting and coordination process was made for the builders and architects in the form of several neighbourhood meetings before the start of construction, which was intensively used. Apart from the side-effect that it was possible to clarify a lot of questions concerning the development planning in advance, the meetings offered an early possibility for the builders to establish first contacts with each other. This led to the fact that an intensive feeling of neighbourhood quickly arose and is developing further. The inhabitants organised their own first neighbourhood festival in autumn.
The variety of the neighbourhood is also expressed in its architecture. No two houses are the same. Almost all builders build together with “their” architect. For the few people who do not want this, plots of land are also available which can be built on with property developers. Regardless of which way is chosen, everyone has agreed on complying with “rules”. Apart from the regulations of the legally binding land-use plans, the builders are provided with an extensive design manual in which “rules” for building that go beyond Plan B are determined and described in detail. These “rules” and the examination by the advisory council for design under the chair of the head of the building department are binding instruments for quality assurance which have been accepted by everyone. With this, unacceptable “lapses” are effectively avoided and the compliance with construction heights, depths and lines is ensured.
The advisory council for design consists of representatives of the City Planning Office, the project developer and external experts involved in the planning process. It regularly checks the submitted drafts regarding compliance to the rules and recommendations of the design manual in meetings, and advises the builders in terms of design quality in the residential area.
The design manual gives advice and regulations on the design of the houses, adjoining buildings and open space and becomes part of the property purchase agreement. With this, all builders have the certainty that the surroundings will be designed in the same high-quality fashion as their own property.
In autumn 2003, a competition for ideas for exemplary residential buildings was carried out among architects in the Saarland. The drafts developed and awarded there serve as suggestions for the building projects of the interested parties today. The award-winning architectural offices are recommended to the builders by the project developers.
The building costs are influenced by every builder by the choice of the construction standard. Individual projects with costs ranging between 170,000 and 350,000 € (gross) are expected.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2002 | First concepts for the plot of land still in City and Federal state possession |
| 2003 | Urban development conception, calculation of profitability, negotiations on transfer of ownership |
| 2003 | Transfer of ownership of the areas to the urban investment company GIU |
| 2003 | Start of the support of existing users for relocation or integration into the project |
| 2003 | Start of the media coverage and advertising of the location |
| 200 | Competition for ideas among architects in the Saarland |
| 2004 | Construction planning for urban development, development |
| 2004 | Development construction measures, active marketing |
| 2005 | Start of the private building construction measures |
| Autumn 2005 | Moving into the first new buildings |
| May 2006 | Moving into further houses, a total of approx. 50 building projects |
| 2007 | Planned completion |
Source: GIU mbh
Source: GIU mbh
Source: GIU mbh
The project is distinguished by a communicative process for building individual single-family houses with a large number of builders in an urban dense structure. During neighbourhood meetings all people involved were informed and involved.
A design manual serves as a guideline for the development of an urban spatial, open space planning and architecturally high-quality residential neighbourhood.
The projekt site ist to be found at postal code: 66119 - town: Saarbrücken - street: Barbarastraße 5.
Record inserted on 16.11.2006 by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) within the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR).
Last update: 22.08.2008
