To new shores

For more than 30 years, the 'Siegplatte' covered the central area of the river space in Siegen's city centre as a large car park and was thus emblematic of the car-oriented city of post-war modernism.
With the renaturation of the river course, the 180-metre-long new 'Siegtreppen', with the redesign of further squares, promenades and bridges in the direct vicinity of the Sieg, Siegen is getting back its city centre on the river. The clearly legible and generous open spaces combine the versatile demands of the residents for urban life and 'green' recreation in direct contact with the element of water.

The renaturalized Sieg, with its vegetated islands and stone fills on the banks, now allows the natural passage of aquatic and amphibian fauna in the inner city area. From the very beginning, this ecological water engineering measure was also linked to the goal of making the river accessible and experienceable for people.

The staircase sculpture to the Sieg is 180 metres long and is placed against the river in the scale of the city and becomes a playable stage for the dialogue between the city and the river. With a view of the Sieg, which is now close to nature again, the new steps to the Sieg become tribune-like meeting points. The south-east exposed seating steps lead in a generous gesture to the water and invite to linger. The river bank path and the lower seating areas are accessible to all via barrier-free accesses. The typical trees of the lower and upper Sieg form a contrast to the geometric austerity of the steps with freely placed grey-green willows. The willows are partially set into the stairs, with rhythmically placed monolithic benches made of solid Douglas fir forming the tree discs. Atmospheric recessed lights in the stairs and seating steps provide a simple but effective way of staging the Sieg experience in the evening.

The entire inner-city river space forms a design unity in its conception, materiality (high-quality, sawn natural stone) and vegetation, and becomes a 'stepping stone' between the upper city and the lower city. The existing Brüder-Busch-Strasse became a promenade along the river after the removal of the Siegplatte and the opening towards the water. From the Kunstweg, two cantilevered balconies with gastronomic use slide directly over the Sieg and extend the rather narrow eastern bank. The square-like bank situations at Maria-Rubens-Platz and Scheinerplatz offer sufficient space for larger urban events such as concerts, public viewing, weekly or Christmas markets.

The new Oberstadt Bridge, with the bronze statues of the Siegland symbolic figures Henner and Frieder, forms a generous pedestrian connection to the Kölner Tor. Derived from the models of historical arched bridges, the bridge's supporting structure lies below and allows unobstructed views between the banks of the Sieg. The concept of the restrained bridge as a serving bracket between the river sides was also applied to the redesigns of the Bahnhofsbrücke and the Apollo-Brücke. In the transition to the upper town, Sandstraße was narrowed to two lanes. With its widened sidewalks and a double-rowed avenue, it is now a generous city boulevard that is directly connected at the new and old bridges to the open spaces on the banks of the Sieg.

The spatial composition of the new open spaces is understood in its openness as a contrast to the inner-city density and, with its design conciseness, creates an independent counterpart to the surrounding architecture. The visual relationships between the important, townscape-defining buildings and the new open spaces are strengthened by clear structuring or made possible by 'open spaces' in the first place.

Award Green Infrastructure as a StrategyGerman Landscape Architecture Award 2017

Jury verdict: With the "Zu neuen Ufern" project, Siegen is getting back its city centre on the river. Squares, promenades and bridges along the Sieg are being redesigned. An important building block in this urban development are the Siegtreppen: Where for 30 years the traffic infrastructure of a parking lot on a concrete slab spanned the river and cut the city off from it, the Sieg was ecologically transformed. At the same time, a new public urban space was created. Here, urban life and recreation on the river meet.

Through the clear design gesture of the grand staircase and thus the re-turning of the city to the river, the project will develop an enormous radiance on the "rest of the city". The renaturalized section of the river, which has become the new focal point for Siegen through clear and cleverly used design means, is an outstanding example of the strategy of upgrading the urban space with green infrastructure and setting important impulses for urban development.