Living on Buchheimer Weg, Cologne-Ostheim update of a 1950s settlement

The settlement "Buchheimer Weg" from the 1950s will be demolished in favor of a replacement new building. The aim is to preserve the charm of the spatial figures, especially the flowing spaces between the buildings and at the same time to integrate current usage requirements, in the open space are particularly divided private garden plots to mention.
The angular shape of the new buildings divides the open space into intimate areas. In addition to development and meeting points, private gardens, tenant gardens, areas for stay and play as well as zones for stationary traffic were realized. In addition, areas have been created that are specially designed for people with functional disabilities and people with dementia, and encourage them in their living environment and integrate them into the neighbourhood as an enriching component. Overall, a flowing open space is created that connects the individual parts of the settlement with each other and re-establishes contact between the settlement and the open landscape/adjacent quarters.
The task includes all green spaces, playgrounds, traffic facilities, and the development of a new public space.

The Buchheimer Weg housing estate in Cologne Ostheim was completed in April 2012. In the last five years, rows of residential buildings from the 1950s have been demolished here and replaced on the same site by a characteristic new quarter of subsidised housing. The buildings were outdated in many respects and could no longer be brought up to current technical and energy standards. In addition, newly tailored apartment sizes and a new mix of apartments, as well as a redensification of the area by 25% were essential goals of the new development. The new urban planning and open space concepts are based on the specific qualities of post-war modernism and derive a contemporary solution.

The housing estate is part of the larger, coherently developed post-war Ostheim neighbourhood and so, during the 2004 competition, the question arose as to whether there might not also be good features of the area from which one could learn. The so-called flowing space stood out. Flowing space is the spatial implementation of the idea of offering as much light and air as possible to the inhabitants of dense urban settlements. The terraced buildings were therefore widely spaced, with paths, a little equipment, lawns and trees. However, this did not result in a park landscape.
This large available space between the row buildings is nevertheless an attractive legacy from the point of view of open space planning, but in the existing buildings neither the row buildings as an urban ensemble were attractively successful, nor were the open spaces enlivened and sufficiently integrated.

The planning team ASTOC architects and planners with urbane gestalt johannes böttger landschaftsarchitekten developed a concept that again leaves wide distances between the buildings. The alignment of the new buildings with each other and a bend in the ground plan of the buildings create diverse urban spaces. The landscape architecture designs new meanings and uses for the large open spaces between and around the buildings and creates a distinctive place.
An essential goal is to differentiate between areas with a public character and settlement-related spaces through the graduated design of the open spaces. The transitions are fluid, the settlement is accessible down to the ground. Near the streets, paved areas and large trees dominate the character, green spaces with park character and coherent recreational spaces with playgrounds are located further inside, in the residential area. Enclosed by the ring-shaped Grevenstrasse, the result is a structurally defined centre with six large central buildings. The most important communal spaces are located in the interior, while tenant gardens create distance to the privately used spaces.
The arrangement of many tenant gardens is one of the essential settings in the open space concept. Connected areas of parceled tenant gardens, referred to as garden islands, form spatial figures on which the buildings stand. The gardens achieve privacy for the ground floor apartments located on the zero level and that much life radiates into the settlement space.
The gardens each have doorways that allow gardening and secondary access. They also promote informal social interaction, the communal courtyards thereby gain adjoining residents, increased social control is the result. The privet hedges enclosing all the gardens vary in height. Up to 1.90 m if screening is desired, such as to garbage areas, or only 1.20 m if contact is desired, such as to the green areas of the courtyards. The hedge heights are mediated with diagonal top edges, the course is given by corner posts.
The large proportion of tenant gardens in the total area also ensures relatively low costs, both in creation, as well as in the maintenance of the plant.
The very high proportion of unsealed areas has an ecological value. The precipitation water from the path areas can be directly infiltrated, a rigol system disposes of the roof water. Some of the beautiful trees could be preserved, which, together with the adjacent green structures, help to give the settlement a finished look from the start.

The densely built housing estate is equipped with an appropriately close-meshed path network. The buildings have through staircases with ground floor entrances on both sides, there are many connection points and good accessibility to the play areas and common areas. In addition, a large youth playground and an allotment garden nearby are taken as an opportunity to create a pathway through the area. This pathway has a public character and is specially designed. The path width changes from a square-like widening to a 150 cm narrow main path, the minimum under the aspect of barrier-free construction. The water-permeable cast material allows the resulting polygonal shape and makes it possible to have surfaces without slopes and to do without cost-intensive drains. In addition, the material is green and corresponds with the facades.
The side paths are paved, again using a green, seepable material; less important paths and trails that run along existing trees are made water-bound.
In the area of the traffic areas, graded materials are also used. The public streets have asphalt roadways, courtyards with the focus on development, address formation fully sealed parking spaces, parking spaces that are less in focus are covered with lawn joint paving. Further inside necessary traffic areas, also for the escape routes are integrated on paths or made over gravel lawns, so that they are not perceived as traffic routes in everyday life.

The open spaces do not take a back seat in this project, they stand out and create a framework of the settlement over the surfaces. The open space planning formulates a strong expression through the pointed use of colored materials and special components and creates a counterpart to the urban setting through building structures. The path building materials pick up the colorfulness of the facades, the playful area boundaries with many kinks in long lines complement the architectural language.
In the succession of identical house types, these settings create recognizable differences and help to individualize the living situation. The place gets a clear address and furthermore a certain special position in the district.
In 2012, the project won a builder's prize in the category of new construction, as well as the newly endowed prize for open space design in housing development from the Association of German Landscape Architects. In addition to the high design quality achieved, the jurors attested to the project's exemplary character, according to which the solution approaches applied here should also be used for other settlement areas of this era.

(Text was published in 'DW | Die Wohnungswirtschaft' Issue 06/2012