Landscape shapes the city

The two-stage competition “Nördlich Kalkumer Schlossallee Düsseldorf” was largely about developing a residential area. This area is located close to nature near the river Rhine and the historic city centre of Kaiserswerth. The design by schneider+schumacher with GTL Landschaftsarchitekten was awarded 3rd prize. Their “Landscape shapes the city” concept envisages a nature-informed, sustainable neighbourhood that blends into the cultural landscape through re-parcelling the borders of the neighbouring settlement – while simultaneously integrating a large proportion of existing uses. The jury welcomed the gesture of drawing the landscape into the neighbourhood and commented: “The urban design is clearly laid out, forms a residential axis along the urban railway by the River Anger and, as a separated entity, a school and sports campus along Kalkumer Schlossallee(…)”.

For residents, the space becomes a local recreation area. A network of footpaths and cycle paths creates connections to the parts of the surrounding neighbourhood through open landscape. The urban design defines interconnected building plots in the sense of an “urban village”, which offers a diverse and flexible structure for building different types of housing and architecture for several generations. Individual building plots on the multi-generational campus display different residential typologies, which comprise semi-open spaces grouped around communal courtyards to form neighbourhoods for residents of various ages.