Experimental community - architectural design of a social housing project in Gelsenkirchen, Germany

Architectural Review, The, April, 1998 by Peter Blundell Jones

Designed with great economy of means on a heavily polluted former industrial site, this social housing scheme in Gelsenkirchen combines a surprisingly diverse and humane mix of dwelling types and external spaces.

In 1990 a housing competition was held as part of the IBA Emscher Park,(*)an ambitious programme to rehabilitate parts of the Ruhr. Half a century ago this region was Germany's black country and centre for heavy industry, but it is now an area of high unemployment and polluted wastelands. The brief called for around 250 dwellings and other social facilities on a 7.5 hectare site at the edge of central Gelsenkirchen. Competitors were encouraged to adopt a green strategy in terms both of healthy environment and low energy use. Graz-based Szyszkowitz-Kowalski won first prize with a complex and imaginative scheme most of which is now built. The integral kindergarten has been in operation since 1996, and about two-thirds of the dwellings are occupied.

The project site had problems typical for the area. Lying between residential streets and an old railway yard, it belonged for 80 years to Kuppersbusch, manufacturers of ovens and kitchen furniture. This firm still exists in Gelsenkirchen, but moved out in 1984 to a less restricted place. The careless and ignorant habits of early industry had left the vacated ground so polluted that the soil had to be removed and replaced to a depth of six metres. The Germans are very much more conscious than other people about this: they fear that trees and plants will bring toxins and heavy metals to the surface to be absorbed by people and animals. Here three artificial hills were raised with imported soil. This landscaping gesture both strengthened the idea of a linear park and elevated the ground above the most deeply-lodged pollution.

The artificial hills, already in place by the time of the competition, were the initial inspiration for Szyszkowitz-Kowalski's organic-looking site plan. By following the new contour line with cranked lines of dwellings they produced three separate enclaves of varied size, each with an additional inner core. The subdivision reduced the mass of dwellings to manageable batches, while the broadening of the triangular site towards the south end gave each a different relationship with the neighbouring street. The northernmost enclave is only half present, opening its heart to the street, but the other two have urban sides mediating with the pattern of the surrounding streets and containing shops shared with the neighbourhood.

The hearts of the three enclaves have protected social courts where gathering is intended at outdoor cafe tables and other social magnets. But the three are also linked by paths on each side of a newly created watercourse which forms the main spine of the development. Expanding between the two larger enclaves to form a long oval space with pointed ends, it is the green heart. All the surrounding buildings disgorge rainwater into a series of high-level aqueducts, which deliver their contents in turn via open chutes into the watercourse. The water flows on into the oval space, whose sunken floor becomes a temporary lake. This elaboration of the rainwater apparatus celebrates the green theme by reminding people that water is a precious asset; it recovers the memory of lost preindustrial rivers and, as a symbol of purity, it also opposes the memory of pollution. The aqueducts around the central space give it much stronger definition, looking almost like a series of giant order columns supporting a thin entablature.

The site plan provides a rich mix of spaces from the definitively urban on one side through the central garden-like treatment to the relatively wild linear park on the other. Changes of level across the section are also exploited, both with the central valley for the rainwater and with the steps rising into the surrounding hills. By spreading them about in different ways it parks a surprising number of cars without resorting to underground arrangements, and without producing the impression that vehicles dominate. It also assembles a rich social mix. Flats are both rented and owner-occupied, and vary in size from single persons to large families. There is sheltered accommodation for old people. Some 15 shops are included to animate the urban side, and those which opened early are doing well. Children's playgrounds are scattered through the development, and the kindergarten takes the triangular north end of the site. The heart of each enclave includes shared elements such as meeting rooms and bookable guest-bedrooms for visitors.

The dynamic geometry of the plan cleverly conceals the fact that the housing is economically built largely with straight buildings between standard parallel party walls. With rooms looking out to back and front, the middle band of each block carries kitchens and bathrooms, allowing economical service runs from a central duct crossing the party walls. All this is good rational Modernist practice, but the architects do not just switch over to auto-pilot. They humanize and individualize with a series of variations. A typical block is cranked in the middle and has skewed ends: the middle is opened at ground level to absorb a few car spaces, while the ends are exploited by flats with special corner rooms. Second, every other unit is allowed to rise a storey, with the central ones going up two storeys. This makes tower-like projections stressing the rhythm of the party walls, and brings each block to a crescendo. Third, flats can also vary in length. Keeping to the same back line, they step in and out on the entrance front, producing a series of semi-enclosed areas for entrance porches and balconies. Finally, dwellings can be small or large, flats or maisonettes, so there are endless variations to be played with different combinations of rooms and floors, which express themselves externally in many entrance arrangements, the upper ones via external stairs with generous canopies. The whole operates like a well-played fugue, maintaining the rhythm for economy's sake but turning every given difference to account.