Park Town Weckhoven

State Competition for Sustainable Neighbourhoods
Intergenerational neighbourhood development
Living in Neuss Weckhoven

Limited competition 2012
Client: Ministry of Building, Housing, Urban Development and Transport/ Neusser Bauverein AG/ City of Neuss

Team: Laura Casado Albo, Armin Behles, Matthias Hänsch, Jasper Jochimsen, Sebastian Nordmeyer, Iva Stoycheva
Landscape architects: Levin Monsigny, Berlin

The loose yet dense development of the new quarter addresses both the street and the park. It is divided into neighbourhoods that promote communal living. The flexible floor plan structures of the houses allow for sustainable living concepts.
 
The three-storey houses form a development carpet with an almost regular mesh size. They blend into the largely 2-4-storey surroundings and provide a counterpoint to the neighbouring solitary development.
 
Two types of houses are in use: Apartment blocks interpreted as urban villas and groups of five single-family houses, called "terraces" with reference to British examples of this type. The urban villas are lined up along Hülchrather Straße and along the curved frontage to the park, thus giving the neighbourhood its face on both sides. The terraces are placed between the two rows of urban villas.
 
Two urban villas and one terrace are grouped into neighbourhoods that gather around a common courtyard with a playground for small children. The terraces and the park-side urban villa have their entrances here; the other urban villa, whose main entrance is on the street, is connected via a side entrance to the "pocket square".

In the middle of the neighbourhood and in extension of the park path leading to the family centre, there is a public crossing that creates a connection between the park and the existing residential neighbourhood. The community house with a large garden is attached to this public path; the combined heat and power plant is housed in its basement.
 
The two-storey rental row houses are located in the north of the site. At the other end, an ensemble of urban villas forms the southern end of the quarter; the houses are pushed together to shield the quarter from Grevenbroicher Strasse. The group flats located here are linked to the adjacent elderly and nursing home.
 
In the urban villas one- to seven-room flats can be provided. Each floor can accommodate 2 to 4 residential units. The mixed housing offer is interesting for various groups and thus promotes intergenerational living. The floor plan structure is sustainable and flexible: flats can be combined or divided along the corridor zone on the long sides of the building. Flats with more than five rooms can be arranged by extending the corridor sideways around a bathroom. The two middle rooms on the long side and the large rooms on the narrow sides are fitted with flat partition walls and can thus be switched. Due to the equivalence of the rooms, the large flats are well suited as communal flats.
 
The freely financed single-family terraced houses are accessed by a spiral staircase in the middle of the building. In the event that accessibility for the elderly or disabled is required, an appropriate shower room can be installed on the ground floor or flexibly retrofitted; in this case, the kitchen and living room are located on the first floor.