living and working in one area

The property is located at the gateway to one of the most job-intensive areas of the city and at the same time has excellent public access. The concept of a trend-setting urban quarter, whose development engine is the combination of living and working in one place, was developed from these conditions.

Since November 2019, drafts for the area have been developed in a discursive urban development and open space planning expert procedure. On 6 March, the nine-member committee of the chief evaluators of the procedure decided that the site should be developed on the basis of the urban planning design by David Chipperfield Architects Gesellschaft von Architekten mbH in collaboration with Wirtz International Landscape Architects.

The chairman of the panel of senior experts, Mr. Miller Stevens, declared the winning design: "The design creates a concise form with the simple means of various courtyard and high-rise buildings, which, with their differently proportioned, green and quiet courtyards, offer a high quality of living appropriate to the location. At the same time, the high-rise buildings positioned at the corners visually connect the area with the surrounding city. As a robust construction, this design can enable the coexistence of affordable living and short distances to the workplace. At the same time, it creates an unmistakable character from the public space to the pergola and the individual apartment".

Sebastian Scheel, State Secretary for Housing in the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing: "Over the next few years, a completely new urban quarter will be created on part of the former Knorr-Bremse industrial site. The idea of combining business and residential areas in this location was born not least because of the good transport links to the site. The mix of uses now envisaged in the winning design creates an urban setting and successfully demonstrates how living and working can be combined. The takeover of the apartments by the state-owned HOWOGE also ensures that Berliners with small and medium incomes will be able to afford a home here in the future.

A mixed quarter with over 1,000 apartments and approx. 370 apartments for students as well as a total of approx. 90,000 square meters of commercial space is to be built on the site, which is located directly next to the Marzahn S-Bahn station. The state-owned housing company HOWOGE has already acquired the apartments on a turnkey basis. The aim is to create planning law before the end of this legislature and to start the shell construction of the commercial section in 2021. The first apartments could be built between 2022 and 2024. Completion is planned for 2027.