Lindwurmareal
Hamburg
Apartments: 188
Floor area: ca. 18,800 m2
Competition: 2020, 1st prize
Status: Design
Project team: Nils Lamm, Till Apsel
Client: d.i.i. Gruppe
In the southeast of Hamburg lies Lohbrügge-Ost, a large 1960s housing estate. As a typical commuter-belt settlement, it was designed to conform to the ideal of a modern garden city – it comprises high-rise blocks up to 17 floors high, lines of apartment blocks, row houses and free-standing single-family houses, all arranged amidst largely undifferentiated green spaces. Part of this estate is the “Lindwurm”, meaning “serpent”, a 400-metre long complex that snakes along Röpraredder street ending in two wings north and south. As such it is one of the longest residential blocks in Germany. Its individual sections, ranging from three to nine storeys in height, accommodate a total of 258 apartments. On behalf of d.i.i. Gruppe an extensive programme of regeneration was launched for the Lindwurm site. The existing structures and open spaces are being redesigned and a higher density of development created.
In this context, the design by Stefan Forster Architekten envisages 13 new buildings: On the west side – along Röpraredder – two rows of five individual blocks are to be built on what were the north and south car parks. These new blocks mark a distinct boundary to the site. The rows have prominent, clinker-brick end sections, five storeys high; the sections between have four storeys. Horizontal-format windows and clinker sections on the façades are linked into ribbons, providing horizontal articulation to the building volume. Protected courtyards, for the use of residents, are created between the new rows and the existing building. On the open spaces on the west side of the Lindwurm, three individual blocks in timber-hybrid construction are sensitively positioned among the mature trees. The new park-like quality thus created fits into the overall concept which, as well as residential courtyards, also envisages new semi-public and private spaces. All the apartments are barrier-free in design and have generously sized outdoor spaces in the form of balconies or loggias.