Platensiedlung

Transformation

Location: Frankfurt am Main
Year: since 2018
Residential units: 688
Gross floor area (GFA): 59 100 m²
Client: ABG Frankfurt Holding GmbH
Project team: Jörg Artmann, María Aparicio Álvarez, Joaó Aires, Frank Baum, Denis Jugović, Julian Kusnawijaya, Rubén Robledo Ibáñez, Krisztina Szalai, Fernando Diaz Vallino
Address: Sudermannstraße 1–42 / Stefan-Zweig-Straße 1–17, 60431 Frankfurt am Main
Other functions: row of shops, commercial, residents' meeting room, 2 chidren's day nursery
Photos: Lisa Farkas / Jean-Luc Valentin, Skykamera

Before transformation: View from the west across the Platensiedlung, July 2018

Situation

Demand for affordable housing in cities and urban areas is growing; at the same time building land is an ever scarcer resource. Meeting that demand and reducing land use are twin challenges for local-authority planners. How can they create much needed affordable housing and at the same time make better use of limited space? The many large-scale housing estates built in cities like Frankfurt in the post-war period offer potential here. In contrast to the late 19th-century inner-city districts, the density of development on these estates is very low, but the open spaces in between the linear housing blocks are mostly poor in quality and undifferentiated. There is a lack of public space with an urban character. The mono-functional use does not engender a lively impression. This was also the situation in the Platensiedlung in Frankfurt – today this estate is one of the largest redevelopment projects in the whole of Germany.

History and location

The Platensiedlung is a housing estate featuring free-standing linear blocks with spaces in between. It was built in the 1950s as a “housing area” for soldiers of the US Army and their families. After the American military withdrew in the 1990s, the estate was sold first to the German government and then on to the local housing developer ABG Frankfurt Holding, which has owned it ever since. The estate lies in the district of Ginnheim in Frankfurt, not far from the headquarters of the German Federal Bank and the Europaturm telecommunications tower, about three kilometres north-west of the city centre. Platenstrasse, running east-west across the site, divides the estate into a northern and a southern section. The transformation programme concentrates in the first phase only on the northern section, which consists of a total of 19 three-storey linear buildings with a pitched roof. The residents´ profile was very homogeneous, as 60 percent of the apartments were for subsidised rental. Because of the monostructure, there was a lack of shops, doctors´ surgeries, cafés and children´s day nurseries in the district.

The Platensiedlung in 2016. The broad open areas between the blocks were alternately used for parking or were grassed over. Photo: Stefan Forster, October 2016.

In phase one the pitched roofs of the blocks were removed and two more storeys added, using a timber module system, to create five storeys. New six-storey buildings were added at the ends of the linear blocks, thus creating clearly defined urban spaces. Finally the open areas were redesigned as communal green courtyards and street spaces with public access.

Transformation

In this northern part of the estate, the plan involves a range of targeted measures to increase development density. In phase one, the roofs of the existing housing blocks are removed and two new floors added, using a modular timber construction, to bring the total number of floors to five. Then six-storey extensions are added to each block, in the form of end sections, or bridge or gateway structures. These changes to the development structure and the architecturally distinctive end and gateway sections are in line with the guiding principle of transforming estate living into city living, and give rise to clearly defined urban spaces oriented towards the typology of the city block. The combination of architectural and planning strategies to enliven outdoor spaces and the creation of affordable housing for all strata in society is what makes the regeneration of the Platensiedlung a model project for sustainable urban development.

Social mix

By increasing the number of storeys and adding new sections, 681 new affordable apartments are being created on a site that is already developed. Half of all the new apartments are being built as social housing, a further 177 residential units are reserved for students. A mix of independently and local-authority funded rental apartments and student accommodation gives rise to a diverse neighbourhood. And, being backed by the local authority, through ABG Frankfurt Holding, it can be assured that the newly created apartments will remain affordable for the long term. Building costs are lower thanks to innovative procedures such as serial prefabrication of timber structures for the top of the existing blocks. Throughout the building measures the original residents were able to remain in their homes. This also helped retain the cohesion of the local community.

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All the timber modules were extensively prefabricated in a specially built on-site factory. This made it possible to add two floors to all the 19 existing blocks within the space of just 15 months, between September 2018 and January 2020.

Delivery and installation of a module in the Platensiedlung, December 2018.

View of the Platensiedlung looking south (in the background Europaturm, the German Federal Bank and the Frankfurt skyline), October 2021.

Outdoor spaces and ecology

Even after the expansion, the Platensiedlung will still have a high proportion of airy, open and green spaces. By filling in the ends of the existing blocks, the spaces between these blocks are given new meaning, and they become usable for private gardens. Another benefit of this is that along the street, Platenstrasse, a clear line of development is created for public services in the form of shops and cafés for example. Within the development the communal areas become more defined. The additional sections serve not only to increase development density, they also play a role in spatial differentiation – into private, communal and public – oriented towards classical urban spaces. Making use of an already developed estate in this way saves resources and reduces space consumption to a minimum.

Functional mix

As part of the process of turning the estate into modern urban living space, a row of nine shops and commercial units is being created along Platenstrasse, to serve local needs. Other new facilities include two children´s day nurseries and a tenants´ meeting space, as a place for the residents to come together. Car parking is available in the underground car parks located below the open spaces between the blocks. This measure is associated with lifting the open-air spaces to the level of the raised ground floor, which means the residents in the ground-floor apartments have level access.

Adding two storeys to the 19 existing linear housing blocks. Photos: Stefan Forster, February–August 2019.

One of the first end sections to be added – at the junction of Stefan-Zweig-Straße and Platenstraße. It accommodates a row of shops on the ground floor. November 2020.

The new buildings added at right angles to the existing blocks give rise to protected communal areas such as courtyards and small open spaces (seen here on Stefan-Zweig-Straße), November 2020.

Newsmeldungen