IBA Thüringen

Nordhausen-Nord, with some 2,000 residents, is one of the town’s most popular residential districts. The proportion of older people is above average, and the majority of the prefab housing blocks are partially renovated.

To improve quality of life for the inhabitants and to make it attractive to a broader spectrum of residents, Nordhausen council and the SWG municipal housing association are planning the sustainable revitalisation of the quarter. To this end, a team of architects and landscape architects have developed a neighbourhood concept that considers the themes of housing, mobility, open space, energy, water as well as social aspects at a neighbourhood level. Best practice standards for the environmentally-conscious design of different kinds of residential courtyards, and new models for the design of communal open space aim to create a range of more individual environments for both existing and new residents. An architectural competition in 2019 for the model conversion of an ensemble of prefab housing blocks and its courtyard transformed the monotonous backdrop of the mass housing blocks into three ‘mult-italented blocks’: Sophie, Ludwig and Franzi. The design proposes a variety of moderate structural interventions, ranging from small modi cations to the ground plan to provide barrier-free access and improve living conditions, to communal terraces and garden areas.

The sustainable and resource-conscious approach to revitalising the quality of life in a mass-housing estate promises to be a pioneering pilot project that can serve as a model for other similar residential environments.