oldenburg | 7th - 21th july 2012

GROUPWORK 4: Francesco Nasso | Joana Viera | Stefanos Adamakis | Hannes Varelmann

2nd PRIZE!

intermediate presentation

final presentation

"MIND-SCAPE" minute, by Nika Grabar

The project entitled “Mind-scape” presents an idea of distinct interconnected quarters that each draw on a certain theme from art to technology, university etc. The organizational structure of the site is composed of intersecting paths defining those quarters in a non-orthogonal shape that connect the surrounding city fabric to the location and thus create a web of meaningful places. The project is therefore very successful in demonstrating how the site’s immediate surroundings could be included in the new image of the city.

In addition the proposal puts forward an idea of a scientific boulevard, which runs parallel to the Ammerländer Heerstrasse thus stretching the idea of the boulevard from the edge of the site inwards, connecting it also to the railway station designed as a landmark, a tower, from which paths lead into different directions of the site. One of the strategic points of the proposal is also placing the new university to the north, next to the boulevard, connected to the existing university and in this way it functions as an “entrance point” to the location.

The new central square in which public activities are intended to take place is stretched between the “art-center” of the site and the train station tower. The "art-center" thus in a very successful way connects programmatic organization of the location with public transport and gives the proposal a wider dimension in thinking about how public space is to be thought today (central in a web of places), related to infrastructure (both connected with public transport and accessible by roads) in an open structure of the city connected to the existing fabric.

Architectural and functional qualities of the proposal arise from the conceptual grid. In that sense the project translates the idea from a larger to smaller scale without loosing the overarching ideas presented on the level of the master plan concept. It manages to show how the project could work on large scale by introducing a new structural identity of the place as well as spatial qualities of architectural solutions on smaller scale related not only to the main square, but also to individual housing units.

In doing so the proposal shows a vision of a new pulsating nucleus for the city of Oldenburg in which new forms of life may arise out of mixed uses of space. The grid allows for a coherent city pattern with areas that are dense, but can grow steadily in phases, which in another stronghold of the project. The students were able to demonstrate a high standard of graphic and oral presentation. The jury therefore decided to award the project with a second prize.