Germany – Urban planning services – Zweiphasiger städtebaulich-freiraumplanerischer Wettbewerb nach RPW 2013 - Produktives Quartier Gutleut-West

The subject of the competition is an urban and open space planning design that shows how the transformation of a commercially dominated existing site into a mixed-use, climate-adapted, and community-oriented district can be achieved. In a city with high demand for space and limited inner-city development reserves, the following claims immediately converge here, which often spatially avoid each other elsewhere: housing and commerce, logistics and stay, social infrastructure and production, open space and density. The crucial question is therefore not which use ultimately prevails. More interesting is how a piece of the city can emerge from this competition. Gutleut-West is not an isolated development project, but a building block of Frankfurt's inner development – and a place where exemplary productive, just, and green urban development in the existing fabric can be demonstrated. The Mainufer and Sommerhoffpark are among the special spatial potentials of the area. Their qualities are to be taken up and, together with new open spaces and paths, developed into a coherent open space framework that allows for stays, connects the district, and at the same time responds to heat, heavy rain, and ecological requirements. The task of connecting different uses and requirements on a limited area is exactly the task that the funding programme "Multifunctional and space-saving: The residential district of tomorrow" of the State of Hesse is aiming for. Gutleut-West is supported as a model project. A development is sought that uses existing spaces and structures better, connects different functions, and avoids additional land use – without simply replacing the commercially dominated character of the site with a new use. The task of the competition is to develop its own spatial answer. What is primarily sought is not the most complete picture of a "finished" Gutleut-West at some point. Rather, an urban and open space planning framework is sought that provides orientation without restricting development. It should secure qualities through principles to be developed and at the same time open up scope – for different uses, stakeholders, owners, and development times. This is also the significance of the principles. A district that is to be developed over long periods needs more than a convincing site plan. It needs principles that will still hold when individual buildings are used differently, building plots are developed by other actors, or decisions are made at different times. The two competition phases approach this task from different distances: Phase I focuses on the big picture. The urban and open space planning framework is to be developed: the spatial structure, the logic of the mixed use, open space and mobility, as well as a coherent vision of the phased development. It should be recognisable which settings carry the idea and where scope is deliberately left. Phase II tests this framework. In the deepening area of the Mainufer and using exemplary building and use typologies and the deepening project in the potential area of the harbour, the framework developed in Phase I is checked, refined, and supplemented where necessary under more concrete spatial and functional conditions. In particular, the transitions between housing and commerce, the relationship between building and open space, and questions of access and logistics are deepened. At the same time, it must be demonstrated that the solutions are viable and implementable under different conditions of use and development. The preceding Open Participation Competition with a sketch competition as a reduction criterion opens up the thinking space. With Phases I and II of the competition, the spatial design work begins. Based on the selected competition result, a framework plan with integrated open space planning for the competition area and a quality handbook for Gutleut-West will subsequently be developed. In these, the spatial settings, principles, and scope developed in the competition will be concretised and secured as a reliable basis for the further development of the district and for the subsequent concept procedures for the municipal properties. The awarding authority provides a competition sum of a total of 240,000.00 Euro (net). The following distribution for prizes and recognitions is planned: 1st Prize: 66,000.00 Euro; 2nd Prize: 41,250.00 Euro; 3rd Prize: 24,750.00 Euro; One Recognition 33,000.00 Euro. The distribution of the competition sum (prizes, recognitions and reimbursements) can be newly determined by a unanimous decision of the jury. The announced competition sum is to be exhausted. With this payment, all legal claims regarding fee demands of the participants against the client for the services to be provided in the competition expire. Participants with a business address in Germany receive the prize money plus currently valid VAT. Foreign offices receive the prize money and the reimbursement net. A total sum of 75,000.00 Euro is provided for reimbursements. Each office that submits a valuable work will receive a reimbursement of 5,000.00 Euro (net) after completion of Phase I, provided that all 15 participants submit a valuable work. Valuable work is considered to be work that the jury allows for assessment. If fewer works are submitted, the total sum will be redistributed in equal shares among all submitted works.