Essen – Berliner Platz/ University Campus

The workshop focuses on an urban area of approximately 120.000 squaremeters. Further to the north the university is located, being cut off from the site by 13 railway tracks of which 2-5 are not needed any longer. This will offer new chances for the area. Further to the south the planning area is directly connected to the inner city core. The ‘Berliner Platz’ is placed at the south-west corner and is at present nothing more than an underused traffic site.
The whole site which traditionally had been used as central market and as a circus plot is since many years under complete reorganisation. So far the former central market has been demolished as well as a number of surrounding buildings. A few years ago Essen established already a new master plan for the area, which was highly disputed. The critic stated that this plan will cut off the university even more and that traffic is given a too important role in the inner city. But so far the new development did never really ‘take off’‘. Investors kept back.

For the city of Essen and it’s further development the area is very important because it has a lot of potentials:
• It shall establish a strong link between the university and the inner city .
• The area is an important link to the ‘Western City’, which is presently under construction. This area belonged to the former enclosed sites of the Krupp enterprise. But the traditional steel factories don’t exist any more.
• Because of it’s strategic location, the area is of highest importance to whether and how the city of Essen succeeds to grow from inside out in an integrated and organic way.
• Beside the university there are other important institutions directly connected to the site: the Essen Labour Force Agency, a musical hall which just decided to close down, a highly frequented Cinemax, the retail house Karstadt, the furniture house IKEA.
• The area has a very bad image, particularly because there is still some red light business. Furthermore some cheep housing still exists as well as small retail business with a high proportion of foreign traders. .
• Currently the biggest fight in town is the political decision of the major party (SPD) to establish a new Philharmony building at the Berliner Platz. While the Social Democrats declare that this is necessary to develop the area, opposing political forces deny the need and the existence of financial resources for the building.
Now – also with the pressure to solve the current conflict about the Philharmony – the understanding has raised, that one needs to see the different perspectives altogether in order to find an economical and sustainable solution which fits all the different needs at once.

That is why community planning was given a first chance in Essen.