ACME's Proposal for the Rathaus-Terrassen Competition in Weilburg, Germany

In September 2008, the historic city of Weilburg in Germany launched the “Rathaus-Terrassen” architectural contest as invited competition to design a replacement for an existing parking structure.

London-based practice ACME was one of the 13 invited offices and eventually won the 1st prize in the public voting process and was awarded the 2nd prize from the professional jury.

The project site is located below the dense medieval city center of Weilburg, in the steep landscape of the surrounding river valley.

The design of the Rathaus-Terrassen develops a typology of terraced landscape building as an integral part of the context, creating a very urban character towards the city while blending into the valley landscape on all other sides.

The horizontal stone fin facade varies to account for the differing demands of the building program of retail, restaurants, housing, and car parking by changing the form, density, dimension and frequency of the stone fins.

Here’s some more information from ACME:

The site is the largest continuous open space within the dense medieval city of Weilburg, where the stark and scenic contrast between the walled town and the surrounding sweeping landscape of the river valley remains clearly legible.

The design of the ‘Rathaus-Terraces’ originates from the Baroque terraced-landscape building typology, found nearby in the Weilburg Castle Gardens, and develops them into a contemporary form of landscape building.

A building as an integral part of the landscape allows the project to blend into the surrounding context while inviting inhabitation and managing to create specific urban character towards some if its city context. In this way, an active urban frontage can be created facing the old city centre, while the facade towards the river valley blends into the rhythm of rock cliffs and forested slopes along the Lahn river.

The project provides the required program of 19,200sqm of retail, surgeries, housing and car parking within a stratified massing, where vertical routes are carved in at specific moments to create connective visual sight lines and public routes between the city centre and river. In order to maximise activities within the project, functions like gastronomy and housing are dispersed widely within the overall massing. Access to each unit is provided through the new pedestrian cross-routes within the project and through lifts from the proposed public park landscape above. While the retail space orientates itself towards the city centre, the other functions differ in position and orientation to maximise south facing aspects, privacy and stunning views into the Lahn valley. The creation of new routes, public parks and a multitude of commercial and private programs ensures that the complex has a wide variety of uses, thereby maximizing its contribution to the regeneration of Weilburg’s historic core.

Similar to the strongly layered geological rock visible around the site, the building envelope is structured in horizontal layers. The fine scale of layers allows the envelope to change gradually from vertical to horizontal orientation, inviting different forms of use and inhabitation on its surface. The horizontally organized reconstituted stone fins filter daylight and natural ventilation to open areas such as corridors and the carpark while providing sun shading for other functions. Externally, the fins are used as steps, planters, benches and circulation spaces to create public routes and parks within the project. Variation of the fin thickness, spacing and position are used to form larger openings like entrances, balconies and windows where required.

Project Facts

Location: Weilburg, Germany
Client: City of Weilburg/ Nassauische Heimstätte (Projektstadt) in cooperation with a private investor
Functions: approx. 6,000 sqm retail, 2,000 sqm residential, 1,200 sqm Surgery/ Doctors Practices, and 280 parking spaces
Total GFA: 19,200 sqm
Project costs: approximately 15-19 Million Euro ($22-28 Million)

Credits

ACME: Julia Cano, Kelvin Chu, Sebastian Drewes, Deena Fakhro, Michael Haller, Daewon Kwak, Friedrich Ludewig, Isabel de la Mora, Andreas Reeg, Teresa Yeh

Images: ACME