Völklinger Strasse
Urban Renewal with a Sensitive Touch
  • Location
    Düsseldorf
  • Project
    New construction of an urban quarter with office, residential and daycare center
  • Procedure
    Competition, 1st prize
  • Client
    PANDION Real Estate GmbH
  • Architect of record
    Caspar Schmitz-Morkramer
  • Technical building equipment
    Drees & Sommer, Cologne (office)
  • Structural engineering
    wh-p Ingenieure, Stuttgart (office)
    kevee consulting, Cologne (residential)
  • Fire protection
    Corall Ingenieure, Meerbusch
  • Landscape architecture
    studio grüngrau, Düsseldorf
  • Facade planning
    DS-Plan Ingenieurgesellschaft, Cologne (office)
  • Building physics
    DS-Plan Ingenieurgesellschaft, Cologne (office)
    Kurz und Fischer, Düsseldorf (residential)
  • Planning and construction period
    2019–2025
  • Service phases
    1–5
  • Gross floor area (AG/BG)
    40,155 m²/19,752 m² (office);
    17,251 m²/6,326 m² (residential)
  • Certifications
    WiredScore Platinum; DGNB Gold (Pre-certificate)
  • Visualizations
    caspar./HHVision
  • Photos
    HGEsch

Located in the Düsseldorf neighborhood of Unterbilk, the former Siemens site is uniquely positioned at the junction of the dynamic Medienhafen and the traditional Lorettoviertel – bridging historical and modern, cosmopolitan and bourgeois. Awarded first prize in a competition in late 2016, our proposal for a high-rise building and a mixed-use quarter is designed to high architectural standards with generous open spaces. With the aim of enriching the surrounding area by creating a lively neighborhood, we drew on the locale’s established qualities and also designed a complex integrating two mid-rise blocks, six to seven stories each. Rather than imposing a non-local structural grid, our approach respects the historical axes and green spaces in the spirit of sensitive urban repair. Central to our design emerging from the local context is a wide boulevard running from south to north, envisioned as a premium green space that culminates in public squares at both ends.

Working and Living

The new quarter boasts a vibrant mix of offices, apartments, restaurants, a daycare center, and a network of green open spaces. The offices are located in the long, six-story wing and at the end of this larger block along bustling Völklinger Strasse, inside the OFFICEHOME Rise. This 17-story office tower, distinguished by an indented, glazed midsection – the bikini story – rises impressively from its base and is crowned with a green roof garden. Together with the architectural city gate spanning the street, it sets a striking landmark. At the tower’s base, a spacious entrance hall leads to a conference center and a restaurant. The facade of the office building is clad in profiled sheet metal elements, with floor-to-ceiling glazing that combines every two floors into elegant vertical window fronts. The residential section, which closes this block on the northeast, offers a range of apartment sizes – from two to five rooms – and financing options, with privately financed, publicly subsidized, and price-controlled units. All apartments enjoy a protected position facing a beautifully landscaped courtyard on one side and the green boulevard on the other encouraging community interaction.

Living, Playing, and Gathering

PANDION Next extends the existing small-scale development pattern of Neusser Strasse, mirroring the western side with various apartment types along the green boulevard but with exclusively privately financed units here. The daycare center, also easily accessible from the neighboring residential areas, utilizes the green inner courtyard as outdoor play spaces.

For the facades of the residential buildings, we prioritized durable, environmentally friendly, and regional materials, creating a vibrant aesthetic with clinker bricks in two shades. This district is designed to harmoniously combine the diversity of its neighborhoods, uses, and residents. The green spaces act as a unifying element between living and working environments, as well as between the old and new, with play and recreation zones, rows of both old and newly planted trees, community gathering spots, and street cafés that already infuse vibrant life into this new part of Düsseldorf-Unterbilk.

Project team