TRANSFORMING BORDERS

architecture border carpet collages Landscape market reuse Sustainability Transformation typology

Rathauspl. 20, 67059 Ludwigshafen am Rhein
Collaboration with Liwen Wang, Benedikt Kurz and Juliana Keßen
Curated by WM D. Korwan, Sandra Lentes, Dr. Simon Colwill & WM F. Zwangsleitner
Concept, TU Berlin 2020|21

Welcome everybody to the brief introduction of our Project

Transforming Borders:

Borders of different kinds can be found everywhere.

The massive Hochstraße viaduct is dividing the two districts "Hemshof" in the north and "Mitte" in the south.

The Rhinegallery in the east is seperating the Riverfront from Mitte and south of Rathaus center, even Rathausplatz is dominated by a big ramp leading down to the underground tram station

Also Rathaus Center itself, generates an urban border in between North and South.

Looking closer at the internal structure of the building we found that it is subdivided in spaces for human usage and spaces predominantly used by cars. To separate these different spheres, there is one single wall running through the entire building, which brings the border to the architectural scale.

Along this internal border, there are interesting situations to be found: e.g. ill fitting slabs, due to different hights between floors on either side, cars parking next to offices and ramps leading over exhibition spaces.

This finding became the foundation of our draft. In order to get this Obsolete Typology to work again and transfer it into a more functional and humanfriendly afterlive these Borders, both urban and architectural, needed to be overcome and transformed into Connecting elements instead of dividing ones.

In order to achieve that, we assembled a Toolbox of various strategies:

1. Dismantling walls, to make different heights between floors visible;

2. Dismantling slabs to bring light in and allow vertical view connections;

3. Adding new elements to connect formerly divided parts of the building.

The border we had found should now transform into a Three Dimensional Circulation System, a "Meridian", guiding people through the building by:

- connecting different function areas along the long axis of the building;

- to allow vertical traffic to happen in an interesting way;

- guide people from W-E while allowing at the same time transmission through the former border.

In order to integrate exterior and interior spaces and bringing light into the big Volume of RC there will be various Courtyards excavated along the Meridian. The former Border also defines the locations of Entrances opening to the urban space and thereby generating access to the "internal Streets" which lead through various levels.

The Program keeps the people`s needs in focus, in order to bring them together and transform RC once more to the lively heart of the city centre. That includes the LU-Market, Cultural and Sport Facilities, all open and accessible at any time. Transparent elements and balconies along the meridian allow passerby to stick around and watch these all these activities.

As the outer borders of Rathaus Center shrink to the inner wall,accumulate there and by that transform to a Meridian, a connective Element which spreads into the surrounding districts. It extrudes along the border to E&W to also connect the edges of the district and become the backbone of a pedestrian friendly connection in between HBf in the West and River Rhine in the East.

The main meridian, which acts as the central element of Ludwigshafen, requires a function that would bring people with different cultural background and interests together. The market is such a unifying function.

After analyzing various market typologies, we identified circulation through a sequence of open (e.c. courtyard) and closed spaces (e.c. street), as well as the location of functions and work with light.

We divided the big volume of RC into several modules, each of them providing an special function to bring Ludwigshafen heterogeneous society together: education, work, food, culture and sports. Each of the modules is combined with a permanent market inside and temporary markets outside. Analyzing the typology of Asian shopping streets with a horizontal supply chain organization, where there is production inside and sales outside, we deployed this system vertically, adding a resource to the upper level.

Thus, we organized a complex of blocks where on the upper floor you can get a resource, for example, products for urban farming, which can be put into production at a culinary workshop and sold at the lower level at a food market. A resource can be something non-physical, such as an exhibition or a library, that can inspire something to be created.

The interconnection of different types of markets, both indoor and outdoor, goes through a common carpet pattern that extends into neighboring streets, luring people to the LU market.

You already know that the border is connecting and guiding. The same applies to the carpet. Our idea is to design the carpet in such a way that it gives people orientation, but also invite them to stay - to discover the building and the immediate surroundings.

First we analysed the site with existing urban spaces and how they are connected in the moment. We have noticed some gaps that prevent pedestrians from strolling pleasantly through the city. So streets as connecting element and how they are facing urban spaces got quiet important.

The demolition of the elevated road creates a lot of empty spaces. Our solution on how to deal with the emerging unlocations: We roll out a carpet! Our building becomes part of it.

To meet the different spaces, we have developed two patterns: the left one spread from the building. It's an interpretation of the grid into a geometric carpet pattern. The right natural shaped pattern is spreading to the river. It's the idea to bring nature into the city. That is why there are also some water elements that carry the river to the building.

Through the geometric pattern we create a formal space. Through the natural shaped pattern we create an informal space. Sometimes these two contrasts meet and a third special space comes up.

We have assigned different market types e.g. weekly market on the left hand side or seasonal market on the right hand side to the spaces to match the pattern of the carpet as well as the surroundings.

At the weekly market many people buy their groceries and other daily necessities. From the café, some watch the hustle and bustle over a cup of coffee.

Here is seasonal market and many people use the space to spend their lunch break. Friends meet here to do sports or other activities together. Children play on the small hill or with the water fountains.

After having talked about the urban interventions we continue now with the architectural changes we applied to transform the original Rathaus Center into to the new LU Market.

We decided to strip the buildings facade, but keep the original structures and most of the original slabs.

As a second step we removed the attached volume on the roofs and all original partitions of the interior.

In order to bring light into the big volume we applied three steps of excavation.

First, we cut along the central shopping street, to break through the building and establish a connection between the two districts. Thereby revealing the distinctive shapes of the former city council hall, the tower and the Meridian. Secondly, we excavated courtyards along the meridian, removed slabs where needed and finally added cuts at the buildings edges to mark entrances and improve lighting of some dark spaces. This also splits the building's volume optically into several smaller parts to better fit the surrounding city structure. As a next step we started adding new elements: most importantly the market, which is located in -1&0 level. In order to get our vertical program to work, we had to rearrange vertical traffic, including the ramps to make the meridian's higher levels accessible from the city. As a final step we add various roof shapes for more lighting and to display the different blocks of usage also on the outside of the building.

This Axo gives an overview of the spatial structure of the transformed building and the desired atmosphere of its surroundings. You see the roof trellis trees on the left square and the multi stem and lage ones to the right. also the central square at the foot of the tower can be seen being bridged by the Meridian. You can see how the meridian starts on the eastern market and follow its course through the building, first passing the central yard, then crossing the auditory, at the base of the tower, the central plaza framed by theatre and spiral staircase and how it the ramps are leading down to the ground on the northwestern corner.

Cutting this building we see how the organic carpet coming from the river meets with the geometric carped flowing from the indoor market to the outer spaces and form a unified space which extends into the surrounding quarters.

Jumping into the Market we can overlook the food court and see how the slabs of the ground level were removed to create the wide and open atmosphere of the market hall. The glazed facade`s part on groundlevel even allows the natural illumination.

Looking at the floor plan of the -1 Level we see the organisation of the different market zones. Art and book market is in the upper part, the Food market is in the lower part. The left section shows how skylights bring daylight to the lower levels even in the center of the building where as the right section shows how the market is connected to the central Meridian, highlighted in red.

This perspective illustrates the view from the new Urban Boulevard into the building. On the left side we can see the vertical organisation of the art block: the uppermost level is for the resource exhibition space, underneath is for the artists workspaces and underground is the Art market.

The red arches in the background mark the guiding system of the Meridian...

...which can be seen in this floor plan of the 2nd level as well as in the section below.It allows continuous traffic from one side of the building to the another and at the same time serves as distributor to the different functional spaces in both, horizontal and vertical direction. In order to give you a better understanding of the spaces it creates let us take you on a tour.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to our Meridian Tour! We start on the western Square and it will take us along the Meridian to the other side of the building. As we approach the site please notice the transition of the flooring.

Arriving on the busy market square with its roof trelli trees we also have to mention the distinctive mushroom shaped shelters for the marketpeople. They were priviously used as Busstopshelters and survived the transformation .

In the background the Main entrance to the Indoor market is to be noticed, with the ramps leading up to the higher levels of the Meridian.We ignore them for now and enter the market zone. We are now on the central axis which leads once through the building. The stairs to the left lead down to the market whereas the arcades in front of us want to guide us along a courtyard further down the meridian, but we'll pass through them to the stairs on the right and follow them to the higher levels.

On the first landing we overlook parts of the food market and the wide stairs connecting it to the center of the complex. Above we get a first impression of the connections provided by the meridian in various levels.

Continuing up the stairs to the second floor we reach a situation, where the former border has been cut open in order to allow a connection between the formerly divided spheres. You can still tell the difference in height between the floors on either side which is overcome by some stairs. In the background behind this friendly lady here you see the open courtyard with the Office Tower in the back.

We will continue up the stairs to the top most level, where the open space of the Urban Greenhouse is waiting for us, which is used by citizens to grow their own vegetables. We have reached the highest point of the Meridian and will follow it towards the amphitheatre, at the base of the tower.

We will do a little jump back to the second level and look backwards to get an idea of the network of stairs,bridges and open spaces they connect. This amphitheater is a place at the intersection of political and cultural life, where everyone can be heard by the city authorities and newly learned artistic skills can be performed.

Another jump, a little further east brings us to the more professional location of the trade: the Theatre within the volume of the former Ratssaal, we are standing at the entrance of the balconies. To the left you see the outline of the Sports and leisure part of LU Market, which includes open air screenings on the Central Square.

After this little detour to the fine arts we jump back on our Meridian and follow that lady on her horse across the central square towards the Sportarea. On the left we se the volume of the former Museum, which is now used as multipurpose hall for events of any kind.

Oh wow, look it has been snowing! Apparently winter is not finished yet! The sportfields are ice rinks now and they even dug out the christmas decoration again! Let's go down the stairs and see if we can get some Glühwein!

Luckily these spring storms never last long and soon the sportfields will be free of ice again and the kids can do their sports. We are looking back along the meridian now, and see how its turning 90 degrees. That is where it follows the former barrier between shopping mall, museum and car parking.

We are turning to the right now and leave the sportcourt along the soccer field, pass underneath the ramps and have a look back at them to see how the meridian reaches the ground again in order to continue its course further east. We can see the first people coming from the seasonal fair, but for us its good bye now! Thank you very much for taking the tour with us! :)