Urban planning concept for CO_LIVING CAMPUS available Results of the CO_WETTBEWERB are now accessible online.

Joint press release by the City of Braunschweig and Technische Universität Braunschweig

As a result of the experimental planning format – the CO_WETTBEWERB – the basic urban development concept for the North Campus area is now available. This is an important milestone in the cooperation between Technische Universität Braunschweig and the City of Braunschweig.

The authors of the best design in front of the lecture hall on North Campus in March 2024: Julian Numberger and Phi Long Ngo from NUWELA Büro für Städtebau und Landschaftsarchitektur (top right), Sebastian Klawiter (bottom left) from Munich and students Hannah Charlotte Paap and Dominik Aberle, (top left), Emma Zinga, Farah Chikh Torab and Elena Donos (bottom right).
Photo credit: Christopher Kuriyama/ ISE, TU Braunschweig

The design by NUWELA Büro für Städtebau und Landschaftsarchitektur with Studio Sebastian Klawiter from Munich convinced the committee. According to the jury, the design succeeded in translating the vision of TU Braunschweig and the city of Braunschweig into a basic urban concept. Among other things, the committee recognised the process-oriented approach of the work and the consistent transfer and integration of previous process results into an urban design proposal. Accordingly, the urban design is based on the existing structure, thus allowing for a flexible development in terms of time and programme with different implementation speeds. The design team consists of five students, including Architecture students and an Erasmus student from TU Braunschweig, as well as a student from the University of Siegen.

Julian Numberger form NUWELA Büro für Städtebau und Landschaftsarchitektur explains the design on the model at the interim public presentation on North Campus in March 2024.
Photo credit: Ahmed Nassef/TU Braunschweig

From 4 to 15 March, four planning teams developed urban development scenarios for the Science Quarter as part of the CO_WETTBEWERB on site at the North Campus. The teams consisted of planning offices with expertise in urban planning and cooperative urban development and 20 students. The working process and interim results were made transparent and accessible to the public at an early stage through public events and presentations. The format thus forms an interface between participation and an urban planning workshop process. The participating offices were BeL Sozietät für Architektur (Cologne), ISSS research | architecture | urbanism (Berlin), NUWELA Büro für Städtebau und Landschaftsarchitektur with Studio Sebastian Klawiter (Munich) and Studio Malta with KOKOMO (Stuttgart / Berlin).

The designs developed in the CO_WETTBEWERB were then revised by the offices and submitted for evaluation. The 20-member evaluation committee met on 12 August 2024 and consisted of external experts as well as representatives of TU Braunschweig, the civil society, the city, district politicians in a voting capacity and a representative of the Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture in an advisory capacity. The outcome of the committee meeting was an assessment that unanimously recommended a design as the basis for the further urban development concept.

Design model by NUWELA Büro für Städtebau und Landschaftsarchitektur and Studio Klawiter
Photo credit: Daniela Nielsen/City of Braunschweig

The result of the CO_WETTBEWERB is an intermediate step in the cooperative planning process and provides exciting impulses for the project, which will initially be documented and reviewed. A comprehensive documentation and exhibition of the results of the CO_WETTBEWERB is planned. A summary of the results of the CO_WETTBEWERB is now available on the website https://www.coliving-campus.de/co_wettbewerb/.

The CO_LIVING CAMPUS on North Campus will be a science quarter that brings together science and urban society in an urban space and invites people to actively participate in its design. Education and research, living and working, nature, culture and amenities are to be combined in a mixed urban quarter in the northern part of the city. To this end, the City of Braunschweig and Technische Universität Braunschweig are working together to develop TU North Campus on Bienroder Weg and the neighbouring municipal sports grounds to the east of Beethovenstraße into a model district.

The multi-stage participation and planning process took place in 2023 and 2024: ideas, visions and proposals were developed in a participation process as part of the CO_NFERENCE and CO_WORKSHOPS and were incorporated into the terms of reference for the CO_WETTBEWERB.

The panel of experts in front of the architectural model
Photo credit: Daniela Nielsen / City of Braunschweig

As part of the CO_NFERENCE, citizens, TU members, initiatives, associations and representatives from politics, city administration, media and business submitted a total of 546 comments in the form of slips of paper, postcards and digital comments. The results were documented and discussed in detail at the CO_WORKSHOP. During the workshop week, 46 representatives of the urban community and TU Braunschweig engaged in a dialogue and developed recommendations for the development of the neighbourhood. In moderated group work, the participants produced numerous sketches, models, drawings, diagrams and performances. The results were presented in a public presentation and then summarised in a report of recommendations. This report was part of the brief for the CO_WETTBEWERB.