Architecture News Plus (ANP) – Architecture and Design Magazine

Marstall Platz

This is a project by Maxwan Architects+Urbanists and it is located at Hannover, Germany. Project's program: Two housing blocks with a public space. There are twenty images for Marstall Platz.

: © Maxwan + LOLA

Project details

Project name: Marstall Platz
Location: Hannover, Germany
Program: Two housing blocks with a public space
Area: Site area: 1.5 ha
Year: Competition: 2010, 1st Prize
Project by: Maxwan Architects+Urbanists
Team: Partner in charge: Hiroki Matsuura, Rients Dijkstra • Team leader: Jason Hilgefort • Team: Rene Sangers, Artur Borejszo , Anna Borzyszkowska, Leena Cho
Others: Collaborator: LOLA Landscape Architects

Project images

Designer's statement

Two housing blocks with a well proportioned public space, linking the city center shopping district with the riverfront.

Currently, the space is a parking lot with open ends toward city center shopping district and the Leine River, while the long sides are bound by a residential district and a red light district. Given its central location and its surroundings rough bite, the site is a perfect habitat for young creative people.

The clear first step was to treat the space as an extension of the city's pedestrian network, linking it to the Leine River. The next step was to place a building on each of the ends of the space. This move gave greater definition to both the city center and the river edge, and created a well proportioned public space.

In the center of this public space lies a multifunctional surface with a slightly tilting topography. While the ground level is slowly descending toward the river, the central surface is following the opposite slope, with its lowest point in the east and its highest point in the west. In this way, the square is transitioning from a sunken square, to an at grade passage, into a stage.

The plaza is modeled for both permanent use and seasonal use. The sunken square creates a water surface in summertime and an ice surface in wintertime; the stage allows concerts and open air cinema, student fashion shows and more...

The central space of the plaza is punctuated by two glass pavilions located on the north side of the plaza to activate the street, allow full view of the plaza from each end, and to frame the view towards the church. They can be used as selling food or drinks in summertime, to renting ice skates in wintertime.