Parkstadt Süd (Germany)
1st Prize
Parkstadt Süd is Cologne’s largest urban development project. South of the railway ring, the Inner Green Belt will finally be completed towards the Rhine, creating new quarters for living and working.
In Cologne – as in many other bigger cities – the development of the public green spaces faces challenges resulting from climate change and urban growth. In this context, it is indispensable to support the connection of open spaces. Traditional green areas are of immense importance in this green network. And in Cologne the unique system of the Green Belts (Grüngürtel), dating from 1923, is certainly the key element of the entire urban fabric. With the upcoming conversion of brownfields into Parkstadt Süd, there is the historic chance of extending the inner green belt.
In a cooperative process of negotiations and workshops, planning teams, the citizens, experts and politicians jointly sketched the concept of Parkstadt Süd in the year 2015. The concept and the first designs and plans incorporate the style of the historic green belt and respond to new requirements such as integrated rainwater management and climate change adaptation measures.
Parkstadt Laudation by Gunnar Ericson
