Press Release
New IBA’27 Project: »Riverside living in Untertürkheim«
At Inselstraße in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim, directly on the banks of the river Neckar and along a canal built for a power plant with a historical hydropower station, a new quarter is to be created to connect the existing neighbourhood to the river. High-quality, diverse homes, the conversion of a 1970s services building, rational building technologies, commercial and community use on the ground floors and high sustainability standards are among the measures that will convert a deserted wasteland near to the island into a valuable part of the town. The project has now been officially named as an IBA’27 Project.
Lots of people in the Stuttgart Region dream of living and working alongside the river Neckar. In Stuttgart’s Untertürkheim, an example of how to make this dream a reality could be on show for the presentation year of Internationale Bauausstellung 2027 StadtRegion Stuttgart (IBA’27). Bietigheimer Wohnbau GmbH (BW) is planning a mixed neighbourhood for working and living on a site that is almost one hectare in size and located on an island in the river Neckar to the southeast of the state capital Stuttgart. There are plans to build roughly 140 homes, with commercial and community use on the ground floors. The project aims to demonstrate how to make housing work in an industrial environment. Part of the project site belongs to EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, which is involved in project development.
The international architecture competition for the project was decided in the spring of 2022, with NL Architects from Amsterdam emerging as the winning architects’ office. The design by NL Architects provides for an existing six-storey office building from the 1970s to be preserved and converted. Alongside space for housing experiments and commercial spaces, this area will become a generous entrance to the site. Together with a+r architects from Stuttgart, the design was developed further and refined. New buildings around a communal courtyard will form an architecturally rich ensemble. The diverse residential floor plans, some of which are adaptable, create space for different living situations in a broad social mix.
The location of the neighbourhood directly on the waterfront means that it connects the town with the river and creates new recreational spaces beside the river Neckar. The design also provides for an ambitious energy concept developed by EnBW, including heat pumps that make use of the energy produced by the water in the Neckar. A historical hydropower plant that is a listed monument and will be preserved and continue to produce electricity is located directly adjacent. The project is expected to be completed by 2027.
»The project is an example of how the river Neckar in Stuttgart can be opened up to the inhabitants«, explains IBA’27 Artistic Director Andreas Hofer. »The vibrant ground floors and the access to the water create publicly accessible spaces that benefit the entire quarter. The access to the Neckar will be upgraded and designed within the framework of the Neckar master plan together with the city council in Stuttgart. Combining housing and working, the attractive riverside location, affordable building through rational design and serial modular timber construction, preserving the existing stock instead of demolishing it: all of these aspects fit very well with the IBA approach.«
»We are delighted to develop innovative and futureproof spaces for housing and living together with IBA and to bring the topic of housing to a whole new level. This unique project will capture imaginations and will have a one-off quality that we are very much looking forward to seeing«, says Carsten Schüler, Managing Director of BW.
The supervisory board of IBA’27 GmbH followed the recommendation of the international board of trustees, passing a unanimous resolution at the end of March to include the »Riverside living« project as an IBA’27 Project. The building exhibition therefore now has a total of 17 projects in its portfolio, with more to come over the course of the year. IBA currently expects to have 20 to 25 projects in total that will be at least partially completed and ready to be exhibited by 2027.
