Redesign of Firnhaberstraße Nordhorn

Nordhorn is a small German town near the Dutch border. The townscape is therefore dominated by traditional North German brick construction. Its island location gives Nordhorn's inner city a unique attractiveness. The popular and lively shopping street Firnhaberstraße is one of the city's most important inner-city shopping streets.

Special "guide strips" were developed to restructure the street. These central structuring and functional elements now guide pedestrians towards the main street. They bundle all street furniture and take on a variety of functions: For example, the bus stops are integrated into the strips, as are the trees that accompany the street, the long, topographically moving benches and the illuminated stelae. The existing clinker pavement was reused as a characteristic material and newly laid. Only clinker bricks that could no longer be used were replaced by new ones. Special accents in the pavement are set by reddish mottled greywacke slabs - they emphasize the clinker pavement characteristic for Nordhorn in the guide strips. The spatial separation of the street into pedestrian and driving areas was abolished. This creates a generous shopping and strolling street with representative outdoor parking areas for the shops. In the intersection area to Winkelhookstraße a water table was placed as a special design element.
The overgrown and too large tree population of the street was removed and replaced by small-crowned, sparse robinias (Robinia pseudoacacia 'culoteoides'). The black locust trees brighten up the street with their fresh green foliage and their beautiful blooming in summer and impressive yellow autumn colouring provide seasonal accents.