Competition Campus Stadtwerke Leipzig Purchase, 4th place

The two-stage competition for consortiums of urban planners, architects and landscape architects was designed to find an attractive and economically viable solution for the new corporate headquarters and the open space design of the Southeast Campus that combines old and new and presents itself in a contemporary manner in the context of the former power plant site.
We emerged from this competition together with the architectural firm Tchoban Voss Architekten as the winner with a 4th prize and purchase.

The new building ensemble for the corporate headquarters forms the southern spatial edge of the large open area in front of the existing buildings. Two four-storey buildings with spacious inner courtyards will spatially define the southeast campus in the future. Wide passages connect the new green courtyards with the campus square and link the interior with the landscape. The courtyards will be generously ventilated and provide accessible, inspiring and natural outdoor recreation areas for all employees. The main entrances to each building are provided from the semi-public space.
The courtyards, as green lounges, become sensory experience areas for social communication, breaks and exercise. Complementing this are the intensively planted roof terraces on the 3rd floor of both buildings and the contained campus centre.
The central pedestrian boulevard, the western car access and the interlinking second-order pathways create a clear orientation and a high level of functionality and experience for the open spaces. Existing trees are integrated as naturally as the existing buildings enrich the architectural ensemble. Island-shaped green areas planted with grasses, perennials and trees contrast with clinker-paved plazas and pathways. The motif of the playful stripes picks up the orthogonal order of the existing path system and uses it in an invigorating way as a recognizable orientation. Accompanying rows of trees complete the square as a centre around the campus square, which is also enlivened by a lowered water feature. As a recognisable marker with a long-distance effect, a steel stele replaces the tall chimney at the intersection of the diagonal access route with the orthogonal street grid.
The southern access route, from the public transport connection and gatehouse, runs past the old locomotive as a traditional feature, diagonally through an "energy garden", whose energy plants laid out in strips in a colourful flower meadow as a base form a metaphorical analogy to the tasks of Stadtwerke Leipzig. As an open space, it does not stand in the way of future structural development, creates an inexpensive temporary use despite contaminated soil and preserves soil areas that are open to sealing.