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Dessin © LIN Architects Urbanists
Dessin © LIN Architects Urbanists
© LIN Architects Urbanists
Photo © LIN Architects Urbanists
Dessin © LIN Architects Urbanists
Dessin © LIN Architects Urbanists
Image © LIN Architects Urbanists
Image © LIN Architects Urbanists

Strasbourg - Kehl, Cour des Douanes - Zollhofareal

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Lieu
Avenue du Pont de l'Europe, 67000 Strasbourg, France
Année
2013

The “Cour des Douanes” in Strasbourg and the “Zollhofareal” in Kehl are former customs posts located on the historic French and German border crossing, along the Rhine River. Europe has opened up, customs post have shrunk, a once backyard territory is now open for future developments. It becomes possible to define the terms of a new relation between the two cities, to imagine a European transborder metropolis along the Rhine. The project of LIN is at the same time a vision to reunite the two cities/countries around the river and a framework for the urbanization of the site. The project takes on the site’s existing qualities and proposes a new geographical coherence: new developments help reconnecting the dislocated urban fragments already present on the site; at the same time the project is a step towards the construction of a new fluvial landscape expanding until the industrial harbors of Strasbourg and Kehl.

The site today is dominated by E-W infrastructural lines (railway, highway, future tramway) that cross the river and divide up its landscape. The challenge is to invent the cohesion between the forces of the river and these existing infrastructural lines. How does a crossing become a place? How could geography and infrastructure meet?

New developments should not be autarchic but help create lively neighborhoods. Therefore programs are mixed up: housing, offices, retail, culture, sport, leisure… In Strasbourg, the existing and the new urban fabric merge around a public spine activated with commercial and recreational programs. Between the bridges a mixed-use landscaped building articulates the different topography levels and provides an additional N/S connection. Two natures of public space coexist: the strips perpendicular to the Rhine have an urban character, the treatment of the river banks and the spine echo the presence of water.

From riverbank to riverbank, neighborhood to neighborhood, new bridges and passages help to overcome the many borders on the site. Connected with new programs and uses they generate a multitude of singular micro situations.

Rivers as places overturning the traditional opposition between city and nature, local and global. Fluviality as a new metropolitan condition, bringing together the natural and the cultural in a non hierarchical way.

Program
The competition focused on the transformation of the old French and German customs in Strasbourg and Kehl, la cour des douanes and Zollhofareal, located on both sides of the Rhine.

Client
Stadt Kehl et Communauté urbaine de Strasbourg

Status
competition 2012-2013
Competition 1st prize
Since May 2013; further studies

Location
anciennes cours des douanes de Strasbourg (FR), Ancienne Zollhofareal à Kehl (DE)

Surface
20 hectares

Team
LIN Architectes Urbanists, Berlin, Paris: Giulia Andi, Finn Geipel, Philip Koenig, David Levain, Bruno Pinto da Cruz, Thomas Untersweg, Fabienne Boudon, Andrea Alessio, Nagma Sharma, Jonas Tratz; Landscape: Bassinet Turquin, Paysage, Paris - Grégoire Bassinet, Rémy Turquin; Lighting & Sustainability: Arup, Berlin Philosophy: Joseph Hanimann, Paris

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