ALTSTADT H WUNSIEDEL, DE 2013
Restricted urban design competition. Team: D. Figa, O. Chatzopoulou. Collaboration: K. Katsika
The subject of the competition was the redevelopment of the broader historical center of the small town of Wunsiedel in Bavaria, with focus on the central "Marktplatz" and its surrounding streets, as well as on "Quartier IV"- a large, lightly built site at its northern border.
The coexistence of two historical periods- medieval and neoclassical- in the urban structure of the historical center, formed the basis of our analysis and of our proposal.
We tried, through pointed urban and architectural interventions, to unify, to complete and to "knit" the urban fabric: to smooth out the points of friction in the medieval and neoclassical tissue, to create new visual and literal connections, emphasizing the historical identity of the Town.
The elongated neoclassical "Marktplatz" square- superimposed on the medieval fabric- is rather a gap or a passage, than a center and a defined urban piazza.
In our proposal the borders of this "urban room" are transformed/interrupted and broken up on ground level, changing the proportions of the symmetrical square, and creating new connections and perspectives, both visual and real, with the medieval surrounding.
For the "Quartier IV", the sparsely elliptical islet in the north, we propose a dense urban structure, that follows the historical medieval footprint, consisting of three-story, narrow, autonomous urban atrium houses, with combined living and workshop spaces.
A new, continuous paving is unifying the historical center, interacting with the topography, the streets, paths, squares, and monuments. Its tracing is based on the graphical knitting and overlapping of the neoclassical and medieval urban pattern.