Wettbewerb Cartoon Corridor

Dalian, China

The Cartoon Corridor is an urban framework plan developed in collaboration with Prof. Harald Deilmann (Münster) for the city of Dalian, located on a peninsula in northeastern China.

Dalian – A Continuously Growing City

With its militarily significant port documented as early as the 6th century, the region quickly gained influence as a trading city and continues to grow steadily. To make the identity of the place tangible and to continue integrating it into the evolving urban structure, the Cartoon Corridor redefines the port as a "water city" and expands the area with large spaces for a Maritime University, hotel facilities for university guests and other visitors, as well as exhibition and conference areas.

Due to the expansion of long and primarily monotonous connecting roads to develop the peninsula, there was a need to enhance the quality of stay for pedestrian traffic as well.

Urban Framework Plan

The competition entry utilizes the existing sightlines framed by existing street canyons along Huangpu Rd and develops them with a "Green Band" that accompanies the street layout, calming the area and isolating it from the eight-lane expressway. Thoughtfully placed solitaires are integrated into the emerging "water city" like large stones. This arrangement of various sightlines enhances the pedestrian experience and provides space for the diverse campus area, which stretches across the expressway with long bridges connecting the buildings.

HotelInfrastructureMixedOfficePublic

Data

Competition

2005

Address

Huangpu Rd
116086 Dalian (Ganjingzi District), Liaoning
China

Siteplan
Floorplan
View

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Competition Ningbo Tower

Ningbo, China

Ningbo, located about 200 km south of Shanghai, is historically shaped by Chinese tradition, British colonial rule, and recent engagement with the political West. The urban traces of this history are evident in the juxtaposition of different building typologies.

Our client, the leading privately organized company for educational materials in China and a private school operator, requires a new headquarters. The project involves 10,000 square meters of office space and 25,000 square meters of retail space, to be developed at the intersection of the colonial city edge and contemporary Chinese urban development of the past twenty years.

The corporate culture focuses on traditional values and natural resources. Consequently, we proposed a building with a rational structural system and flexible floor plan organization. The façade is an artificial representation of a stone or rock, reflecting the company’s culture. It is constructed from pigmented reinforced concrete and features box windows inserted at regular intervals.

The energy concept integrates geothermal and waste heat from the shopping center in the three podium levels, as well as from the office floors, combined with component activation. This approach allows for a single-layer concrete skin with minimal weight, simplifying connection points. As a result, the extension of multi-story façade sections beyond the regular façade plane is easily achievable.

ConcreteOfficeRetailSteel

Data

Competition

2005

Address

315000 Ningbo,
Provinz Zhejiang
China

Awarding Authority

Privat

View West
Section
View South

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Competition Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts

Dalian, China

Luxun Academy is establishing its 9th campus in Dalian, Northern China. On a main usable area of approximately 250,000 square meters, the new campus will feature university facilities, a gallery for public exhibitions of student work, a library, a sports center, a shopping mall, around 2,500 student apartments, and approximately 500 residences for faculty members. The site has a topographical rise of about 20 meters in the north-south direction and is also intersected by two conical hills.

The concept incorporates a stream running through the site, which will be extended with smaller weirs to create larger water surfaces. This stream becomes a symbolic representation of the idea - "Life is a river - everything flows" - with the various academic institutions gathering at its edges, like driftwood along the riverbanks.

The uses are tiered, following the rising terrain from the south, with all residential buildings oriented to the south for comfort and energy efficiency. The roofs of the institutes are designed as "skywalks," connected by bridges between the residential areas. The faculty apartments are organized in clusters, featuring courtyards, stairs, and decentralized sports courts (basketball).At the center, the library tower will be constructed as the only high-rise building in the ensemble. It will have a uniformly perforated concrete facade and offer views of the surrounding landscape and the Chinese sea.

LivingMixedPublic

Awards

2.Prize

International Invitational Competition

Data

Competition

2005

Address

19 Sanhao Street
110055 Shenyang
Liaoning, China

Awarding Authority

The International Art Education Exchange Center of Luxun Academy of Fine Arts

Siteplan
Student Apartments
Section Library
Section
Section Art Museum
View

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Competition Stadion Union Berlin

Berlin

UNION BERLIN is getting a new stadium on the same site—a historic location that has shaped the extraordinary closeness between the club and its fans. In Wuhlheide, situated between the Wuhle and the forest, a pure football arena has been in use for decades. The characteristic spatial proximity between the pitch and the stands is enhanced and atmospherically intensified in the proposed design through the geometry of the new structure.

A stadium transforms into a theater—a pitch becomes a stage— and the stands turn into seating tiers and boxes with areas for dining, merchandising, infrastructure, and more.

The new stadium is optimized for marketing capabilities (media/advertising) and third-party usage options (additional uses).

All spectator seats will be covered. The roof covering will be translucent, colored, and will thus serve as a signal. The roof membrane extends into the facade plane of the top gallery, creating the appearance of a floating, luminous object.

The primary structure consists of prefabricated reinforced concrete elements, while the roof framework is made of a steel truss with V-shaped supports and rear guy wires. This design ensures that all seating rows are free of supports and unobstructed. Lighting, sound systems, and drainage are integrated into the construction. The surfaces available for advertising are maximized and optimally aligned with camera positions. These include the perimeter boards, the interior and exterior edges of the roof surfaces, the surrounding areas of the upper and lower galleries, VIP boxes, and the exterior of the textile facade (which can display changing illuminated advertisements), among others. In addition to conventional camera positions, the upper gallery will serve as the main camera location, with options available at any point.

ConcretePublicSteel

Awards

1.Prize

Data

Competition

2003

Address

An der Wuhlheide 263
12555 Berlin
Germany

Awarding Authority

Senate of the City of Berlin
with FC Union Berlin

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Friedrich-List-Platz

Leipzig

The first reinforced concrete building in Leipzig housed the "Leipziger Textil Center" (LTC) until 1996. The usage was discontinued in favor of high-density development on this site at the edge of Leipzig’s city center. On approximately 57,000 square meters at the city’s edge, offices, shops, 120 apartments, and about 400 parking spaces were created.

The buildings were all constructed using in-situ concrete with round columns and flat slabs. The floor plans are flexible and can be divided into units starting from 150 square meters. All surface water is collected and directed into ponds located in the three courtyards.

Among the tenants are Leipzig-TV with offices, studios, and production spaces, a private school, and a number of medium-sized businesses.

ConcreteGlassOfficeSteel

Awards

1. Prize
Appraisal Procedure

Data

Completion

2001

Address

Friedrich-List-Platz 1
04103 Leipzig
Germany

Client

Büll & Dr. Liedke
Hamburg

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Competition Park Stadium Schalke

Gelsenkirchen

This project emerged from an expert report. In the course of modernizing and making German stadiums more flexible, which are increasingly hosting events beyond sports, the Bundesliga football club Schalke 04 plans to replace its Parkstadion with a new building that combines a stadium and a multifunctional arena.

However, a solution was not only required for the demanding combination of functions but also for the challenge of constructing a new building on the site of the old stadium while matches continue to be played. The architects developed a new type of stadium in response to these requirements—one that combines an open-air arena with an indoor hall, while also breaking with the traditional design of earlier stadiums, which used to present only the closed backs of their stands to the surrounding area.

Realized in multiple construction phases, which at times connected parts of the old stadium with the new one, the result is an airy building that opens up in many ways to its surroundings, offering visitors changing perspectives of both the field and the exterior space. Unlike the conventional closed ring of stands, it is composed of several segments freely placed in the space, allowing for a maximum degree of prefabrication and modular assembly on-site, which also significantly reduces construction time. To avoid costly turf covers or the well-known method of sliding the pitch out of the stadium—both of which would have substantially increased operating costs and been difficult due to ground subsidence issues—the stadium here transforms into an arena by raising the pitch.

For this purpose, shipbuilding technology is employed: hydraulic heavy-lift systems, located at four points in the stadium's corners, raise the pitch by 40 meters in half an hour, allowing it to function as a roof. A seven-meter-high walkable steel grating forms its supporting structure, containing all the lighting and acoustic installations of an indoor hall.

Designed as a flexible modular system, the sports arena can accommodate between 60,000 and 70,000 spectators. Efficiently utilizing the existing topography of a ground hollow as a central distribution level, the arena opens up with seamless transitions to the surrounding space. Attached to the minimized primary structure of the concrete stands is a framework of slender steel rods, whose translucent textile skins and louvered glass panels offer varied views in and out of the stadium. While all auxiliary areas are directly adjacent to the field and thus hidden from view, the continuous gallery level on the earth berm and the opening of the side facades through vertical gates allow for free circulation between the landscape and the building.

Supported by graceful V-columns and differentiated gaps between structural bays, the arena achieves an engaging rhythmic composition. The interplay of variously materialized spatial layers creates a dualistic space, offering the closest proximity to the action on the field while seamlessly opening up to the surrounding landscape.

Data

Competition

1996

Address

Parkallee 3
45891 Gelsenkirchen
Germany

Organizer

FC Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e.V.

Floorplan
Section

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Competition Suspension Railroad Kluse

Wuppertal

The Kluse suspended railroad station in Wuppertal, which was destroyed during World War II, is being rebuilt at its historic location near the Schauspielhaus theater. Since several urban pathways intersect at this point, Petersen Architects placed great emphasis on urban significance and integration in their station design.

The lower distribution level serves as an additional public space during the day, illuminated by the translucent platforms above. These platforms are made of slip-resistant, walkable glass [Litefloor].

The entire structural framework is divided into longitudinal planar structures, which are stiffened by compression pipes both at the platform level and above the tracks, as well as by cable tensioning. Each structural frame consists of a pair of cantilevered external supports, inclined in alignment with the frames of the track carriers. These supports bear the facade and are shaped according to their bending loads. Together with a story-high truss below the distribution level, they form a tensioned structural system.

In front of the single-glazed facade, perforated metal panels are hung at a distance, serving as glare and sun protection. The steel frames of these panels are mounted on sliding mechanisms and can be lowered down to the access level to lock and secure the station, giving the structure a different appearance at night.

InfrastructurePublicSteel

Data

Competition

1991

Address

Bundesallee 248
42103 Wuppertal
Germany

Floorplan
Section

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