green-blue streets:planning task at therwth aachen

green-blue streets: Water-sensitive city Essen-Altendorf. This is the title of a planning task of the Chair of Landscape Architecture at RWTH Aachen University, which was co-developed by lala.ruhr. The project involves the development of a neighbourhood model for liveable, green-blue streets, its elaboration for a street and square space as well as another open space of one’s own choice in the neighbourhood.

The background to the task in the current summer semester: our cities must become more water-sensitive. Under the conditions of climate change, green and blue infrastructure play an increasingly important role in coping with extreme climatic events. In the area of water, this means that public and private open spaces must buffer heavy rainfall events as well as remain attractive during longer dry periods. A gradual conversion is also necessary in the existing city. In addition to the classic green open spaces such as gardens and parks, streets and squares should also be considered for a holistically conceived system of a water-sensitive city. They are the most used public spaces in the city and the capillary vessels of the urban infrastructure, both above and below ground. Liveable streets in a sustainable city should therefore combine many demands: Ensuring traffic and access, absorbing, storing and draining rainwater – at the same time offering residents a beautiful environment and urban flora and fauna a habitat.

The district of Essen-Altendorf, which borders directly on the Niederfeldsee lake, was chosen as an example neighbourhood for the planning task. With the lake and the surrounding areas, a green-blue infrastructure has already been created here, but its integration with the existing city is not yet sufficient. In order to be able to maintain the lake even in dry phases, precipitation water must also be obtained from the neighbouring neighbourhoods in the future. How these can be developed into a blue-green system is being worked out in detail using the example of Weuenstraße and the surrounding area.
We are already looking forward to the students’ designs, which will also be presented here on the blog from the end of July!