2023 – Leere Stadt

Studio ‘Planning for a re-use of endangered spaces in Kassel’ by Prof. Dr. Gabu Heindl and Florine Schüschke and from the research studio ‘Less: Vacancy. Common good oriented development and long-term utilization strategies’ by Nina Manz.

Faced with the strained housing market and the climate crisis, our chair, the theatre collective andpartnersincrime, and Staatstheater Kassel were jointly taking aim at the social battlefield of vacancy and its political scope: In Kassel, at least 200.000 sqm are empty (gross floor area, equate to ca. 136 000 sqm usable area); They could be converted into approx. 2500 apartments of an average of 55 square meters. The studio researched and visualized this abundance of vacancies and developed designs for the reactivation and conversion of the former Postal Office in Untere Königsstraße, the Hansa Haus in Kurt Schumacher Straße and a state-owned villa in Goethestraße 46, currently all being (partly) vacant.

The associated research studio ‘Less: Vacancy’ looked at underlying reasons for vacancies, examined constellations of actors, and researched which concepts can be instead applied for a public welfare-oriented urban development and against profit interests.

Assembly on Vacancy in Kassel
In order to further expand the exchange with the civil society as well an with active groups in Kassel and as a gathering point on how to continue dealing with the large amount of vacant space in Kassel, we invited initiatives and activists to a Vacancy Assembly on July 13, taking place in front of the mostly empty Hansahaus in Kassel. Together, we were discussing how the housing demand could be answered by not building new, but by reactivating vacancies.
Organized by Prof. Dr. Gabu Heindl, Florine Schüschke, Nina Manz (Fachgebiet Architektur Stadt Ökonomie, Uni Kassel) in cooperation with Inga Bendukat and Eleonora Lela Herder (andpartnersincrime). The project was supported by the Coordination Office for Service Learning and Social Involvement at the University of Kassel.