Living and working in a former store

From May, a vacant store in Treppenstraße will be used to test how commercial buildings can be put to new uses: students from the University of Kassel and the urban planning office will spend several weeks testing how living and working in such spaces can work. "With projects like this, we want to show how unused spaces can be turned back into lively places to live, work and engage in creative exchange. This opens up new perspectives for our city center in particular - flexibly, practically and together with committed local stakeholders. In this way, we are creating solutions that will strengthen our city in the long term and make it more diverse," says Lord Mayor Dr. Sven Schoeller confidently.

The "Design in an Urban Context" department at the Faculty of Architecture, Urban Planning and Landscape Planning at the University of Kassel, headed by Prof. Dr. Verena Brehm, is conducting the WOHN:LOKAL living lab. It marks the start of a series of research projects dealing with new - and temporary - forms of use for inner-city spaces, in particular the potential of living in former stores.

In workshops and a construction week for the students, various ideas are developed that are implemented and tested directly on site. This does not stop at concepts: the students themselves live and work in the converted spaces for a time and test what really works in everyday life. The focus is on how the often difficult floor plans - low-slung and usually only exposed on one side - can be adapted with flexible, removable and cost-effective solutions without having to intervene in the building fabric or building technology.

Platform to combat vacancies
An important tool for bringing vacant spaces back into use is the city's LeAn-Match platform: it brings together owners of vacant stores with people looking for space for projects, businesses or cultural ideas, thus facilitating new uses in the city center. "Many spaces are vacant not because there is a lack of ideas, but because supply and demand do not match. This is exactly where LeAn-Match comes in: The platform simplifies the brokerage process and also makes innovative interim uses much quicker and less complicated," explains Simone Fedderke, the city councillor responsible for the building department.

In addition to traditional commercial concepts, cultural initiatives, creative people and pop-up projects are also expressly invited to register their requests on the www.LeAn-Match.de platform. Use of the platform is free of charge.

Anyone can help
The project is dependent on support for the practical implementation of the residential modules: The University of Kassel is calling for donations of materials such as panel materials, wood scraps or other suitable building materials that can be used during the construction week. Donors can contact brehm[at]uni-kassel[dot]de directly for further information and to schedule the handover.

The city of Kassel supports the project financially and uses the knowledge gained for inner development management. The aim is to find out for which target groups living in the city center is attractive and which spatial requirements are necessary for this.

Contact:

Prof. Dr.-Ing Verena Brehm
University of Kassel
Phone: +49 561 804-7755
Email: brehm[at]uni-kassel[dot]de