“Am Südbahnhof” is the name of a street in Hanover’s “Südstadt”. The name is reminiscent of a train station building built in 1872. From the beginning of the 19th century, numerous commercial companies from the iron and metal processing industry settled in the area around the train station and built large factory buildings and warehouses.
The production facilities began to be closed and relocated in the 1970s.
At the beginning of the 21st century the entire area was already fallow. After the area was rezoned about ten years ago, rapid structural development took place with office buildings and commercial units.
The new building was built at the northern end of Anna-Zammert-Straße and represents one of the last building blocks in the development of the former southern train station site. The house occupies a triangular plot of land and contains apartments as well as rooms for shops and offices. Thirty percent of the apartments are socially subsidized.
The building volume shows a coherent building configuration adapted to the course of the adjacent streets, which forms a protected courtyard inside. The housing construction concept follows the diverse needs for high-quality living. Address formation, orientation and privacy in the housing organization are the essential criteria. With 62 different floor plan types for 142 rental apartments, the new building supports the individual requirements for living in the city.
All entrances are positioned on the street and inscribed in the volume of the building as protected areas. There are large rooms for bicycles, strollers and wheelchairs right next to the entrance. The ground floor, which is raised above the sidewalk, is generally barrier-free. Each entrance has a direct connection to the inner courtyard and the underground car park including the assigned cellar rooms. The stairwells are generously sized and receive daylight via openings in the facade or large skylights.
The majority of the apartments are planned for “living through”, which creates a north-south or east-west orientation of the apartments and creates a direct connection to the inner courtyard. This aspect is particularly important for the noise-polluted apartments along Am Südbahnhof street. An increase in quality is the generously sized loggias and balconies, which are largely arranged on two sides of each apartment. The only exceptions are a few, smaller apartments, which are one-sided but are generally oriented on the south side towards the inner courtyard.
A number of measures support residents’ need for privacy. The open spaces facing the street are basically designed as loggias and the ground floor level is raised compared to the street. In the inner courtyard, the ground floor apartments have directly assigned open spaces and tenant gardens protected by hedges.
Just where a bridge built in 1872 over the street “Am Südbahnhof” still reminds us of the district’s eventful railway past, the new building has a powerful spire. The elevation of the building figure is an important landmark with a special long-distance effect and high identity potential. The part of the building houses a shop on the ground floor and office space on the floors above. In terms of its materiality, the office building is an integral part of the entire building configuration. The use, which deviates from residential construction, is clearly visible through the ground-floor connection of the ground floor, the large window formats or the special design of the corner of the building.
The street-facing facades are made of brick masonry, the typical material for the district. All windows and loggias have massive white pilaster strips all around. The reddish-colored joint material of the masonry wall supports the homogeneous appearance of the building. The triangular inner courtyard is plastered all around and painted white. In contrast to the stone facades on the street side, the courtyard facades have floor-to-ceiling windows. This strengthens the connection to the attractive green space inside the building figure.
