"Am Südbahnhof"

"Am Südbahnhof" is the name of a street in Hannover's southern district "Südstadt". The street name is a reference to a train station built in 1872. From the beginning of the 19th century, numerous commercial businesses from the iron and metal processing industry settled in near the station and built large factories and warehouses.
In the 1970s the closure and relocation of the production facilities began.
By the beginning of the 21st century, the entire site was abandoned. After the restructuring of the area about ten years ago, a rapid structural development with new office buildings and commercial units commenced.

The new building was constructed at the northern end of Anna-Zammert-Straße and represents one of the last building blocks in the new development of the former Südbahnhof site. The building is situated on a triangular plot of land and features apartments as well as spaces for retail and offices. Thirty percent of the apartments are socially subsidized.
The building shows a coherent building configuration that is adapted to the course of the adjoining streets, with a sheltered courtyard inside.

The residential construction concept follows the diverse needs for quality living. Address generation, orientation and privacy in the housing organization are the essential criteria. With 62 different ground-plan types for 142 rental apartments, the new building supports the individual requirements for living in the city.

All entrances are located along the street and are inserted into the the building as protected areas. Large rooms for bicycles, strollers and wheelchairs are created directly next to the entrance. The ground floor, which is raised to the pavement level, is accessible without barriers. Every entrance has a direct connection to the inner courtyard as well as the underground car park including the assigned cellar rooms. The staircases are of spacious dimensions and receive daylight through openings in the facade or through large skylights.

The majority of the apartments are planned to be "lived through", thus achieving a north-south or east-west orientation of the apartments and creating a direct connection to the inner courtyard. This aspect is particularly important for the apartments along the street Am Südbahnhof, which are affected by noise immissions. The spacious loggias and balconies, which are mostly arranged on two sides per apartment, provide additional living quality. The only exceptions are a few, smaller flats, which are oriented only towards one side – the south side facing the inner courtyard. 

A variety of measures support the residents' need for privacy. The open spaces facing the street are designed as loggias and the ground floor level is raised in relation to the street level. In the inner courtyard, the ground floor apartments are provided with individually allocated open spaces and tenant gardens enclosed by hedges.

The new building has its powerful pointed structure facing a bridge that was built in 1872 over the street "Am Südbahnhof". This bridge still reminds of the district's eventful railway past. The elevation of the building creates an important point of orientation with a special long-distance impact and high recognizable identity potential. The ground floor of this building section accommodates a store; the floors above contain office spaces. The office part of the building is an integral aspect of the overall building configuration with its distinct materiality. The office part differs from the residential construction and is clearly recognizable by the ground level alignment of the ground floor, the large-format windows and the special design of the building corner. 

The facades towards the street are made of brick masonry, the typical material of the district. All windows and loggias feature solid pilaster strips in white paint. The reddish colored joint material of the masonry wall supports the homogeneous appearance of the building. The triangular inner courtyard is plastered circumferentially and painted in white. In contrast to the stone facades towards the street, the courtyard facades contain room-high windows. This strengthens the relationship between the building's interior and the attractive green space.