Gallery

New Affordable Design Competition in Frankfurt (Housing for All)

Peter Cachola Schmal
Museum Director, Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM)

Launched in 2017 by the City of Frankfurt Planning Dept., Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM), and ABG Frankfurt Holding, the “Housing for All: New Frankfurt 2018” was an international architecture prize focused on building lower-cost, higher-quality affordable housing in Frankfurt. With the intention of broadening the design implications beyond just Frankfurt (Germany’s fifth largest city of 750k people), the competition partnered with the Deutscher Städtetag (Association of German Cities), the Bundesstiftung Baukultur (Federal Foundation of Building Culutre), and the Architektenkammer Hessen (Hessen Chamber of Architects and Urban Planners). A total of 107 architectural practices from across Europe participated in the first phase of the competition, submitting 131 project proposals.

Beyond being showcased at The German Architecture Museum in Frankfurt, the four winning teams are now working on building four projects on four sites in a designated new district in Frankfurt – a 14 hectare/35-acre site in the Hilgenfeld neighborhood 5 miles north of the city center, to be developed by the City of Frankfurt and ABG as a residential area with ~850 rental apartments. The Hilgenfeld housing estate will consists of about 40% subsidized, affordable housing and about 15% of the building sites will be dedicated to communal and cooperative housing projects.