Wendersplatz, Neuss (DE)

Wendersplatz is currently an underutilised square between the old town, the Rhine and the harbour, which is to be developed into a diverse and attractive city entrance. In addition, Wendersplatz should be better linked to the city centre and the adjacent open space of the Rennbahnpark via the adjacent traffic axes.

Our vision for Wendersplatz is based on the city’s desire to create an active and lively place where today there is only a barren car park. But what can this new life look like, where should new life come from?
To this end, existing barriers must be dismantled and relocated to allow the pulsating life in the historic core of the city of Neuss to flow over the market, over the street Am Kehlturm and over the historic city wall into the Wendersplatz.

A new citizens’ park is growing from the opposite direction, enhancing the old racecourse and making it accessible to the public as an experiential green space. Our plan is to connect this park with the existing historic city wall from the east through new green spaces and unsealed areas and spatial structures at Wendersplatz.

The built, space-creating structures develop from the logic of the harbour buildings and continue this towards the south to create an urban condensed context there that enables new life in the tension between green and urbanity.

The new built structure consists of three individual building blocks. The Clemens Sels Museum with the House of Cultures as a sidekick, the IHK as an education and innovation campus with gastronomy and synergy areas on the ground floor, the multifunctional event building and, as a content extension of the programme, a hybrid building that does justice to the upcoming change in mobility and programming.