+ Landtagserweiterung und Bürgerpark _2019/20

Molestina Architekten + Stadtplaner GmbH + studio grüngrau Landschaftsarchitektur GmbH

Second round competition entry

Renders : DARCSTUDIO

The Landtag (Parliament), the Rheinturm (Tower) and the new extension form a sculptural ensemble with great civic appeal, rendering the spaces of democratic commerce legible. In combination with the public park landscape, one of the most characteristic civic promenades in NRW, the new building does not see itself as a monolith that competes with the with the Landtag, but as part of an additive composition that includes the existing buildings. It is about a new landscape on the Rhine, in which the Rhine Tower, IDR customs building, state parliament and new buildings stand in precise spatial relation to each other.

The Rhine promenade, which today leads from the Oberkassel bridge to the to the entrance of the Landtag, will be continued to the Rhine. Through the creation of a new public plaza in front of the entrance to the television tower (from which one can also walk onto an external ramp that wraps around the head of the new assemby building to reach the event space on the terrace), the space opens up to the banks of the Rhine in the form of a wide flight of steps.

The new building is divided into two distinctive structures, connected by a broad by a wide, light-flooded foyer. The new buildings radiate the spirit of the new era in their own way: The office as a communicative, functional building; the assembly building as a round building with a self-confident transparency, which displays the spaces of democratic action.

Construction wise, the new ensemble is comprised of two wood/steel buildings: the 4-story, crescent-shaped office building and the 5-story circular event circular building, constructed above a 2-story underground parking garage. The facades of both buildings have a semi-transparent glass facades. A wide foyer on the first floor connects these buildings. While the basement floors and above-ground access cores are of solid construction.

The assembly building itself consists of self-contained assembly rooms, irregularly arranged over four levels around a reinforced concrete core lined with wooden panelling. The ground floor contains the largest assembly room and is triple heigh with a glazed façade facing the new Rhine promenade plateau, which mediates the connection between the existing parliament. Around this circular ‘head’, wraps a ramp in a double skinned light filled envelope, leading external visitors to a roof terrace over looking the Rhine.

The extension of the Landtag is embedded in a new coherent and generous open space. The important existing open spaces, such as the Bürgerpark and the Rhine promenade are finally brought together.In the Bürgerpark, the elimination of the parking garage will create a new recreational and play area will be created. Skating and bouldering areas as a new identity-creating and public-attracting young meeting place at the state parliament is an an expression of living democracy.

The planting is based on the tree and shrub species on the city’s Future Tree List of the state capital. The boulevard along Stromstrasse will be accentuated with cord trees. In the parking areas a diverse, colourful, lively mix of park trees, such as lime, tulip such as lime, tulip and amber trees, gleditsia and katsura trees.