As announced by the Jury, on the 15th of February, West 8, within the team led by Ingenhoven associates, are one of the winners in the urban planning competition for the Düsseldorf Opera at the Heinrich-Heine-Allee site, between the heritage-protected Hofgarten and the historic city centre.
The winning entry highlights the multidisciplinary team’s experience in city integration, as well as landscape and urban realm sensitivities with architecture. The team comprised of Ingenhoven associates as the leading Architects, West 8 as Urban Designers and Landscape Architects, and sub-consultants Theatre Projects, Werner Sobek, Durth Roos Consulting GmbH and Görtzen Stolbrink & Partner mbB.
The winning entry aspires to be an inclusive and stimulating space for cultural immersion. Continuing and respecting the ambitions of the city’s urban fabric, the winning proposal on the Heinrich-Heine-Allee site is a place for all to enjoy, an uplifting experience for the city’s residents and visitors alike. Embedding itself within the urban grain, the arched geometry of the Opera House proposal blends gently into the listed Hofgarten and accentuates the entrance to the historic city centre with a simple and natural gesture. The adjacent Grabbeplatz extends thematically to the water’s edge of the park and, in combination with the improved pedestrian crossings at the edge of the square, enlivens the connectivity of the Heinrich-Heine-Allee and the historic town.
About the competition:
Düsseldorf’s City Council launched the international “Opera of the Future” competition in 2022, seeking to examine the urban integration of the new Opera House within the city. 20 international teams were invited to show the urban planning, open space planning and traffic potential of two possible locations – ‘Heinrich-Heine-Allee’ and ‘Am Wehrhahn’ – within Düsseldorf’s urban fabric. Each preselected team presented two design proposals demonstrating the effects on the surroundings in conjunction with the functional and spatial requirements, aiming for a maximal identification within the cityscape and an added value beyond regular opera operations.
All 40 submitted designs are on display to the public from Saturday, February 18th to Sunday, March 12th in Düsseldorf at Brücke des Central, Worringer Straße 140.
More information via: LINK
Header image © Ingenhoven associates