Hinterland

Cologne, Germany
2009 - 2015

Innercity dwelling has once again become an alternative to the suburban residential ideal. Up to 80 000 people more than today are for example expected to call the city of Cologne their home by 2025. Many of them will experience difficulties in finding adequate living space in the city though. In order for these different potential city dwellers to find inner-city room FAR has identified a reservoir of unused territory. While the edges of the inner-city blocks have already been developed fully, there is a highly undervalued part of the city: the inner-world of the city blocks. FAR has developed a bottom-up urban and residential strategy for densification, turning the spatial constraints and limitations in terms of building law governing these inner-worlds into productive design parameters. A newly designed do-it-yourself parametric tool will bring together the different parties involved in the building process: property owners, city, neighbors, real-estate industry, banks and architects.