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View from the city
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Wide window reveals set into a rough through-coloured scratch render enlarge the wall openings
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Coming from east a Low Tech High Rise marks the City´s entrance
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The central square with the House for Families and Kids
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A parking garage serves as a noise barrier between the railways and the courtyard
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The lower day care center serves as a volumetric link to the listed Nazi terraced houses
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Situation between Nazi Party Rally Grounds and the Reichswald forest
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Site Plan showing the varying building heights and the integration of the existing row houses
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Ground floor plan
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The "Regensburg" Type
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The Noise Protection Type
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The Gate House Type
Regensburg Quarter
Behles & Jochimsen Architects, Topos Landscape Architects. Nürnberg, Germany
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Name of work in English
Regensburg Quarter
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Name of work in original language
Regensburger Viertel
Prize year
EUmies Awards 2026
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Work Location
Nürnberg, Germany
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Studio
Behles & Jochimsen Architects, Topos Landscape Architects
EUmies Awards 2026 Nominees
Next to the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds, the site had excellent transport links but lacked urban integration. The new neighbourhood thus had to form its own identity. Nearly 400 affordable flats and supplementary uses were created under the guiding principle: City, not settlement!
Collaborators
Collaborator (office): Cappello Giulia; Collaborator (office): Dittrich Jenny; Collaborator (office): Kocheva Iva; Collaborator (office): Müller Dominik; Collaborator (office): Thao Giang Nguyen; Collaborator (office): Cornelius Oswald; Collaborator (office): Rettberg Anatol; Collaborator (office): Scholtz Fabian; Collaborator (office): Strohbach Sarah; Collaborator (office): Wendl Sina; Collaborator (office): Wünsche Mathias; Construction management: GAPP, Munich; Landscape: Topos, Berlin; Project management: GCA, Nuremberg; Structure: Peters Schuessler Sperr, Nuremberg; Installations: Koppe, Nuremberg; Fire Safety and Accessibility: Teucke, Nuremberg; Building physics: Basic, Gundelsheim
Program
Collective housing
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Labels
Social
Site area
38000 m²
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Client
Siedlungswerk Nürnberg
Total gross floor
65000 m²
Cost
2350 €/m²
The site was well connected but spatially isolated. Within the Nazi Rally Grounds context, the aim was to create an independent and vibrant piece of city with affordable housing and complementary uses. Four blocks form a square with shops and lanes. The buildings are related, yet each is distinct: the varied heights emphasise corners and gateways, while bends in the floor plans and differing façades create a lively urban image. A continuous perimeter development shields noise, while a ring road keeps cars out. A lower nursery links to listed houses; a low-tech tower marks the city’s entrance.
How does one create partly subsidized housing for a highly diverse community between the Reichsparteitag grounds and the Reichswald forest? On the site, a large development for workers designed by Albert Speer already existed. The challenge was to integrate this uniform, anti-urban structure spatially, but to contrast it ideologically, with as much urbanity as possible. Therefore, despite financial constraints, we positively embraced opportunities for differentiation. Now completed, the "Regensburg Quarter" presents itself as a colourful and vibrant neighbourhood. The 35 houses appear related, yet distinct. The articulation of individual houses and the differentiation of outdoor spaces were intended to encourage identification and communication. The aim was for neighbours to greet each other.
How can high quality be achieved on a tight budget? The structural works were cost-effective because the building forms are simple, despite the variations in plan and height. Raised ground floors reduced expensive earthworks and enhanced the quality of the lowest flats. Few basic layouts were repeatedly used in various combinations. The number of bespoke details was minimised. This gave room to invest in better materials, i.e. through-coloured scratch render of the outside or local natural stone and timber doors in the stairwells. Significant investment was made in ecological aspects: the neighbourhood was built to the German Efficiency House 55 standard, and the heating plant supplies electricity and heating based on biogas. Despite the high density, all rainwater is allowed to infiltrate naturally on-site. The surrounding forest edge was enhanced and the courtyards benefit from trees, which were painstakingly preserved, alongside extensive new planting.