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Urban Restructuring: Workshop for the City's Future, Leinefelde

Leinefelde is situated in a rural region in Thuringia a few kilometres from the former boundary between the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany. The town was developed between 1960 and 1989 from a village of 2,500 inhabitants to an industrial town of 16,500 inhabitants as a model town of socialist urban development. Offering housing and infrastructure to almost 14,000 people, the Südstadt was built close to the centre of the old village and near the workshops of the largest textile combine in the German Democratic Republic. The various construction steps demonstrated the current state of socialist house building in terms of urban and technological development. With the political changes in 1989 and the ensuing collapse of local industry, three-quarters of the jobs ceased to exist, resulting in unemployment, migration and depopulation.

Planning for stabilisation began in 1993; it soon transpired that that in the long term, only half the housing would be available to let, if the flats were adapted to the rising - and increasingly differentiated - requirements of future demand. From this, three local themes emerged to serve as guidelines for the development process. Work: Improvement of the employment situation by re-establishing commercial enterprise in new locations and on old industrial sites, improvement of locational factors for existing industrial companies and re-established businesses. Living: development into an attractive housing location by strengthening the solid infrastructural features, removal of housing over-capacity, enhancement of the remaining housing supply and development of high quality housing. Nature: Resource-conscious, sustainable urban redevelopment of high ecological quality.

These focal themes found their expression in the Framework Plan developed with all stakeholders in the urban redevelopment. The Plan - ratified in 1995 and updated twice – forms the basis for the process of urban redevelopment. Keeping the concept flexible is vital: first, the early stabilisation of sustainable housing is safeguarded by the strategy of selectively focusing enhancement investment onto a coherent core area, and second, it leaves room for manoeuvre for the extensive demolition measures needed at the periphery.

The Jury said:
Leinefelde is a unique showcase of the transition between the former model town for socialist urban development and the new economic and social context. With the political changes of 1989, the textile industries on which the town’s survival was based were no longer viable; three quarters of the jobs and a comparable proportion of the population in the area were lost.

The plan was to re-establish commercial enterprise on greenfield and brownfield sites within the town by encouraging and facilitating new enterprise and through relocation of existing industry where appropriate. The approach sought the demolition of sub-standard accommodation and the redevelopment and refurbishment of existing better quality housing, as well as providing new housing which would accord with ‘good practice’ urban design principles and reflect the need to provide different types, sizes and scales of residential unit.

The jury was impressed by the innovative - perhaps even bold - approach which shaped the Re-development Plan for the town. It was a practical and pragmatic way to tackle the problems in the area. At a time of uncertainty, the plan showed significant and positive vision for the future. It provided for development in a planned and comprehensive manner but was also flexible in its approach, allowing for changes over time.