Constructa block

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Hildesheimer Straße 73 high-rise as part of the Constructa block

The Constructa-Block in Hannover is an in -line design built residential complex with spacious green areas . The buildings were erected at the beginning of the 1950s as a model demonstration object for the first Constructa building exhibition . The location is the rectangular area between Hildesheimer Strasse and Schlägerstrasse on the one hand , and Krausenstrasse and Bandelstrasse on the other in Hanover's Südstadt district .

History and description

The original perimeter block development on the square was essentially built around 1870 and until the 1910s during the time of the German Empire . In 1885, the former Emilienstraße was laid out in the square , which was named after the Hanoverian history sheets "at the request of the architect Klug after his daughter Emilie" (born March 9, 1866 in Hanover, whereabouts unknown).

The former residential buildings with their light initially designed courtyards and gardens took during the early days inside the block then tightly built businesses but soon more and more fresh air and sunlight continued. This part of the Südstadt development was largely destroyed by the air raids on Hanover during World War II.

The square devastated by high explosive and incendiary bombs , however, offered the opportunity in the still young Federal Republic of Germany to "do it completely better [instead of the previously dense and unhealthy development]". The plan of the municipal building administration under the direction of Rudolf Hillebrecht was - not least in view of the approaching, first Federal Horticultural Show in Hanover in 1951 and the Constructa building exhibition, which was also to be held in Hanover - a model project for further urban development measures. A corresponding architectural competition was announced, from which the award winners were the architect Friedrich Wilhelm Kraemer and Konstanty Gutschow with Friedrich Spengelin , who was an employee of the von Gutschow office until 1950. A design by the architect Georg Seewald was also taken into account in the plant with its green spaces, which was realized by the city of Hanover and a construction cooperative from 1950 to 1951.

Residential building as part of the Constructa block, here on Krausenstrasse in Hanover's Südstadt

So finally 500 apartments much needed arisen overall in the not quite correct named Constructa block not just as a monolithic block , but as of greenery plant with different patterns of houses : A pergola - high-rise and several multi- and single-family houses , garages and an aligned for Hildesheimerstraße storey Row of shops .

However, the model project presented also received heavy criticism. As early as 1950, the magazine Die neue Stadt, magazine for architecture and urban development , asked whether "[...] this massive, monotonous barracks style was really an expression of our will". The floor plans were referred to as "irrelevant variants [...] of the types developed 20 or 30 years ago" and the summary in the magazine stated that

"[...] it cannot have been the purpose of the whole competition effort to show abroad [1951 at the 1st Constructa] what we [German architects] were able to do a generation ago."

Although the new "Wohnweg" at the location of the former Emilienstraße was named in 1952 after the "Reconstruction Minister" Eberhard Wildermuth (1890–1952), the planned connections to Stephansplatz and the continuation to Maschsee did not materialize.

In 1962, the Constructa fountain designed by Konstanty Gutschow and decorated with enamel by Theo Blume was set up in front of the Constructa block on Hildesheimer Straße .

At the end of the 2nd millennium , Friedrich Lindau, who previously worked primarily in Hanover as an architect and president of the Lower Saxony Chamber of Architects (see literature), complained that the 15,000 square meters of living space in the Constructa block “lacked any urban character” and only had a little more when half of the previously destroyed living space had been planned. The price of the loosened development is exemplary for other developments in Hanover and is the reason for the expansion of the city of Hanover on its edges. That is why Hanover continued to grow into the surrounding area "like a cancerous tumor". The residents of the new building there had to accept more and more distant routes to the city center and to their workplaces, which is also a cause of the increased traffic in the city. The costs, which were foreseeable as early as the 1950s, included a “considerable development effort for new connections to the road and traffic network [to the surrounding area] and for the supply of water, gas and electricity”.

See also

literature

  • Friedrich Lindau: School for the visually impaired in Schlägerstrasse with the Südstadt library. In: Planning and Building in Hanover in the 1950s. Schlütersche, Hannover 1998, ISBN 3-87706-530-9 , pp. 139-146; here especially pp. 139–143; mostly online through google books
  • Martin Wörner, Ulrich Hägele, Sabine Kirchhof: Architekturführer Hannover (= Architectural guide to Hannover ), in German and English with an introduction by Stefan Amt, Reimer, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-496-01210-2 , p. 97
  • Detlef Jessen-Klingenberg: The Constructa block in Hanover. In: Architektur in Niedersachsen 2005. Edited by the Lower Saxony Chamber of Architects. Junius, Hamburg 2005, pp. 144–147. ISBN 3-88506-559-2 .
  • Helmut Knocke , Hugo Thielen : Hildesheimer Strasse 61-77. In: Hannover Art and Culture Lexicon , p. 147f.
  • Helmut Knocke: Constructa-Block. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , pp. 116f.

Web links

Commons : Constructa-Block (Hannover)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Helmut Knocke: Constructa-Block (see literature)
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Friedrich Lindau: School for the visually impaired ... (see literature)
  3. ↑ a b Helmut Zimmermann : Wildermuthweg. In: The street names of the state capital Hanover , Verlag Hahnsche Buchhandlung , Hanover 1992, ISBN 3-7752-6120-6 , p. 266
  4. ^ Karl-Heinz Grotjahn MA: AWD Arena. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 40
  5. ^ Eva Benz-Rababah : Federal Garden Show. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 98f.
  6. ↑ a b c Helmut Knocke, Hugo Thielen: Hildesheimer Straße 61-77 (see literature)
  7. ^ A b According to Friedrich Lindau In: Heinrich Henning: Die neue Stadt, magazine for architecture and urban development , year 1950, p. 367ff.
  8. ^ Helmut Zimmermann : Constructa-Brunnen , in ders .: Hannover in the pocket. Buildings and monuments from A to Z . 2nd Edition. Feesche, Hannover 1988, ISBN 3-87223-046-8 , p. 26
  9. ^ Helmut Knocke: Lindau, Friedrich. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 405

Coordinates: 52 ° 21 '41.4 "  N , 9 ° 45' 0.8"  E