Canals

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The short end of the Holzgracht
Hansegracht with the day care center in the background
Information signs explain the function of the canals
Residential development on the Speichergracht

The canals in Duisburg are an urban development and water technology element in the master plan of the architectural office Foster + Partners for the renovation of the inner harbor and the inner city area. Two of the canals are finished, a third is partly finished, partly in planning. Around 500 traffic-calmed residential units have been built in block construction around the canals.

The canals are part of the route of industrial culture and are in the immediate vicinity of other buildings: Museum Küppersmühle , Werhahnmühle , Faktorei 21 , Hafenforum and Speicher Allgemeine .

Residential development

The five-storey residential buildings on the canals between Philosophenweg and Stresemannstrasse were planned by the Stuttgart architects Auer + Weber + Partner in 1987 and 1988 and implemented by GEBAG (Duisburger Gemeinnützige Baugesellschaft AG). In 2000 they received the “Exemplary Buildings Award in North Rhine-Westphalia” and in 2002 the “Builders Prize” from the city of Duisburg. The buildings around the Philosophenhof were built from 1999 to 2001 by TreuHandStelle GmbH (THS). It was built on the site of the former Böninger tobacco factory, which operated from 1912 to 1975 and was then used as a warehouse. Of this, the entrance gate and the administration building on Stresemannstrasse are still preserved; the Hansegracht daycare center is now housed in the latter .

The resulting buildings take up the block structure of the surrounding area and are nevertheless recognizable as individual residential units through stairwells and other elements. Further elements are the green roofs, crossed apartments with a depth of approx. Ten meters and balconies, loggias or small exits on both the west and east sides, staggered upper floors with partially protruding roofs, large window areas and light or reddish plastered wall surfaces as well as openly ventilated underground garages. The ground floor apartments have small front gardens at the back, the public space around the canals is traffic-calmed, planted with rows of trees and designed as a communication room.

The approximately half a hectare, semi-public inner courtyard west of the Hansegracht, known as the Philosophenhof , was laid out as a park and garden by the Dutch landscape architect Jörn Copijn. An organic wall with gates was created from old materials from the original development as a structuring and calming element around the central playground.

Water technology

As part of the master plan, the eastern port area was separated from the rest of the port by a sheet pile wall in Portsmouth Dam and filled in by sealing the bottom to form an artificial lake ( 26  m above sea level ). In order to be able to maintain the water level, the rainwater from the surrounding sealed surfaces must be directed into the basin. The artificially created canals are temporary storage facilities ( 27  m above sea level ) and inlet channels. The rainwater from the roof and floor areas is collected in them by means of pipes and open troughs and channeled through overflows into the harbor basin. Excess water can seep away via a gravel bed on the north side of the harbor (the canals are on the south side). In the event of drought and to defuse the high groundwater level, a solar-powered well on the Hansegracht also provides groundwater; the annual output is 90,000 m³. Small biotopes were created at the discharge points at the southern end of the canals for primary clarification of the water supplied.

Web links

Commons : Grachten Duisburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 26 ′ 22.9 "  N , 6 ° 46 ′ 13.2"  E