Zukunftszentrum Halle

In the form of an amphitheater, Riebeckplatz integrates into the topography of Riebeck Park as a hinge between Halle’s main railway station and the city center. The square, featuring a “Speakers’ Corner,” forms the urban stage and auditorium for free expression of opinions and public discourse in open space. It opens up a direct view of the high-rise element of the Future Center and the prominently placed LED display, visible from afar, which provides information about events and exhibitions currently happening inside the building. At this point, the building and the forum enter into an immediate dialogue. Riebeck Park and the program of the Future Center—organized into five individual cubes—relate to one another spatially and conceptually, forming a functional unit. The building is designed as a reinforced concrete frame structure with timber–concrete hybrid slabs and a finely articulated timber façade made of untreated softwood.

The new Riebeck Park, with Riebeckplatz at its center, is a generous, continuous open space that brings together the old town, the northern and southern inner city of Halle, the railway area, and the district of Halle-Neustadt west of the Saale in the form of a large clip. Horizontal bands running in an east–west direction structure the metropolitan-scale Riebeck Park into strips that accommodate different functions and uses. Magdeburger Straße to the west and Volkmannstraße to the east are deliberately not conceived as the edges of the open space; instead, they run perpendicular to the green bands, thus becoming part of the park and allowing for intriguing views into the landscape. The spatial focal point of this urban open space is Riebeckplatz, which—redesigned as an amphitheater—forms the external, urban forum of the new Future Center. Access to the lower city level (level –1) via generous stairways and barrier-free access via an elevator makes it possible to dispense with the relic of the highway or pedestrian bridge crossing the square at level +1. This frees up resources that can be used sustainably elsewhere. In this way, a pedestrian bridge over the lower section of Magdeburger Straße, with the tram line running there, appears to be a purposeful solution for connecting Riebeck Park to Halle’s old downtown.

The sunken design of the square embedded within the park and the ring-shaped pedestrian circulation on the inner side of the roundabout enable new and unexpected visual connections between the different levels of the city and bring ample light into the lower level. The square is now embedded in a natural topography, and the urban design helps to avoid spaces that feel unsafe. The simultaneity of bicycle and pedestrian traffic with motor vehicle traffic leads to a significant reduction in vehicle speeds at Riebeckplatz, creating a distinctive urban atmosphere within a transitional urban space. In this way, the desired transformation of traffic areas into green spaces within an urban park landscape is successfully achieved.