Düsseldorf. Metropolis on the Rhine

Raumwerk D
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Raumwerk D: Collecting feedback! Intermediate presentation of the spatial design concepts in October 2019
Perceiving the city as an objective whole and becoming aware of the various connections and
interrelations of the system often proves to be difficult for the daily user. What places in our
city do we appreciate and why? Which global developments will probably affect our life in a city
like <strong>Düsseldorf</strong>? Which venues and urban spaces does our increasingly varied urban society
need? How do we further develop a city with a great diversity?
The early and intensive public participation in Raumwerk D started with these and similar
questions in order to raise awareness of the many and wide-ranging challenges that a growing
city must rise to today and in the future. Apart from the increasing pressure on the housing
market, it is also about matters such as climate change, competition for use-specific sites, and
advancing digitization.
Raumwerk D will make general urban statements and formulate guidelines for the urban
development of <strong>Düsseldorf</strong>. These are intended to enable the perception of the dynamics as an
opportunity and to shape it with the help of an established common sense. The focus is on
statements with a spatial influence. At the forefront of the Raumwerk D development process,
which is divided into five phases, is the dialog with the various involved parties in the city.
After the preparatory and process-structuring phase and the early participatory phase had
been completed, both the road map and the conceptual formulation of the urban development
concept could be defined and specified with the help of the submitted contributions. In order
to obtain a wide set of ideas as the basis for developing Raumwerk D, four appointed interdisciplinary
planning teams designed four independent city-wide visions for urban development, the
so-called “Raumbilder” for <strong>Düsseldorf</strong>. The work is based on the collective results of the preparatory
project stages, enriched by current developments, existing concepts, and global trends.
All the teams were set an identical task, which was nevertheless developed with a respective
specific focus, thus enabling a multifaceted discussion platform for all urban development
issues in <strong>Düsseldorf</strong> today and tomorrow.
To also include as many involved parties, stakeholders, and residents as possible, a
workshop and online participation forum were held prior to the finalization of the city-wide
urban development visions of the four planning teams (Raumbilder) to gather the opinion of
the urban community about the designs and to obtain an initial estimation and evaluation of
the ideas. Based on these participation results, the spatial design drafts were reviewed and
finalized by the planning teams.
The inherent planning approaches were then refined to allow the extraction of an overriding
target concept. The ideas were therefore layered, selected, and enhanced further. This synthesis
results in the strategic target design as the centerpiece of Raumwerk D, which shows perspectives
for the urban development of the city.