The park-like space at the heart of this block decreases the amount of paved or built surface from 98 percent of the site to 62 per cent, and forms a central space for the community. It can be entered from the corner of Kiefernstraße, and via three passages through the building on the side of the main road that connect the development to its neighbourhood. In addition to greenery, it hosts a catalogue of amenities, from kiosks to sports facilities and playgrounds. The green open space contributes to increasing the biodiversity in the neighbourhood and creates a pleasant microclimate, especially on hot summer days. To make this large green space economically possible required a bold spatial compromise, which was solved with an office high-rise on the south-western corner of the site. Understanding the benefits of this trade-off, the community strongly supported the addition of this tower and, while a tower on this location was not in the city’s high-rise plan, the local support of the design served as a strong incentive for the city’s high-rise committee to give special approval.

The desires of the community helped to define a wide range of design features. Among these are the project’s sustainability approach, which includes green roofs with photovoltaic panels, cross-laminated timber floors in the office tower, and an urban mining approach that will see components from the existing shopping centre reused as much as possible. It also includes a focus on celebrating the qualities of the community: each of the blocks that constitute the overall building are proposed to receive a different façade treatment, showing the diversity of future users and making the building less imposing. Some of these walls are proposed to be covered in street art developed with the residents of Kiefernstraße, echoing the murals that have become a signature of the street’s appearance.