Urban Agency, in partnership with COBE, won in 2019 a competition to transform a former steel factory into an 850,000 square meters car-free mixed-use district. The industrial site is planned to become a mixed-use district, with housing for over 8,000 new residents, office spaces, schools, workshop spaces, and 268,000 square meters of landscape, including a reactivated river area. The master plan strategies focus on urban nature, renaturalization, preservation and reuse, car-free streets, and an adapted dense mix of buildings and functions.
The project is located in Esch-Sur-Alzette, Luxembourg's second-most populous commune, also known as an architectural hub, where architects like Violet le Duc, Joseph Stübben, Gottfried Böhm, and Peter Rice have worked previously. Highlighting the metallurgical factories, many industrial architecture buildings in the city are now cultural and historical points.
Heritage and transformation are central to the overall design. Along the Metzeschmelz master plan, more than twenty buildings and structures are identified as having cultural value and have been preserved to various degrees and integrated within the district. The site's cultural heritage and historical narrative remain, while contemporary programs infuse the old buildings with new life accessible to the public.
The master plan will integrate two parks connecting the area to the surrounding nature and biotopes. Smaller green spaces within the urban neighborhoods are designed to connect to the more extensive park infrastructure, serving as recreational spaces and essential connections for diverse species and insects. The plan also contemplates the transformation of the Alzette river into a natural park to support various species and habitats. During heavy rains, the sloping park will become a flood zone which, along with integrated water retention areas in the streets and urban gardens, can handle rainwater drainage across the entire district.
The project is designed as a dynamic district with symbiotic functions by implementing active ground floors and overlapping programming. The plan will provide several trams and BRT connections within the community through an integrated transport network and will robust the existing between Esch and Schifflange commune. High commercial buildings will act as a sound barrier against the railway and lower-density buildings towards the Alzette river, with more intimate residential developments. Facility hubs are central across the neighborhoods, serving as parking houses, bike/car rentals, and retail.
Other than this 5 billion Euros Metzeschmelz master plan, Urban Agency is also working on the "Vancouver Forest", a timber and bamboo building, and on a 14 floors timber tower on Dublin's waterfront in Ireland. Called Dock Mill, the project is inspired by nature and the surrounding docklands to conserve and expose the mill's industrial architecture language and use more sustainable materials like CLT.
