Abstract:

The former district hospital Lörrach, Germany was a public, identity-forming building. "Das Ö" preserves this through transformation. The resource transition demands new strategies. A changing society, older, more diverse, more fluid in dwelling forms, calls for spatial structures that enable community without forcing it. The concrete skeleton from the 1950s and 1970s remains legible, saves embodied energy, becomes the basis for minimal-invasive interventions.

The urban strategy operates through targeted incisions. The treatment building yields to a quarter courtyard framed by three patient houses, a surface for market, festival, everyday life. Passages establish connection. New construction creates a second, private courtyard. Two squares, two atmospheres. The houses are interwoven through arcades and bridges, vertical atria bring light into deep floor plans.

The base contains social infrastructure like daycare, library, café and workshops. Above develops demographic mixture where penthouse apartments meet student housing, senior living and cluster apartments. Each patient house receives specific intervention. PTH 1 gets steel cable construction, column-free. PTH 3 becomes La Fabrique for offices, crafts and culture. PTH 4 receives a timber module.

The conversion employs reclaimed materials from three urban mines: the hospital, Messehalle Basel, Postgebäude Basel SBB. Where concrete meets bio-based construction, an alchemy emerges.