NEWS | Schulze+Grassov

SCHULZE

GRASSOV

On our drawing boards. Browse the latest updates on a selection of global projects we’ve been involved with, and explore the thinking that shapes them.

INTERACTIVE BUILDING SITE 02.2020

Schulze+Grassov and Enemærke & Petersen have joined forces to develop an "Interactive Building Site" to address the biggest challenges experienced by local communities as developers execute major urban development projects. The project deploys our bespoke public life simulation platform and uses VR technology to give stakeholders access to an interactive world generated with input from experienced E&P building site managers. The work is funded by Realdania and the platform will help in the dialogue between the contractor and local communities in new projects.

KOLDING STEPS UP 12.2019

The City of Kolding is part of the Trekantsområdet of Denmark, the Triangle Region. In this industrial and commercial powerhouse of the Danish economy an entire region collaborates as a network of successful towns and cities, surrounded by beautiful landscape. We have been selected by the City of Kolding to help it become a more attractive urban destination in the region, strengthening the community of existing businesses and shops and improving the quality of buildings and open spaces in the city centre and surrounding districts.

Watch final presentation here

ANDREA DYNNES AND JEPPE JENSEN +2 12.2019

To round off the academic training our graduates received at Danish universities, we sponsor them to take the "Plus 2" professional education programme run by the Danish Union of Architects and Designers. In the 2-year course they are paired with an experienced mentor in our office to reflect on their work in practice and they study part-time in groups to learn about professional practice. The education concludes with an exam similar to the RIBA Part 3 and the AIA professional accreditation examinations.

VISION FOR TORONTO 10.2019

The relocation of Bombardier from the Toronto Downsview area creates North America's largest urban regeneration opportunity on a site of over 300 ha within ten minutes transit of Downtown Toronto. In a fiercely competitive field we were selected into the final four competing teams with our long-time collaborators of Behnisch Architekten, Transsolar and Martha Schwartz and Partners. We were the responsible urban designers for the masterplan that focused on creating an ecosystem of networked employment sites to underpin mixed-use urban development with a fully climate-adapted public realm.

TRANSFORMING INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE 09.2019

The Siemensstadt in Berlin is a city district built from 1899 onwards as the headquarters for Siemens. Complete with workplaces, housing and infrastructure, the growing district attracted many workers to one of Germany's industrial powerhouses. Schulze+Grassov were chosen as urban designers to compete for a complete reinvention of the district as a modern Siemensstadt 2.0 in the years to come. Working with our friends at Dietrich Untertrifaller, Studio Dreiseitel and Mobility-in-Chain, we trained algorithms to visualise the potential that employment and R&D land uses have to create a lively city.

CITY OF SOUND 08.2019

Struer is the City of Sound, the home to Danish company Bang & Olufsen. As the commercial harbour serving the agricultural hinterland is restructuring, a major opportunity has arisen to grow the city structure into the harbor area, right adjacent to the city centre. Here, the city will create new public destinations, workplaces and homes in a very privileged location. Our development plan proposal focussed on a city district with opportunities and invitations for people of all ages.

DESIGN GUIDE FOR KOLDING 08.2019

As part of our work for The City of Kolding we’ve developed a design guide for ground floor tenants. The guide will strengthen the perceived stewardship of public spaces and the overall experience of the inner city. It provides a range of suggestions on how to create a more positive, inviting and animated environment on the ground floor, including building edges and the adjacent public space. The guide has been issued to all business and shop owners in the city centre who have welcomed it. Only a few months later, we’re already seeing the positive effects.

WITH DORTE MANDRUP IN NÜRNBERG 07.2019

For some time we have been looking out for a good opportunity to work with the team of Dorte Mandrup to explore collaboration. What better opportunity than to take our joint Danish team to Oliver's fatherland to bring Scandinavian sensibility to a post-war building icon sitting adjacent to the historic medieval structure of the Nürnberg city wall. Our project connects building and open space with a focus on improving pedestrian connectivity and natural urban habitat in this iconic location.

NEW BICYCLE BRIDGE 07.2019

Close to Louise's home in Valby big things are happening. The local train station has been transformed into a multi-modal hub that will become Denmark's fifth biggest transport hub. Metro, S-Train, Letbane, Øresund and national rail trains will all stop here. Many new buildings are being constructed already in this new emerging urban hub. We have drawn plans for a new pedestrian and bicycle bridge that will span several lines to improve accessibility across rail infrastructure.

MUNICH URBAN EXTENSION 06.2019

Munich is a fast-growing German city with a high quality of life. We are advising Austrian developer CA Immo on development proposals for an urban extension on the site of a former stone quarry adjacent to the existing S-Train station in München Feldkirchen. Working in a team with Behnisch Architekten, we are developing the plan for the public realm as a "Handbook for Public Spaces" to set out the design principles for all streets, paths, squares, courtyards and the green infrastructure. The new district will have to be developed incrementally to organically extend the town of Feldkirchen.

TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER 05.2019

The Danish Architecture Center runs a three year p/t professional educational programme "Strategic Urban Governance" for chief executives in local authorities. We were asked to plan and facilitate a professional study tour to Manchester and Liverpool where 28 Danish leaders met with their English counterparts and learned about the remarkable transformation of England's Northwest over the last generation. Experiences included learning about partnerships in urban development, sustainability, climate change, working with local communities and, most importantly, a pub talk in a Victorian pub.

CROSSING THE NECKAR 03.2019

In 2019 the IBA Heidelberg asked us to assemble a team to compete for the design of a sequence of three new pedestrian and bicycle bridges over busy highways and the river Neckar. Our twin bridges designed with UN Studio and Knippers Helbig frame the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the medieval core of Heidelberg. One of the bridges is proposed in massive timber construction to sequester carbon within the new structure.

CYCLING DTU 03.2019

Cycling to campus and cycling on campus is essential as a way of getting around in a smart way on Denmark's largest campus. We have been asked to provide the DTU with guidelines for new bicycle paths and parking over this 106ha campus. Our guidelines provide the basis for improving and extending the offer and making bicycling an attractive transportation alternative for all students, faculty and staff.

SAFE IN ST. LOUIS 02.2019

Campus perimeters are interfaces where the busy urban streets need to transform to create safe space for students, faculty and staff. In our East End transformation of the Washington University in St. Louis campus we introduced dedicated light signals for bicycles as a first in this county in the US. Having addressed how pedestrians and bicyclists can be safer on the campus we were appointed by the university with WSP to review the entire campus perimeter and to draw up intersection improvements all around this 100 acre campus.

OUT OF THE GROUND 01.2019

The Design District is London's new permanent home for the creative industries. It comprises of 16 buildings, designed by eight architects, set in the heart of Greenwich Peninsula. We designed the landscape of squares, streets, lanes and co-working yards that provide the glue between all the buildings. Our foundations and drainage have been constructed and we look forward to the arrival of trees and CNC-routed stonework for benches and tree pit surrounds.

SERVUS SEESTADT 01.2019

After four years as member of the advisory board of Wien 3420 in the Seestadt Aspern Oliver hands over the batton to Andreas Kleboth from Linz. Oliver has served two full terms on the advisory board that is responsible for quality management in Europe's largest new town under construction. Advising on hundreds of projects from inception to completion this advisory board is one of a kind in Europe. Oliver had a chance to guide the building out of a plan he had a hand in shaping himself as the author of the Gehl project "Partitur öffentlicher Raum", the iconic plan for all public spaces in the city in 2007.

MONEY MADE IN GERMANY 12.2018

The Bundesbank spreads 5000 employees over several real estate sites in the City of Frankfurt. At the seat of the iconic brutalist main building next to the Frankfurt TV Tower the Bundesbank wants to consolidate its body of employees in existing and new buildings in an activated and attractive campus setting. Working with our long-time collaborators Behnisch Architekten we drew up a masterplan and used public life simulations to demonstrate how employees will be able to enjoy a range of open spaces as part of their new working day.

CLOUDBURST COLLABORATION 09.2018

S+G, EnviDan and Colas have been awarded funding by Realdania to develop the second generation of our climate adaptation project “Vandvejen” (Waterways). The funding allows us to test new sustainable construction principles and material prototypes for our innovative urban rainwater management system. With this product we will help cities and land owners capture and retain rainwater locally, taking pressure off municipal drainage systems.

PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLE BRIDGE IN ST. LOUIS 08.2018

The first section of the new pedestrian and bicycle bridge designed by Ayers Saint Gross in collaboration with Schulze+Grassov is being installed over Forest Park Parkway in St. Louis. The 18-foot bridge will attract more than 600,000 users per year and help to connect the 68-hectare university campus with nearby university housing areas and leisure destinations. The project is part of a range to measures by Washington University in St. Louis to promote walking and cycling to campus.

To learn more

PROJECT DELIVERY IN LONDON 08.2018

S+G have been appointed by contractor Volker Fitzpatrick to deliver the technical design and construction support for a fine-grain network of pedestrian-friendly squares, streets and lanes in London’s Design District on the Greenwich Peninsula. Our innovative shared co-working yards will shape the identity for four unique clusters of creative businesses operating out of 16 buildings designed by architects from England and Spain. Our open spaces will establish the bustling connective tissue of open spaces connecting the 1,800 creative workers and their visitors.

TRANSFORMING DTU 07.2018

Denmark's Technical University campus in Lyngby is the biggest university campus in Denmark. Built in the post-war period the campus was situated 20km outside the dense city of Copenhagen, along a new motorway and without access by rail or transit. We were hand-picked to lead a team including Henning Larsen Architects and others to draw up a strategic campus plan to facilitate an aggressive growth agenda to consolidate DTU's status as an elite university. Our plan has been adopted by the DTU Board of Directors in June 2018.

CONSTRUCTION COMMENCED IN THE UK 07.2018

The site hoarding to our Greenwich Peninsula project has gone up and construction has started on London's first purpose-built design district, complete by 2020. The site hoarding has already become a popular surface engaging the community where people stop, look, play and take photos. The artwork to the site hoarding and the adjacent street were installed to illustrations designed by HATO of London.

GREENING HISTORIC COURTYARDS 06.2018

The sketch design for our three historic urban courtyards has gone through public consultation with local residents and is now awaiting approval from the city council. We look forward to working on the technical project and building three exemplary landscaped courtyards fit for increasing the quality of life for residents of dense urban blocks in the centre of Copenhagen.

GLÜCKAUF ZUKUNFT! 05.2018

The German coal mining company RAG has invited us to spend a day visiting one of the remaining active coal mines in Germany before they stop extracting coal by the end of 2018. The wonderful RAG team at Prosper-Haniel took us 1200m underground where we took a monorail train system right up to the face where coal is extracted. This was an unforgettable and intense experience during an emotional time for the German coal mining community that will cease all coal production by the end of 2018.

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PRESENTING AT REALDANIA EVENT 05.2018

Klimaspring - When the rain animates the city.
Since 2013 and until the end of the campaign, Klimaspring has supported the development of seven new products and systems for climate adaptation in the city. The solutions, including the S+G project "The Waterway" all have in common that they provide a value other than 'just' to handle stormwater and cloudbursts. All solutions seek to fulfill several purposes, and "the Waterway" introduces added value to streetscapes via robust public space design.

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STREETS MATTER MOST! 05.2018

Louise Grassov was invited to address the assembled Planning Department of the City of Aarhus: Our streets have enormous potential as a primary urban resource enabling people to lead a healthy, happy and active everyday life. However, today the urban street is a contested space that has to reconcile an ever-increasing number of demands. Transportation and an evolving culture of mobility recognize the need to accommodate people walking, bicycling, driving cars and using public transit. New global trends seek more and diversified urban nature to compliment traditional street trees; new storm water retention infrastructure will compliment conventional urban drainage systems. Can our streets accommodate all our needs?

SIMULATING PUBLIC LIFE 04.2018

Smart Cities & Smart Buildings: Balancing People and Technology. Architect Mohammed Almahmood is appointed as a postdoctoral researcher working with Copenhagen University and S+G to employ state-of-the-art information technology to simulate public life in urban spaces. The research is carried out under a new programme funded by the Danish Innovation Fund and Realdania to further Denmark’s smart city knowledge base.

LIGHT-RAIL TO DTU 03.2018

Denmark’s Technical University has appointed S+G to advise on the integration of a new light-rail system including tracks, bridges and three stations serving the campus. The new network will be constructed from Ishøj til Lundtofte, connecting the 100-hectare DTU campus to the city of Lyngby and the existing transit station by 2024. The project is one of the measures taken to transform the campus into a multi-modal mobility environment with new opportunities to walk, bicycle and use public transit.

S+G SIDEWALK PRODUCTS 02.2018

The urban sidewalk is a contested space. It hosts people in motion, people crossing, people waiting, and people lingering. Working in collaboration with Danish product designer Henning Solfeldt, S+G have developed a new family of innovative sidewalk paving and seating products. The “Holdepunkter” (Point of View) product series stems from the vision to create generic streetscape elements for all Danish cities looking to transform life on the sidewalk: new places for people to linger, new ways to strengthen urban nature and resilience, and smarter ways of securing public safety.

EXEMPLAR COPENHAGEN COURTYARDS 01.2018

Schulze+Grassov has been appointed by the City of Copenhagen to design and refurbish three historic urban courtyards in the heart of Copenhagen. The municipality is looking to us to apply our 2017 project “Design Parameters for Copenhagen Courtyards” in three exemplar locations. The goal is to create innovative design solutions that will increase the quality of the communal spaces and lead to more people spending more time in open space. The design will also include state-of-the-art thinking on how active-rainwater-management in urban areas can help reduce pressures on municipal infrastructure systems and provide added-value through access to beautiful open spaces for residents in urban areas.

RE-HUMANISING PUBLIC URBAN SPACE 01.2018

Monday, January 15th, S+G Urban Designer Mohammed Almahmood defended his PhD-thesis about public urban space in Riyadh. The thesis entitled “Re-humanising Public Urban Space” unfolds the influence of socio-cultural norms on the use, experience, and provision of the sidewalk in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Professor Mashary Al Naim from Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU) in Saudi Arabia, Associate Professor Stefan van der Spek from TU Delft and Associate Professor Lise Herslund from the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management (IGN) made up the assessment committee.

Follow this link for a summary

BRING ON THE RAIN! 11.2017

The Waterway has gotten off to a good start with plenty of rainwater throughout an exceptionally wet Danish summer. Local residents and professional observers praise the optimized accessibility for people with mobility problems and the aesthetic solution to dealing with rainwater management challenges. The Waterway project is supported by a grant from the Danish REALDANIA philanthropic fund to test a new way of handling large volumes of rainwater in urban areas. This project delivers added value through the provision of accessible high-quality public space inviting people to dwell and socialise in the street.

PUBLIC PARK OPEN IN MOSCOW 10.2017

Zaryadye Park is the first new park to open in Moscow in 50 years! We contributed to the project with street designs to improve pedestrian access to the Moscow River and the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Kremlin and Red Square. The concept for the 13-hectare park was developed by Diller Scofidio and Renfro, Hargreaves Associates and Citymakers. Our Citymakers partners Peter Kudryavtsev and Andrej Grinev have been great patrons of the project from its inception all the way to helping the City of Moscow manage more than 35,000 visitors a day.

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RESEARCH PUBLISHED IN ANTHOS MAGAZINE 09.2017

S+G ethnologist Pil Kleinschmidt was recently published in Swiss landscape architecture magazine ANTHOS. Focusing on innovative approaches on “participation,” Kleinschmidt explains how S+G has used “big data” and “thick data” to help the City of Copenhagen connect the municipal administration with its citizens. The municipality used S+G’s work to inform the recently adopted vision, Co-Creating Copenhagen, which will guide the development of the capital of Denmark in the coming decade.

Find the article here

GREENWICH PENINSULAR DESIGN DISTRICT 09.2017

New Design District on Greenwich Peninsula provides affordable workspace for creatives and a new cultural destination for London. We have designed the open spaces for London’s first purpose-built district designed for the creative industries. Our streets, lanes, a central square and four co-working yards will provide the connective tissue for a community of 1,800 creatives working out of 16 architect-designed buildings offering workspace at affordable rents.

BETTER MOBILITY AT DTU 06.2017

We are thrilled to share that S+G has been selected - together with DTU Campus Facilities – to kickstart and coordinate the development of a new campus plan for Denmark’s Technical University in Lyngby. DTU’s 100 ha campus, home to a community of approximately 15.000 students, faculty and staff, is preparing for major transformations in the coming years by increasing density and implementing a new approach to mobility that will change the way people move around and spend their time on campus. In order to meet new requirements, DTU seeks to develop a campus plan that sets out a strategic mobility framework leading the DTU community towards the university's 200th anniversary in 2029.

PARAMETERS FOR URBAN COURTYARDS 05.2017

S+G has developed guidelines for urban courtyards establishing a shared vocabulary and approach to maintaining a consistently high level of quality in urban courtyards throughout the city. The Parameters for Urban Courtyards in Copenhagen joins the Parameters for Public Spaces in the planning toolkit developed for the Municipality of Copenhagen. The guiding principle behind these manuals is to equip employees in the Copenhagen municipality with tools that ensure high quality in the development of Copenhagen's public spaces and courtyards. The parameters identify residents' wishes and municipal strategies that should be considered early in the development planning stage. Happy reading!

GLÜCKAUF NACHBARN 02.2017

S+G have been selected to lead an inter-disciplinary team to draw up a plan for a new urban quarter in the Ruhrgebiet area of Germany. Working with the site containing the listed historic structures of the “Schachtanlage Friedrich-Heinrich” in Kamp-Lintfort we will find new answers to an old question: How can urban districts provide a blueprint for life that supports the integration of people with many different cultural backgrounds into one cohesive urban society?

PENINSUALAR PLACE PROJECT UNVEILED 01.2017

We are pleased to announce our involvement in the Santiago Calatrava design for the £1-billion project of Peninsula Place near the River Thames on the Greenwich Peninsula. Schulze+Grassov have been appointed as public realm designers by developer Knight Dragon to develop public spaces serving 1.4m square foot development on top of the North Greenwich tube station.

ALTERNATIVE UK GROWTH MODEL 12.2016

Working in collaboration with Maccreanor Lavington from Rotterdam we have developed concepts for a modern variant on the historic English urban settlement form of the hamlet in medieval surroundings. The client expressed a desire to preserve the rural landscape qualities found across a 300ha+ site primarily consisting of farmed land today. 40 minutes on the train North of London this development will offer an alternative to the commonplace British urban expansion model that consumes the landscape without allowing people to engage with it in a meaningful way. A share of the existing agricultural land use will be retained, whilst new eco-corridors with full public access to the iconic open landscape are established throughout the site.

MIDDELFART PROJECT OFFICIAL OPENING 11.2016

In November we celebrated the official opening of Søndergade, a street designed by Schulze+Grassov in collaboration with EnviDan and Colas DK. This is the second project completion in a series of on-going street and climate adaptation projects where Schulze+Grassov are driving innovation in the design of urban streets and storm-water management systems in Denmark. Executed on behalf of Middelfart Municipality, this project is supported by grants from the Realdania Foundation under the Klimaspring climate adaptation programme.

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BRIDGE CONNECTING ST. LOUIS CAMPUS 06.2016

A new bridge designed by Ayers Saint Gross and Schulze+Grassov is part of Driving Discovery, an ambitious Arts & Sciences project, to transform teaching, research, faculty and facilities at Washington University in St. Louis. As part of an ambitious 10-year transformation plan our project will make new connections between different schools at the university and connect the existing campus with adjacent communities via a state-of-the-art bridge, designed to accommodate thousands of pedestrians and bicyclists every day.

Press release (English)

EFFECT OF NEW MEETING PLACES 05.2016

Seven new pop-up places were installed at The Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Schulze+Grassov were commissioned to lead the evaluation of the pop-up places on campus. The pop-ups are designed to encourage the use of outdoor spaces on campus to support the experience of DTU’s strong community of students, faculty and staff. We documented the transition of outdoor spaces when the Lunchbox Garden, the Pink Grandstand, the Hammock Woods and a ten meter wide blue bench were put up on campus. The result is three time-lapse videos that show the effect of the new meeting places.

WAYS FOR WATER IN JUTLAND 05.2016

A street designed by Schulze+Grassov in collaboration with EnviDan and Colas DK has been completed on site and is now open to the public in the city of Låsby, Skanderborg. This is the first project completion in a series of ongoing construction projects where Schulze+Grassov are driving innovation in the design of urban streets and storm-water management systems in Denmark. Executed on behalf of Danish municipalities, this project is supported by grants from the Realdania Foundation under the Klimaspring climate adaptation programme.

To learn more

GUIDING TOWN DEVELOPMENT IN VIENNA 03.2016

Oliver Schulze is a member of the aspern Beirat; the design advisory board guiding the development of all building lots and public spaces in the 240ha new town Seestadt Aspern in the 22nd District of Vienna. In a sophisticated procurement and quality assurance process that is only found in a handful of major European city development projects this board is empowered to work hands on with developers and to advise the master developing agency on design proposals at key moments in the project delivery.

NEW URBAN CENTRE IN MALMÖ 02.2016

The City of Malmö has selected Schulze+Grassov as one of three teams to draw up a development framework for the Dekanen district in the Triangeln Station area of Malmö city center. The site contains historic building fabric and sits on top of the recently completed City Tunnel rail link that connects Sweden to the Øresund Bridge and to Denmark beyond. Combining urban living with a resilient public realm framework we are shaping the long-term vision for an exemplar urban melting pot of people and places - where Malmö can connect to Europe.

WHERE ARE YOU GOING? 10.2015

Working with more than 15,000 members of the Washington University in St. Louis community we are conducting an innovative study of mobility infrastructure and mobility needs. The first step in the mobility study is to understand how the community – students, faculty, and staff – move about and experience multiple campuses in St. Louis. The results of this study will inform future investments that support pedestrians, bicyclists, and other forms of mobility. At present this is the largest survey of its kind for a major research-led US university.

S+G AT RISING ARCHITECTURE 09.2015

Join our Rising conference session on patient capital and urban neighbourhoods at 2.15pm on 16th September. Katherine Rodgers of Grosvenor in London will be in conversation with Migge Hoffmann and Oliver Schulze discussing the role that custodian developers can play in developing great urban neighbourhoods. How can we create places where a rich and complex city life can emerge? Oliver Schulze will be presenting a development framework developed by Schulze+Grassov for Grosvenor in Bermondsey in London.