Jens Metz

ITINERARY

Jens Metz, winner of Europan 6 competition, “In-between cities”, in Marseille (F) in 2001, developed from urban to building some of his winning ideas.
He founded his office Plattform in 2002 in Berlin, and he works in between Germany and France. The topics developed for the competition are used in his different projects: creating a “place”, shared by users, where the concepts of interstitial “passages” and of “empty space” are central. In the projects of mutation of the existing, he used the concepts of “cargo”, a flexible space for new uses, and of “fields”, an integration of nature in the city. “Plattformberlin” is a laboratory that conducts operational and research projects in urban planning, architecture, landscape and design, operating through a cross-border network. This open concept reflects the communication and integration requirements of other disciplines in the architectural field, deploying a strategic method of approach that can be applied to different subjects.

PASSAGE

In space and in time, the passage defines urban morphology and its transformation into a succession of scales, a mix of different genres.

Strasbourg (F) - Territorial unity

The project proposes on this insular site, an urban development by progressive phases, from existing lines of force, the former arms of the Rhine being transformed into docks. They are stretched to the south to form large landscaped spaces, recreating a territorial unity and linking the existing district with its extensions. Straight rows of trees structure the fields, which are still dominated by industry, and prefigure a future process of urbanisation.

EMPTY SPACE

A central spatial figure and conceptual idea of the land, which reconfigures urban space and metamorphoses it through usage.

Cottbus (D) - Conversion of a mine

The site of an opencast lignite mine, in operation until 2017, will be transformed into an artificial lake covering several square kilometres. In the first phase, the land scarred by the mining equipment is directly sowed with edible plants. The new landscape regenerates itself. The Lausitz region's tradition as an energy supplier continues through renewable energies. The town and the lake will be linked by three promenades which develop specific themes.

CARGO

A metaphor of the separation of content and container, the cargo examines the link between the volume and its potentiality, like a magic box.

Schwerin (D) - Urban revitalisation

The concept is based on the polarity between density and empty space. The expanse of the landscape and of the water prevents maximum compression of the building land. The listed "Vorwärts" Hall, a former truck factory, becomes the site's benchmark development project, like an advance sign of the urban revitalisation of the existing fabric. The factory's structure is stripped. The uncovering of the original gives rise to a modern interpretation as a place to live and work

FIELDS

aspects of structure and of nature, the fields organise the urban territory by incorporating natural elements that express the culture of the land.

St-Julien en Genevois (F) - Nature and housing

The proposed urban structure is based on the jagged topography and the availability of land. For this reason, the site is broken down into individual operational units that match the existing districts, a process that allows sequential or parallel development. They are interpreted as green spaces, fragments of farmland typical of the region, where the buildings are stationed like items of furniture.

Europan Generation, The reinterpreted city Catalogue
Editions: Cité de l’architecture and Europan, May 2007
224 colour pages, bilingual English/French


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