Frauenfeld seeks new use for army site
The city of Frauenfeld has announced an ideas competition for the conversion and redesign of the Stadtkaserne and Oberes Mätteli sites. The sites are just under 2.5 hectares in size and are to be put to a new use by 2020/2021.
The head building and any new buildings are to be used either as a museum, school, hotel or for offices. For the time being, the city wants to put the side wings of the head building to interim use, for example as rehearsal rooms for clubs. However, in the ideas competition, the planners should already make proposals as to how the two wings can be used profitably in the future, possibly including demolition and new construction.
The two wooden buildings, known as the ID Hall, are to be used as event halls in future.
According to the specifications, the current bike station will house offices, and the Agro Food Innovation Park (Afip) has already been confirmed as a future user. The current 200 or so above-ground parking spaces are to be relocated underground, and the site is also to be well connected to the pedestrian and cycle network.
Multi-stage competition
Twelve planning teams consisting of architects and landscape architects are to be selected from the applications received. They are to develop design proposals by September 2016. An assessment panel will then select three projects that are the most convincing from an urban planning perspective. Aspects such as the integration of the buildings into the cityscape, traffic access to the site and the treatment of the protected parts of the Stadtkaserne will be assessed.
The three selected projects will then be further developed by the teams of architects with regard to the future usage requirements for the site. The winning project will be selected in spring 2017. Frauenfeld then expects the planning process to take several years.
Further army sites to be repurposed
After the city barracks and the Upper Mätteli, the Lower Mätteli and the Zeughaus area up to the highway will also be handed over for free use by armasuisse in the coming years. In the opinion of the city of Frauenfeld, these sites offer very good conditions for sustainable development due to their proximity to the city center, train station and the Langdorf development area as well as their generous dimensions.
New uses are planned in the form of high-quality workplaces, training and research facilities, skills clusters, cultural and social facilities and apartments. (ah)
