Green-blue streets: green-blue Ückendorf

Ückendorf is a neglected urban area in the post-industrial city of Gelsenkirchen and is frequently confronted with stormwater events flooding streets and basements in the area. The Green-blue Ückendorf design proposal redistributes stormwater flows in the neighbourhood to increase the resilience against extreme events and to use rainwater as an element of urban design as much as possible. The existing stormwater flow paths are remodelled towards the park and integrated as open bioswales in the urban streets. While Bochumer Straße conserves its main function of guiding the traffic in North-South direction, the streets in East-West direction become multifunctional green-blue public spaces improving the liveability of the neighbourhood by combining slow traffic with water management and new plantations which make the city cooler. Existing open spaces are beyond the streets are redesigned to allow to temporarily store stormwater from streets and other sealed surfaces and integrated this function with playgrounds, urban gardening or space for biodiversity. The cleaner water flow of stormwater from roofs is partly stored in cisterns to be used for watering in urban gardening activities and a rainwater playground.

The strength of the project lies in a systemic integration and management of the different waterflows and a design approach which stages rainwater in public spaces for improving the quality of life of the neighbourhood. Three highlights of this design approach are the urban gardening square at Bochumer Straße, the schoolyard in Stephanstraße and the rainwater playground in Munscheidstraße.