MD Supermodels : IMD Institute of Media and Design

MEDIA DESIGN | Bachelor Design Project | SUPERMODELS

What are the potentials of radical mid-century modern concepts?

After WW2 Braunschweig relocated its terminal train station from the city center to the periphery to connect it as a through station with the train line to Berlin and Hannover. This opened up new city planning potentials and a former outskirts area became the new gateway to the city. Here, a radical planning with modern residential high-rise buildings and a open-air pedestrian precinct on top of a huge parking garage was developed.

The vision never really came to life and the envisioned lively modern neighborhood did not attract enough shops and people. Over the last decades a couple of interventions and demolitions led to a situation where the pedestrian plinth is now cut off the urban fabric.

We went to investigate the situation, the vision, its potentials, made mistakes and options of the buildings and the urban district. By applying reverse modeling strategies we built supermodels to analyze, understand and communicate our findings.

Concept and directed by Nicolai Schlapps
Student tutor Jan Funk
Student work by
KRAEMER HIGHRISE: Dieter Beckert, Friedrich Mühlmann, Rahel von Freier, Jakob Windisch
KURT17: Robert Engel, Lina Gauert, Yannis Rosse, Norris Thompson
Photography © by Nicolai Schlapps