Green and bicycle-friendly train station for an Offenburg of tomorrow

For the City of Offenburg, De Zwarte Hond has created an urban design for the Offenburg Station quarter in collaboration with BGMR Landschaftsarchitekten and BPR Künne & Partner. In addition to the transformation of the station area, the plan also includes the integration of the bus stops and the revitalization of the monumental station building.

High sojourn quality
The streets adjacent to the station are cleared of through traffic on the west side. Bus stops are clustered together at Rheinstrasse, Nördliche Hauptstrasse and Strassburger Strasse, along with taxi ranks and kiss-and-ride traffic. This creates plenty of public space around the station with a high residential quality. The main street becomes a city boulevard running from the entrance of the station to the old town, where public transport, cyclists and pedestrians are guided along as slow traffic. In this way, new spaces are created in the station environment for the development of places where people can meet each other.

A hub for the mobility of the future
The bicycle is the means of transport of the future: individual, efficient, healthy and sustainable. The station itself will become the centre of cycling culture in Offenburg. This is achieved through the connection of the bicycle tunnel on the north side, the bicycle path integrated into the station, innovative service offers for bicycles and the direct connection to the old town.

An integrated train station
The urban innovation spaces on the north side and the entrance to the station are in line with the existing buildings. A transparent main building welcomes travellers with a light-flooded hall on the ground floor, the DB lounge on the first floor, and a sky lounge with roof terrace on the second floor. From there, travellers and residents of Offenburg can look out over the bustle of the railway station and enjoy a panoramic view of the Black Forest on one side and a vista as far as Strasbourg Cathedral on the other.

All arriving and departing city buses are grouped around an elongated central bus platform. This allows transfers between lines without crossing dangerous traffic lanes. Buses that do not terminate at the station are not delayed by passing the bus station, but can continue in a straight line in a north-south direction.

Green entrance
The green and bicycle-friendly station represents a place of innovation where traffic changes, climate adaptation, resource efficiency and biodiversity come together. This can be seen in the street spaces that have been cleared of private vehicle traffic. In the side streets of the areas that still have passing traffic, meanwhile, there are new places for trees and blue-green retention spaces are being created. These new zones in the urban space serve for the retention, purification and infiltration of rainwater and cooling.

Although the plan will not be realized, the study has provided interesting insights that are representative of a bicycle-friendly and livable city.