JFK South

A gentle transition and a new road frontage

The JFK South project will change the face of the main artery on Kirchberg, and will form the cross-link to Weimershof.

The site, starting from the Place de l’Europe and extending as far as the Weimershof junction, forms the southern road frontage on Avenue John F. Kennedy, and represents a potential offer for some 1,000 housing units opposite the European District North. It also adjoins the village-like structure of the residential district of Weimershof to the south of the site, on the boundary of the land owned by the Fund. The Fund had launched an international competition for design sketches. The winner, who has worked up the development plan, is the combined offices of Urbis bureau voor stadsontwerp B.V. as urban designers, Witteveen+Bos, Raadgevende Ingenieurs B.V. as environmental engineers and BoschSlabbers as landscape architects.

The sketch is as follows:

  • Zone A (from the Place de l’Europe to the Avenue John F. Kennedy-Rue des Coquelicots crossroads),
  • Zone B  (Pdf, 23.13 Mb)(from the Avenue John F. Kennedy-Rue des Coquelicots crossroads to the Bricherhof interchange). 

The volumes on which the concept is based (apart from the run along Avenue John F. Kennedy for “Zone A”, where the buildings form a frontage to the road of greater height opposite the European Institutions) are groupings with smaller dimensions, ensuring both a visual and physical link with the Weimershof district. “Zone A” is thus divided in two: on the north side, taller buildings, with mixed uses as shops-offices-residential, and on the south side, a park with small-scale residential buildings. “Zone B” is formed of five groups, more open and arranged in “islands”. At their heart, closed off to traffic, is an area intended for green spaces reserved for the residents. These groupings therefore constitute an urban frontage that is less dense opposite Parc Central, on the north side of Avenue John F. Kennedy, and alternating with town squares, open to the public, which provide the perpendicular transition between the Plateau and the Weimershof district.

The bottom of the valley in Zone B (the lowest point of the project marks the boundary of Fund ownership, running along the gardens of the houses on the north side of Rue des Muguets) is treated as a natural landscape crossed by a planted ditch (wadi), designed to collect run-off water to take it off towards the retention basins in Rue des Coquelicots. These planted basins will fill up so that, in the event of heavy rain, the water will then be channelled away into the drains system on Rue Fort Thüngen. The corridor that will form the link between the new and old connections will be beneficial to local residents for leisure and activities (with scope to install community gardens, small terraces, a pétanque pitch, picnic areas, etc.). 

 

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