How to turn the Cologne rings into a feel-good zone - with a radical plan

Created: 05/30/2022, 11:11 am

By: Johanna Werning

Students at the TH Köln have come up with new concepts for the Cologne rings.

A plan: car-free rings (draft) © Elif Eler/Marie Kommander, “Public Space” module, Master of Urban Planning NRW

Traffic, chaos, crime: the Cologne rings have been a challenge for the cathedral city for decades.

Students from TH Köln are now showing what a solution could look like.

Cologne – The Cologne Rings are famous and notorious in Cologne.

They are best known for parties, traffic chaos and one or the other police operation.

They stretch from the Ubierring in the south to behind the Ebertplatz to the Theodor-Heuss-Park in the north in a semicircle around Cologne city centre.

"Each area has its own challenges," explains Darleen Ertelt, a student at the Technical University of Cologne, in an interview with 24RHEIN.

Together with 25 other students of the master’s course “NRW Urban Development”, the 28-year-old developed future-oriented designs for the rings as part of a module.

The project: "The Cologne Rings - seven kilometers for everyone?"

"The Cologne Rings - seven kilometers for everyone?": Students with a master plan for downtown Cologne

The senior professor Yasemin Utku from the Faculty of Architecture at the TH Köln explains: "Our goal was concepts that improve the quality of stay and the benefits of the rings and address the strengths and weaknesses of the individual sections." For this purpose, the Cologne rings were divided into several areas divided up.

"We then developed recommendations for action for each area," says master's student Ertelt in an interview with 24RHEIN.

Several concepts were developed for the Cologne rings © TH Köln

Among other things, the focus is on the inclusion of all groups, a sense of security around the clock, a contribution to climate protection and a reduction in car orientation.

For example, the rings are to become largely car-free.

Instead, among other things, green spaces and seating areas for the people of Cologne are to be expanded.

Cologne: Barbarossaplatz rethought – from a traffic junction to a leisure oasis

What exactly is planned?

How can the area be better used?

What are the problems and how can they be better solved in the future?

The 28-year-old took care of Barbarossaplatz in her group during the project.

The main problem there: "Barbarossaplatz is simply a major traffic junction." In addition to two major intersections, there are also the KVB circular railways - KVB line 12 and KVB line 15 - which cross the square in Kwartier Latäng.

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"Our approach was then that the Ringbahn would run underground." Instead of Rudolfplatz, the trains should already run underground at Barbarossaplatz.

And there are also plans for car traffic: "Currently it is confusing and unsafe to drive," says the master's student.

Therefore, the traffic management should be purged.

Instead of two large crossings, there should only be one - namely the southern crossing at the level of the Rewe branch and the McDonald's.

And the northern crossing?

“It will be an open space.

There should then be seating areas, green spaces and water features.”

The designs from Barbarossaplatz.

The northern crossing will be an open space © Designs by Darleen Ertelt and Sarah Staiger

Concept for Cologne Rings: Green classroom and sleeping pods for the homeless

A whole semester was worked on the drafts.

"It doesn't just fall out of the sky.

There is always an analysis behind it,” explains Ertelt.

Because not only the individual requirements of the area had to be met.

"The trick is to coordinate so that everything fits together in the end."

The different approaches to the Cologne Rings are diverse, as Professor Utku explains: “With the educational landscape Altstadt-Nord, an important school location is being created on the Hansaring, so a 'green classroom' was designed for this area.

Many homeless people live on Sachsenring – so the students thought about infrastructure that would help this group.” The plan: sleeping capsules on Chlodwigplatz so that homeless people can find a safe and warm place to sleep at night.

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