Visselhövede Town Plan

VISSELHÖVEDE, GERMANY, 1996

Our plan suggests a ribbon development as part of a strategy to create a series of new “green living rooms” - agricultural lobes which will consolidate such activities in the most arable areas. Agriculture would thus become part of the daily foreground of the new ribbon-dwellers, part of the special delight of the town. This gradual and very long term redistribution would effectively create a new category of land within Visselhövede, land formerly under cultivation which is to be withheld from normal development. This park land would become another kind of resource, the town lung and playground as well as the guarantor of a character that would remain perpetually green and of a resource that would continue in use. Small new centers would contain both basic neighborhood apparatus - corner shops, child-care, and other services - and also provide for a small amount of loft-space part of which would be devoted to collective space. Many people - while taking advantage of the opportunities to “telecommute” will still prefer to work in the company of others rather than in isolation at home.

Credits: Michael Sorkin, Andrei Vovk