Newbuild residential estate for 700 apartments

RBA was contracted to prepare and submit a planning application for a new build residential complex of 700 apartments, with a total gross external area of 65,000 m² on a 9 hectare plot of land.The main difficulty was in finding a way to amalgamate the various interests of the current users (allotments), the political interests of the local council and the interests of the owner and developer. The planning had to be based on the local planning law with building lines extrapolated from those first laid out in 1891-1904. RBA put a team of landscape planners, transport engineers, structural engineers and fire safety experts together.

Residential development of empty site

A large Berlin-based berlin-owned housing association requested that RBA provide a feasibility study as part of an acquisitions process for a large inner city site. The brief was to examine the urban planning parameters, in particular an area development plan that has not yet been formally enacted, and to come up with realistic scenarios for the later development of a residential complex with several hundred apartments and associated facilities.

The site, located directly adjacent to Ostbahnhof and offering the opportunity to create an exciting, dense, mixed-use project working with many synergy effects from neighbouring brownfield sites and the existing urban fabric and transport infrastructure.

The client required that an outline project be developed with realistic, economic targets for the site, to aid in agreeing a purchase price. During the study, RBA held talks with the local urban planners and with several developers from the neighbouring sites in an effort to ascertain the maximum height and density figures.