Alte Heide - Hirschau

Alte Heide-Hirschau combines planned residential estates with direct access to the northern English Garden. Apartment streets, mature trees and the nearby meadows of the Hirschau create a rare balance between urban housing and expansive parkland. Immediate access to the English Garden makes one of Europe’s largest urban parks part of the daily route rather than a destination reserved for occasional visits. The hierarchy between access roads, pedestrian routes, shared courtyards and larger green spaces makes the original planning idea easy to understand on foot. Mature trees and adapted everyday uses now soften the repetition of the original building types, adding variety and a stronger sense of lived-in continuity. Shared open spaces support play, informal encounters and short everyday routes, giving the ensemble a stronger neighborhood function than its architectural repetition might suggest.