City economy
Construction work begins on House A
On 24 October, the first construction and renovation work will begin on House A on the site of the Maker Hub "Stadtwirtschaft" on the southern Sonnenberg. The site is one of the City of Chemnitz's intervention areas for the European Capital of Culture 2025 and is to become a meeting place and exchange centre for culture, art, education and creative production.
The majority of the building fabric of the centrally located House A is undergoing low-threshold refurbishment. However, due to their poor condition, building complexes 5 and 6 in timber construction must first be demolished. An uninsulated roof and single-glazed wooden windows have favoured decay over the years, and the area was only used for storage until 1997. These parts of the building will make way for a new neighbourhood canteen. In its function as a distribution building and as a neighbourhood meeting place, it will considerably increase the quality of time spent on the site.
In addition, a bridge construction with stairs will be integrated above the canteen between Jakobstrasse and the new part of the building. It will provide barrier-free access and a view of the site for all visitors and also open up the future large event room.
The former depot of the old city cleaning plant, or Stadtwirtschaft for short, was built around 1891 and used by the city cleaning company until 1997. After that, it lay largely unused for a long time or was only partially utilised. House D on Jakobstraße has already been used by creative professionals since it was renovated with EU funding in 2019.
Construction work on House A is expected to continue until the end of 2023. The architects from the planning office GEORGI architektur + stadtplanung GmbH are responsible for the planning. Kommunalbau Chemnitz GmbH is supporting the client, the city of Chemnitz.
The total costs for the construction of House A amount to 4.9 million euros. Almost 2.6 million euros of this came from urban development funds. A total of 7.1 million euros has been budgeted for the structural alterations to areas and buildings, the involvement of users and the development of the operator model in the municipal economy. Further subsidies will be used for this.
Background city economy
The future Kreativhub Stadtwirtschaft consists of five building sections with a total of 6,000 square metres of usable space and is connected by three courtyards. Since 1 August 2022, Kreative Chemnitz, the industry association for the cultural and creative industries in Chemnitz and the surrounding area, has been commissioned by the City of Chemnitz as the implementation partner for the development scenario for this intervention area. The extensively planned workshops on the design of the courtyards, the user concepts, letting to creative makers and the future user-supported operation of the city economy have been selected by the federal government as a National Urban Development Project 2021. The implementation partnership will be funded from this.
The basis is KAPOK Berlin's development scenario for the Stadtwirtschaft as a framework for a young makerspace, which has a lasting impact on the revitalisation of the district and is intended to be a meeting place for creative European makers. This will also involve networking with the maker hubs emerging in the region.