‘Keep it, Green it, Live in it!’ is a project in the shrinking city of Merseburg, located between Halle and Leipzig The city council of Merseburg wants to attact new residents by transforming the GAGFAH-Siedlung and creating new living environments.

There are different natural areas surrounding Merseburg. North-south axes going through Merseburg mainly connect these different natural areas. Merseburg has hardly any east-west connections. Our site has the potential to create such a green east-west connection.

Starting from the existing green (Keep it), we intensified the green by creating a diverse landscape (Green it) and used the qualities of the newly formed landscape to create new living environments with modern, comfortable and energy efficient houses (Live in it). A diverse urban forest in a city is the result.

The newly created landscape is divided in three landscape types: to the north an open slope landscape, in the middle a forest, in the south a post industrial park.  These different landscapes reminded us of the movie Lord of the Rings. The new living environments therefor refer to the Hobbiton and Middle Earth (north), Tree Houses (middle) and the 2 Towers (south)

North-south orientated pedestrian paths connect all these landscape types. Walking on these paths, you experience the richness of different landscapes and the different possibilities of living in these landscapes.