WerkRaum Wiesbaden

Konzepte für Konversionen: der WerkRaum Wiesbaden als Vierter Ort

Due to changing consumer behaviour, city centres are facing profound change: almost 200 department stores have closed over the last 25 years, making way for innovative, public-interest-oriented concepts. They are thus part of a far-reaching transformation process that offers opportunities – as a valuable resource for cultural uses, social infrastructure, and living and working spaces.

This development forms the framework for the conversion of the former Sportarena department store. Thanks to its central location on Langgasse, the new use is aimed at the entire urban community, thereby creating a community-building venue that serves as a democratic space. The mixed use of obsolete spaces and the principle of ‘reusable spaces’ – that is, flexible concepts that allow uses to be changed easily whilst simultaneously offering new alternatives beyond the ‘familiar’ consumer culture – ensure the revitalisation of the inner-city space here. 
 


The 50-metre-long and 35-metre-deep building, with its architecture typical of its construction year, 1972, was utilised during the summer semester of 2026 as part of project work at Mainz University of Applied Sciences with a hybrid, circular usage concept: the cultural focus is the museum; the robust supporting structure is utilised to provide additional space for living and working. By becoming a public space, the transformed space, as a ‘fourth place’, offers an answer to the pressing question of democratic participation in cultural life.

Christian Holl, BDA Hessen

Prof. Dr. Julius Niederwöhrmeier, HS Mainz

Sabine Philipp, Stiftung Stadtmuseum Wiesbaden