Artistic staging at the town hall pavilion

Spatial graphics in bright colors form a contrast to the exposed concrete elements of the building and play with the geometric shapes of the building. Ambiguous texts leave room for the imagination of a different, transformed urban center. "Raum Shift" is written there in large letters, and that is exactly what is supposed to happen according to the future concept for the city center: a new use for the location.

The town hall pavilion is a concrete project of the future concept adopted by the city council in 2020. The project was already initiated with the "Active core areas / lively centers" program after the town hall pavilion was identified by the citizens in the participation process as an important individual project for upgrading and revitalizing the Stadthof. This process is now becoming visible for the first time with the artistic design of the façade. The Offenbach-based communications agency U9 visuelle Allianz was commissioned by Agentur Mitte for this purpose. However, their artistic intervention not only creates a transition between the actual and desired state, it also makes use of the temporary vacancy at the central location.

"Vacancies in city centers are a problem that is increasing everywhere, even in the best shopping locations such as the Zeil. In competition with the overpowering online trade, all city centres and their stores are fighting for their importance and existence," says Lord Mayor Dr. Felix Schwenke. "In Offenbach, we want to counter this development by creating new incentives to visit the city center. A basic idea of the future concept for the city center is to enable other uses in addition to retail, which can continue to function. Art and culture are an important pillar for experiencing the city center in a new way," continued Schwenke.

The interim design became necessary and possible after the long-standing tenant, the police store, moved out at the end of April 2022, earlier than originally planned - the lease ran until 2023. The new design now follows on almost seamlessly from the end of the lease and will remain in place until at least the end of July 2022, when parts of the façade design will be removed in favor of the first interim performance. Part of the artistic staging will be retained until further temporary uses move into the town hall pavilion. It will start in August 2022 with a three-month special exhibition on weather and climate in art - an offer from the Weather and Climate Workshop, whose rooms are located in the nearby Rathaus-Center. The artist collective PARA is adapting its work "HAZE" for the exhibition in the town hall pavilion. Works by artists Tue Greenfort, Marie-Luce Nadal and Dennis Siering will be on display at various locations in the city.

In addition to the future interim performances in the town hall pavilion, interim projects are already contributing to the revitalization of the Stadthof. The experimental project platform "UND Offenbach" will occupy the municipal pop-up space in the former bank branch at Stadthof (Frankfurter Straße 31) from mid-April to mid-June 2022. The "UND" reflects the idea of the "Kosmopolis department store" in an experimental implementation - one of the key spatial projects of the future concept for the city center. And: the temporary project is also the first interim use of the town hall pavilion, which currently serves as storage for the mobile furniture of the "UND".

In parallel to these interim uses, Agentur Mitte is driving forward the concept for the new use of the town hall pavilion. On Friday, May 20, the practical workshop "OFFEN DENKEN - Strategien, Strukturen und Schlüsselprojekte für eine eigendynamische Transformation der Innenstadt" will take place in the Rathaus-Plaza (Frankfurter Straße 39), hosted by Agentur Mitte together with the networking initiative "Gemeinsam für das Quartier". Local and national experts from urban and real estate development, retail, the (creative) economy, culture and society will provide insights into projects and experiences in two stimulating panel sessions and then discuss suitable projects for entering into cooperative transformation management.

Mayor Schwenke emphasizes that the idea of cooperation and the associated participation formats are crucial for the implementation of the future concept: "The strength of our Offenbach approach is that we not only think in terms of individual projects, but also integrate them into an overall strategy for the next decade. To achieve this, it is also necessary to involve all stakeholders in the next implementation steps, because we can only accomplish this enormous task together."

The event therefore also marks the start of the information campaign for public participation as part of the reuse concept for the town hall pavilion. This campaign informs Offenbach residents and potential stakeholders about the project and the opportunity to help shape it. "Raum Shift" will reappear here as a linguistic element: as an articulation of a hope for a different city center and as an invitation to everyone to participate in the realization of this idea.