Studio BÄNG‘s winning entry for the IBA Basel competition to design a settlement for commuters in Rheinweiler, Germany is located at the Oberreihnische Tiefebene, a lowland plain at the Rhine. The connection to Freiburg and Basel sets the possibility for a commuter settlement. This design is focuses on the last part of the commuters’ daily way back home; the stage from station to bedroom.

The new settlement is composed of 3 different row-housing units. 28 of them form a structure that is slightly denser than the surrounding single-family housing units. Thus, lower building costs and a closer community is established. Various public and semi-public places in combination with private zones provide different stages of intimacy within the settlement. Habitants are free to choose the level of intimacy. Diverse paths and views between the houses increase the level of privacy while going from the station to the private areas in the inside of the homes. By building only one upper floor, which is more public and a bottom floor, which is completely private, each housing unit implies a wide view over the lowland plain in the west. The inner structure of the settlement is meant to access by foot or bicycle. For cars an underground parking with central access will be integrated.

Some small interventions in the existing building and its surrounding will create a more likely situation for the increasing number of commuters. Some of them are the reactivation of the kiosk and the toilets in the railway building and the integration of park and ride possibilities for both, bicycles and cars.