Fanny Hirt

Appreciation

“Department store transformation – redefining downtown Heidelberg”

Ms. Hirt’s master thesis deals with the dissolution of the monostructure of department stores and their rehabilitation in the city center using the example of the transformation of a large Heidelberg department store. From a detailed overview of urban developments in the 20th and 21st centuries and a critical examination of the history of department stores, the thesis results that inner-city buildings are not used as monostructures, but should be designed as heterogeneous, diverse and fragmented structures according to the existing needs of the city and the city Quarter.