Quartier der Generationen: From Sketch to Finished Image
How ArchitekturWerkstatt Vallentin used INTER\STITIAL to turn freehand sketches of Quartier der Generationen — an intergenerational neighbourhood on the Rems — into photorealistic images for the IBA '27 exhibition.
38,700 m²
Gross floor area
4
Layers: base, rows, roof gardens, towers
IBA '27
Schorndorf exhibition project
Quartier der Generationen is a dense, green neighbourhood for every age, designed by ArchitekturWerkstatt Vallentin for the IBA ‘27 international building exhibition on the banks of the Rems in Schorndorf. Across 38,700 m² it weaves homes, care, work and public life into a network of lanes, courtyards and plazas — atelier flats, multi-generational and assisted housing, a river bath, a care courtyard and a café-lined quarter square, all wrapped in timber and planting.
Above is the promenade along the water. Hover it and drag the compare button in the top-right corner back to the studio’s freehand sketch — and see exactly what Interstitial changed. Every comparison on this page works the same way.
The whole quarter at a glance — quarter square, roof gardens, river bath, care courtyard and the Remstal cycle path. Click to enlarge.
The idea: four layers
The plan is built up in four stacked layers — Scholle (a public base of shops, workshops and care), Zeile (residential rows), Dachgarten (roof gardens linked by bridges) and Punkt (point buildings set on top). Together they give every generation its own kind of space, from the busy ground floor to quiet gardens in the sky, while green facades and roofs and north–south airflow off the Rems keep the dense quarter cool.
The guiding idea: Scholle, Zeile, Dachgarten and Punkt. Click to enlarge.
The masterplan on the Rems — lanes, bridges, roof gardens and the quarter square. Click to enlarge.
How ArchitekturWerkstatt Vallentin works
ArchitekturWerkstatt Vallentin is a Munich studio led by the Vallentin family, known for climate-responsive, ecological architecture. Passive-house standard is a baseline on every project, and the office builds in timber and wood-hybrid construction — work recognised with a Passive House Award, the German Timber Building Prize and the Federal Environmental Building Prize for its ecological model settlement in Munich’s Prinz-Eugen-Park.
Working with Interstitial
At competition stage the quarter lived as freehand sketches — fast, loose ink drawings that captured the atmosphere but asked a jury to imagine the rest. Interstitial took those very sketches and returned photographic images that kept the design exactly as drawn while adding daylight, weathered timber, water and planting. Instead of briefing an external visualiser and waiting days per view, the studio could turn a sketch into a finished image in minutes and put it straight in front of the jury and the city.
Inside the images
A sketch shows the idea; a picture shows the result. The slider lets you switch directly between the sketch and the finished picture.
The quarter square on the water — boardwalks, moored boats and timber blocks stepping down to the Rems.
A concrete passage opening onto a café courtyard — the kind of in-between space that ties the quarter together.
The elevated gardens — boardwalks and wildflower meadows threading between the timber blocks.
The result
Simple sketches were transformed into powerful images that the jury, the city and future residents can grasp at a glance — created right here in our own office, without diverting excessive resources from the design process. The complex idea was given a clear and understandable form.