Mann­heim toge­ther

Mann­heim is not only known for its square city layout and Baroque palace, but also for its diverse citi­zenry.

Mann­heim, a medium-sized city in southwes­tern Germany, is known for its grid-plan city layout, its baroque palace and its bruta­list buil­dings – but also, and above all, for its ethni­cally and cultu­rally diverse popu­la­tion. This diverse and colourful mix of people can be expe­ri­enced, among other places, in Neckar­stadt East and Neckar­stadt West, two districts northwest of the city centre.

The cultural link between the two neigh­bour­hoods is ALTER, a public space situated next to the Alter Mess­platz, which, with its free sports and cultural acti­vi­ties, is a place to meet, pass time and get toge­ther.

A graphic has been installed on a sports pitch at ALTER that tries to express all the posi­tive quali­ties of this commu­nity-crea­ting space: a ‘super­gra­phic’ that seeks to visually repre­sent and streng­then the exis­ting cohe­sion of the people and its atmo­sphere.

The project also aims to set a marker for the preser­va­tion of public cultural spaces, both within the city and beyond.

The aspect of active toge­ther­ness already came into play during the reali­sa­tion, because several inte­rested people spon­ta­neously followed the public call for help every day.

“Common Monnem – toge­ther Mann­heim”: The title of the project is composed of the words “Common” and “Monnem”.

The 38-metre-long and 16-metre-wide super­gra­phic with a total area of over 560 square metres follows a typo­gra­phic approach. This draws refe­rence from the basic geome­tric motifs in the poster for 1975 State Garden Show in Mann­heim. The iconic skyscra­pers over­loo­king ALTER were also cons­tructed around this time. The over­sized lette­ring “Common” forms the focal point of the graphic. The letters are oriented towards the centre of the pitch – analogous to players who gather toge­ther in a circle before a game begins: they hook into each other in a circle and thus form a unit.

The graphic’s connec­tion to its loca­tion is also rein­forced by the choice of colours. The pink, for example, picks up on the colour of ALTER’s facade, while the green estab­lishes a rela­ti­onship with the adja­cent green space on the banks of the Neckar river. The red, blue and yellow are taken from Mannheim’s city coat of arms.