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Magdeburg’s Hundertwasser ‘Green Citadel’ Marks 20 Years as a Lived-In Landmark

Managers describe hands-on upkeep driven by planted roofs, uneven walkways, bespoke details.

Overview

  • Designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, the building rejects right angles and features rooftop meadows, golden spheres, colorful columns, and window trees.
  • It functions as a compact urban hub with apartments, ground-floor shops, a kindergarten, a hotel, a theater, a registry office branch, and a long-running bookstore.
  • Set at Domplatz between the Baroque Landtag facade and the modern Norddeutsche Landesbank, it draws steady interest from tourists and locals.
  • Covering 4,500 square meters—about three times the size of Hundertwasserhaus Wien—the site relies on two caretakers, a technical manager, and a gardener, with manual sweeping and scythe work required on uneven paths and lawns.
  • Residents adapt to curved walls and irregular layouts that shape furnishing choices, while the greenery attracts wildlife including birds, voles, rabbits, a fox, and a recently trapped marten.