OSTPARK – Neues Wohnen is Bochum’s largest current residential land-development project. It is planned across 43 hectares in the city’s Altenbochum and Laer districts, with around 1,300 homes; the net building area is 14 hectares, while most of the wider site is intended for green, open and water spaces.1
The development comprises two independent neighbourhoods: Feldmark in the west and Havkenscheider Höhe in the east. The housing mix is planned to include owner-occupied houses and apartments, rental homes and publicly subsidised housing, with each category making up roughly one third of the homes.1 The project is intended to add both affordable and other housing, while linking the urban area with the surrounding landscape.15
The City of Bochum is developing the project with support from NRW.URBAN, acting as its fiduciary development agency.1 The project is part of Bochum’s “Housing Action Plan.”1 The Feldmark development plan became legally binding in May 2020, and marketing there began that year.1 As of the city’s project information, the urban design for Havkenscheider Höhe was being revised, with infrastructure and open-space planning to follow.1
Climate-adapted water management is a central feature of the planning. The neighbourhoods are being designed around the sponge-city principle, which aims to capture, store and use rainwater rather than simply drain it away.69 OSTPARK is also presented as a project within the International Garden Exhibition 2027 programme.1