GESOBAU AG Hello neighbour: A print magazine with expansion into the digital world

GESOBAU is colourful and diverse and, as a municipal housing cooperative, offers 100,000+ Berliners an affordable home. Whether shared flats, senior living, living with physical disabilities or in a large family. GESOBAU unites numerous housing and living realities. And this is also reflected in the cooperative's tenant magazine. In the magazine, people tell stories from their neighbourhood and their lives. As colourful and varied as the city itself. Until now, this has mainly been done in the print edition, which is sent to all tenants by post. The magazine was to be transferred in its dynamic form to an online format that utilises the advantages of the digital medium while retaining the magazine character.

Not just an information page

After many years of collaboration in support and the relaunch of the GESOBAU website, wegewerk was given the task of relaunching the ‘Hallo Nachbar’ website. The basis for this was initially the existing tenant magazine and the associated website. The website needed to be redesigned for the occasion. With an extensive UX design, a complete update of the previous website was created within three months. We carried out a TYPO3 relaunch and added numerous features to the site. Animated elements ensure a more lively user experience. A bold design, icons, larger fonts, quotes and a focus on three core topics invite users to browse and read stories. Various image formats also make the site look more dynamic. The topics of the print version are now taken up online and expanded in terms of content. With a customised design, the site now offers curated articles and digital extras. In order to be able to follow the neighbourhood and explorer stories, we have integrated interactive maps and routes on the website that can be used by users with Google Maps or Komoot. And as befits a good magazine, there are also online competitions according to the respective running times. A sticky element with time control draws attention to these.

A new addition to the GESOBAU multi-domain instance

Thanks to the existing cooperation with GESOBAU and its websites, we were able to utilise synergy effects, but we still took over the magazine separately in TYPO3. The character of the ‘Hallo Nachbar’ website is quite unique within the GESOBAU websites and clearly more personal. This is also due to the award-winning format of the printed tenant magazine. wegewerk has succeeded in transferring the content into a medium that complements the previously existing idea of the print magazine with digital possibilities.