State Horticultural Show Löbau (Saxony) 2012

As part of the State Garden Show, a former sugar factory and the valley location of the Löbauer Wasser are being developed as a coherent "Park am Löbauer Wasser".

The State Garden Show Löbau 2012 in Saxony provides the occasion to reintegrate the industrially shaped site of the former sugar factory and disused textile industries into the urban body and revitalize it.

In Löbau, the existing relics are placed in a new context, in the sense of a bricolage, a handicraft. The place is reorganized: The original use, already faded, is not negated, but rather given a new meaning through the addition of new elements that seek a reference to the historical context.
This creates a new perspective on the old familiar and the leap in time from industrial to recreational landscape becomes visible.

On a plateau, close to the old town, the sugar factory was enthroned above the valley of the Löbauer water. From there, a grandiose view of the Löbauer Berg with the cast-iron, a historical observation tower, opens up. The facilities, such as the beet washing area with sprinkler system, water channels, lime kiln and beet washing water settling basin occupy the plateau, the slope and the valley. In the further course of the river valley, several space-consuming textile factories were located until the 1990s. They blocked the valley and denied access to the water.

The sugar warehouse with its impressive interiors and various other site-defining relics, such as the settling basins, are preserved in memory of the industrial use and are brought into a new context. The aim is to link the (mis)used landscape space with the sugar plateau and the old town and to transform it into a leisure and recreational space without hiding the history of the site, its traces of use and scars.

The topographically challenging terrain will be made accessible via a new path connection, the Berg- und Talpromenade, from the sugar plateau along the Löbauer Wasser in the valley to the old town.

The sugar plateau will become a large, open, multifunctional space for town festivals, circuses and concerts. The carefully renovated sugar warehouse offers space for events, a small permanent exhibition explains the processes of sugar production. A grove of sugar maple trees marks the beginning of the promenade down the valley.

The grove frames the former concrete pillar of the beet sorting plant, which has been converted into a beet tower. The beets were collected in a deeply cut concrete channel and transported to the sorting plant via conveyor belts. This mysterious-looking industrial relic, planted with royal ferns, becomes a prehistoric sunken garden. A former foundation of the old factory halls, discovered during the deep debris removal, is presented as an artifact with its curious "elephant skin". The "Kalkwäldchen" refers to the site of a historic lime kiln that was demolished for safety reasons. Lime is needed as an ingredient in the production process to separate the raw juice extracted from the sugar beets from non-sugar substances by means of lime carbonic acid purification. Here, lime-loving shrubs and perennials interplay with limestone slabs and chippings to create an unusual, dazzling garden space in memory of this important ingredient in sugar production.

Along the sloping grove, a large, orderly birch grove that spans the new slope into the valley, the promenade leads down into the valley space with the former, rugged-looking settling ponds for the muddy sugar beet wash water. The basins, which are surrounded by rough concrete walls and have already dried out at times, are preserved and carefully transformed into water gardens and play areas that can be experienced, the so-called setting gardens.

A narrow steel footbridge leads across the water. Here, sugar in its various aggregate states becomes a form-giving theme: the dry play gardens of sugar cubes made of white concrete blocks and sugar loafs, play hills made of white tartan, are followed by water gardens with powdered sugar made of white plastic balls, sugar water and the sweet pleasure ends in a sugar rush.

Following the course of the promenade, the valley opens up with quiet retreats by the Löbauer water. Then the view opens up to the meadows, bordered by the backdrop of the wooded city slope and the old town. With a paved square made of regional basalt paving, the mountain and valley promenade ends at the transition to the eastern old town. On the square, the no longer used historical iron spring of the nearby former King Albert Baths is visibly revived as a narrow, iron watercourse with simple means.

First prizeGerman Landscape Architecture Award 2013

Jury verdict: A new landscape has emerged on the site of the former Löbau sugar factory. As the reuse of an industrial wasteland, the project not only fits in with a series of respectable predecessors, but also sets its own standards. And these are developed from the concrete location, from the topographical tension between the valley of the Löbauer water and the higher area of the old factory.

The basic motif of contrast dominates the themes of the design in an impressive way, whereby above all the open spaces along the watercourse develop a quality all of their own. It is precisely here that the potentials offered by the post-industrial landscape become clear, without being subjected to a striking "renaturation".

In doing so, the authors succeed in dealing sensitively with found traces as well as setting their own accents. Remnants of the former industrial plants are not only interpreted as nostalgic fragments fallen out of time, but in their bizarre situation comedy enjoyed.

The staging of the paths through the newly created facilities is particularly successful. The large differences in altitude do not lead here to an obediently planned "ramping up" of the landscape, rather they are accepted as a problematic but also identity-forming feature. The ups and downs of the routes thus offer the most varied spatial experiences, allow parents to push carts while sweating, and also keep the older ones in athletic shape.