Bullengraben green corridor

Gustav Meyer Prize 2008

The Bullegraben green corridor has been created along the ditch of the same name from the Havel River to the Berlin city limits over a length of approx. 5 kilometres. As a designed continuum, it forms a new green backbone in the otherwise heterogeneous urban landscape. The 3-meter wide asphalt path is supplemented by a 50-cm wide granite band that runs through the entire park and is used as a new bicycle, foot or skate connection. .
In the 4th section, the part worked on by Büro Häfner, the Bullengraben approaches the settlement core of Spandau. Characteristically, the buildings on both sides push close to the ditch. As a result of repeated widenings, a sequence of narrowness and wideness results along the ditch.

The Bullengraben defines itself as a depression in the surrounding urban landscape, but not as a natural depression, but as the original level of the landscape, which is captured by the urban landscape (fills) that has grown in height. This difference in elevation becomes greater as the city ages and is particularly evident at the intersections between bull ditches and crossing roads.

The entrances at the crossings are highlighted and the difference in elevation is elaborated. These interfaces between the city and the landscape are specially designed and emphasized as austere plaza situations. The overcoming of the height difference is done by a path, which in its width of three meters allows the use for bicycles and pedestrians.

The topographical revision of the terrain of the central widening is carried out with regard to possible uses in the sense of a landscape park. Lawns sloping to the south and structured by individual groups of trees allow for free time and various types of recreational activities. Clearly profiled tree islands remain as single witnesses of the former use as allotment garden area and point with the strict slope to the artificiality of the intervention.

The sequence of narrow and wide sections is complemented by the staging of a sequence of focal points. In addition to the road connections, another important pedestrian and bicycle crossing is located in the extension of Grünhofer Straße. The path leading into the main part of the park is planted like an avenue and ends at a small square. In its extension to the south, it crosses a footbridge to the ditch crossing formerly built for a planned federal road. Here it ends in a square-like extension and connects to the Bullengrabenweg.