Masterplan Outer Green Belt, Cologne Green belt: Impulse 2012

In two planning stages - an exploration phase and a concept phase - objectives for the preservation and further development of the Outer Green Belt were developed at the instigation of the Cologne Green Foundation with the participation of the administration, citizens and politicians.

The informal framework concept takes up the historical vision of the 1920s to preserve and complete a green ring of open spaces for public use that encompasses both sides of the Rhine, to make it a continuous experience and to qualify it for the population of the adjacent residential quarters as well as for the city population as a whole.

Due to its dimensions, the Outer Green Belt is in a position to simultaneously fulfil tasks of local recreation, nature and landscape development, climate and flood protection and urban design. This represents both an opportunity and an obligation for the city of Cologne.

AppreciationGerman Landscape Architecture Award 2013

Jury verdict: As early as the 1920s, on the initiative of the then Lord Mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer, and on the basis of the general development plan by the Hamburg city planner Fritz Schuhmacher, the former fortifications of the city of Cologne were converted into parks and supplemented by green spaces. Today, these park, forest and recreation areas extend in a ring as the outer green belt of the city of Cologne on an area of approx. 800 hectares on both sides of the Rhine, partly bordered by motorways and a former brown coal area. Over the decades, the outer green belt has undergone several perforations in terms of construction.

A few years ago, Konrad Adenauer's grandsons, Paul Bauwens-Adenauer and Patrick Adenauer, founded the Cologne Green Foundation in a commitment to their grandfather. In addition to the master plan by the architect Albert Speer Junior, a general plan for the redevelopment of the entire outer green belt was then initiated in 2012 by the city and landscape architects under the project name "Grüngürtel: Impuls 2012". The aim is to improve the usability of the green belt for citizens in terms of leisure and recreation as well as accessibility. Landscape management additions to the green belt are also to be made and individual sections further developed. The plan prepared by the landscape architect is based on broad public participation. With the overall concept, individual sub-areas and so-called "magnifying glasses", it comprises three concrete urban development and open space planning levels.

With their plan "Green Belt: Impulse 2012", the authors have once again raised awareness of the outer green belt as a recreational and leisure park for the residents of the adjacent residential quarters and also for the city as a whole. In doing so, they have succeeded in bringing about a dialogue between the different structures of the green belt and the adjacent settlement and traffic areas and finding independent solutions for each of these.

The plan with the investigation for the further development of the implementation of the "Masterplan Äußerer Grüngürtel" is both an opportunity and an obligation for the city of Cologne. The landscape architects have made a decisive contribution to this.