Park Phoenix West Dortmund

The abandoned site of the blast furnace plant PHOENIX West will be transformed into a modern service location with a surrounding extensive landscape park. Technical necessities (development, retention, construction management) and ecological requirements will be integrated and form the basis for the new potential landscape. The new development is preceded to the north by an alternating wide promenade with a loosely standing tree canopy, which offers a wide view of the open land. Large areas are designed as extensive landscape, which fulfils a linking function and serves the biotope network. Prominent relics of the former use are found as landmarks in the park. New technical structures are integrated and staged in terms of design.

AppreciationGerman Landscape Architecture Award 2013

Jury verdict: The task field is the interdisciplinary generational task of a sustainable conversion of the mining industrial landscapes. The background for the park are the visions of the new water system of the Emscher and the Emscher Landscape Park as well as the will of the city of Dortmund and its partners for a high-quality subsequent use of the former steelworks area.

Phoenix West is an important link for the regional green corridor in the south of Dortmund and connects to the development area Wohnen am Phoenix-See. The park network is part of the superordinate green corridor along the Emscher. It surrounds the spatial cells in which the technology park is developing and, together with the access avenues, provides a robust framework for the buildings, which are heterogeneous in terms of scale and architectural quality. The differentiated park concept, the result of an international landscape architecture competition, creates a special atmosphere and makes the park usable. It qualifies the urban master plan, is the specification for the construction of the development system with an innovative bridge family and the basis of the implementation planning for gradual implementation, maintenance and development.

The basis for the design is the upper Emscher valley, which has been deformed by slag heaps, relics of proud industrial buildings and site-specific encapsulated contaminated sites, diverse spontaneous vegetation and degraded areas. The landscape architects highlight special places, use vantage points, create new squares and promenades, link terrain and city with a differentiated system of views and paths. New structural and vegetative landmarks are juxtaposed with relics of former technical buildings and elements. Roof water of the technology park is collected in a canal promenade with clear forms and contemporary material. The retention basin, from which the water is released to the Emscher in a throttled manner, stages the impressive traffic and industrial architecture as "borrowed structures" in the tradition of the landscape garden.

The authors develop an overall landscape architectural concept in which historical and new elements, references and meanings in the park create an unmistakable mood and identity for years to come.