Lippepark Franz Shaft - Hamm Development of the former Franz shaft of the Verbund colliery Ost into a sports and leisure park in Hamm-Herringen

The site of the former Franz shaft of the RAG Ost colliery was developed into the largest sports and leisure park in Hammer West. The park has a clear basic structure, with all paths
and attractions arranged around the central park meadow. To the north of the facility is a professional skate park with a pool, jump hill and street plaza, an all-weather playing field, a bolder wall, a parkour facility, and a lounge and foyer with a pavilion.
The western edge of the woods is home to a playground and the Interfaith Meeting Place. The eastern noise barrier is transformed into a generous promenade with gardens, a seating area in front of the central event area and an upper rampart path with viewing points. The southern entrance plaza with its rampart head and birch grove forms the signet of the park that is visible from afar. In the centre of the park, above the former shaft, there is an information point on the mining history of Herringen.
All building blocks of the park were developed with the intensive participation of the citizens of Hammer.

The site of the former Franz shaft of the RAG Ost colliery was developed into the largest sports and leisure park in the western part of the city of Hamm with the intensive participation of the citizens.

The "Franz Shaft" park forms the central building block of the development strategy "Im Westen was Neues" (Something New in the West), which opens up existing post-mining landscapes such as colliery wastelands, tailings piles and railway lines for leisure uses and combines them into a landscape space that can be experienced.

The park is given a clear basic structure in which all paths and attractions are arranged around the central meadow park. To the north of the site is a fun sports park with a professional skate park, an all-weather playing field, a bolder wall, a parkour facility, and a lounge and foyer with a pavilion. A playground and the 5 World Religions plaza are located in the western woodland park. The eastern noise barrier has been transformed into a spacious rampart park with a promenade with gardens, a seating area in front of the central event area and an upper rampart path with viewing points. The southern entrance square with its rampart head and birch grove formulates the park's signet, which is visible from afar. In the centre of the park, above the former shaft site, there is an information point on the mining and social history of Herringen.

The design language combines all elements into one park image and at the same time creates an exciting contrast of different park spaces. While the eastern park flank with the linear elements of the promenade with narrow gardens and the rampart with parallel rows of trees follows a very clear and linear design, the western park flank is developed from an overlapping structure of curved bands that define a backdrop of wooded areas, groves of trees, grass and shrub areas as well as play and recreation areas in the transition from the forest to the open park meadow.

Extensive citizen participation was institutionalized through an ideas competition and an advisory committee that screened and selected over 100 project ideas submitted. These project ideas, such as the Square of the 5 World Religions, were taken up by the planners and further developed into the places that characterize the park.

The participation process as well as the realization have since been recognized with numerous awards:

/// "Vorbildprojekte Soziale Stadt 2009", Essen
/// "Bundespreis "Soziale Stadt 2010", Berlin
/// "Ideenwettbewerb NRW.BANK 2011, Düsseldorf
/// "European Award of Excellence "City for Children" 2012, Stuttgart
/// "Environmental Justice through Participation" Deutsche Umwelthilfe 2012, Hamm


Planning: Arge DTP GmbH, Essen with scape Landschaftsarchitekten GmbH, Düsseldorf
Lighting design: licht|raum|stadt, Wuppertal
Static: IFS-Ingenieure, Hürth
Skate-/Parkour facility: X-MOVE, Stockstadt
Infosystems: Loermann