Zörbig green corridor Schützenplatz

The spatial and design reorganisation of the Schützenplatz, at the entrance to the town of Zörbig, is a sub-project of the Welz/Buhmann consortium from the overall planning project "Grünspange Zörbig" and is to be implemented as part of the subsidised, integrated development concept (KSG subsidy programme). The Schützenplatz is very valuable for Zörbig in various respects and is to be upgraded and rearranged as a multifunctional town square. Together with the roundabout in front of it to the south, it forms the entrance gate to the town from the south-east. Furthermore, it is a platform for circus and showmen, serves as a long and short-term parking lot, is both a link between the shops on the market square and the shopping centers on the outskirts, as well as a connecting element between the green spaces on Lindenstraße, the ice cream parlor on Schützenplatz and the eastern grove on Löberitzer Straße.
In preparation for the planning, there was an upstream, the BDLA of the regional groups of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia proclaimed student competition for the overall project "green corridor Zörbig". Furthermore, the Welz/Buhmann consortium carried out extensive public participation during the planning process, including a public survey and several problem and preliminary design discussions for the first sub-project "Schützenplatz". Furthermore, the draft was publicly presented and publicly discussed on the Day of Urban Development.

The Schützenplatz is tangent to a large roundabout in the south. This has a dominant effect on the existing entrance situation to the city centre. This prevailing situation is fraught with many problems, both from a traffic and an urban planning perspective. In order to integrate the planned projects at Schützenplatz, which are to be realised in the short term, and the long-term planning processes for the regional and supra-regional traffic routing via the roundabout into a coordinated overall concept, the consortium worked out variant proposals for improving the prevailing situation in terms of traffic engineering and urban development within the framework of a separately conducted preliminary design study for the roundabout. As a result, the traffic routing was arranged, lanes for passenger cars and gravity traffic were designated, entry and exit radii and geometries were changed, and the axis was shifted towards the south.

For a better use and experience, it is planned to spatially structure the shooting range and a clear allocation of the various functional areas, such as traffic-calmed town square, short-term parking, play and sports area for all ages, long-term parking with dual function as a circus and fairground as well as a designated parking space for caravans and caravans under the grove to be revitalized.
New spatial edges are formed by tree blocks to be formed and rows of trees to be created, which are oriented to the basic structures of the square and the adjacent development.
Between the roundabout and the ice cream shop, a new town square with amenity quality is to be created as a connecting element to the town centre and the green corridor to the north. This place is spatially enclosed by a tree hall, in which the tree trunks represent the supporting columns for the roof from the treetops. The square, planted with bird cherries, will blossom white in spring, provide light and shaded areas in summer with its green foliage, and offer another special aspect in autumn with its autumn colours. Under the trees 8 m * 8 m large tree discs are planned, with a percolating water-bound path surface. In between, the square grid of the tree locations, with the paved path grid will also be repeated on the ground. Square benches offer seating in the light and shade of the tree tops. Isolated art elements, in the form of various oversized cherries, are also intended to be played with and further deepen the theme of fruit utilization, for which the city of Zörbig is known beyond the borders of the district. Hornbeam hedges already separate the square from the traffic area. They should also provide on the planned new town square for different visual relationships and thus create different subspaces.

By a formed height jump east of the city square is achieved that the adjacent short-term parking is about 70 cm lower and thus as a traffic space, with all the associated disturbances, hardly perceived. An additional tree row and a closed planting also support this effect. Between the short-term and the planned permanent parking area in the east of the complex, a green area is planned under an old peace oak tree, which is to be available to all generations for recreational sports, fitness and play. This includes an interior shaded lawn area, with an adjacent extensive flower meadow to the south. The lawn can serve as a gymnastics area or be used for playing. Small fitness stations, which can also be played on, are to be located along the surrounding path, in reference to the former use as a gymnastics area. The permanent parking area is designed for dual use as a festival and circus area. Outside the festival and circus days, it offers space for 35 cars. Furthermore, it serves as an entrance and exit for the adjacent caravan, circus and fairground car parking areas to the east.