Bürgerpark Verden Citizens participate in the development of a use and design concept

Presentation of the concept for journalists and in the committee for streets and city green of the city of Verden/Aller (2012 )

At the end of the accompanying citizen participation, a presentation of the use and design concept for journalists, jointly developed by landscape architects and citizens, took place on 10.02.2012. On 29.02.2012, the design and use concept was presented in the Committee for Streets and Urban Greenery of the City of Verden and decided by the voting members for implementation.

All forums and presentations were very intensively accompanied by the local and national press, so that additional information was provided to a broad public through various print and web media.

2nd working forum (11.2011 )

The 2nd working forum is held under the motto "Evaluate and concretize ideas".
At the beginning, the identified need for action is visualized and the mission statement derived from the ideas and wishes of the participants of the 1st working forum is presented for discussion. It includes, among other things, the three fields of action "Maintaining the existing, revising/improving the existing and adding new designs and uses" for the implementation of measures. The proposals from the first working forum were assigned to these fields of action as preparation and presented to the participants. The participants then selected three sub-measures from each of the three fields of action which, in their view, were particularly important for the development of the Bürgerpark and could appeal to many potential users and partners for implementation.
As a result, priority lists emerged for the fields of action in which, due to a high accumulation of mentions, an average of three to four measures considered to be very important emerged. A discussion following the prioritisation helped to qualify individual aspects in particular. For example, it was pointed out that the playground should also include the neighbouring relief and that, for example, the installation of climbing ropes should make it possible to play on the slopes. In particular, the young people of the youth center pleaded for the construction of a fenced football field, as such an offer is missing in the city.
In addition, the planners put forward a space and path concept for discussion, which was developed on the basis of the previous results and is intended to spatially equalize the named competing claims for use.
Finally, solution approaches for the design of individual spaces and elements such as park accesses, intercultural garden or flowering herbaceous borders were outlined on the basis of photos of comparable situations and put up for discussion.

3rd working forum (11.2011 )

The 3rd working forum was held under the motto "Planning and realising ideas".
In this final event, the jointly prepared development concept was presented to the participants on the basis of a preliminary draft plan as well as design details and initial proposals for measures, arranged according to priorities for short-, medium- and long-term implementation.
Following the presentation, the planning intentions were discussed on the basis of the following questions:

-Do you see your future visions and wishes sufficiently represented in the preliminary draft presented?
(Review of the collection of the 1st working forum)

-Do you believe that the implementation of the preliminary draft presented will revitalise the Bürgerpark? Working Forum)

-Do you believe that the Bürgerpark will be revitalized with the implementation of the presented preliminary design?
(Review of priorities formation 2nd Working Forum)

-Do you think there are aspects that are still missing in the preliminary design?

-Do your ideas reflect in the design execution?


At the end of the working forums, a reflection on the entire participation process took place and the participants, together with the mayor of the city of Verden, formulated a recommendation for further design planning as well as wishes for the continuation of citizen participation in the development and implementation of measures in the Bürgerpark Verden.

1st working forum (10.2011 )

The 1st working forum is under the motto "Collecting and developing ideas and wishes".
In the beginning, the participants visit different park areas in small groups under the guidance of the planners as a basis for further discussion in the working forums.
In the first working step, the focus is on the future visions and wishes for the Verden Bürgerpark. In four small groups with a maximum of ten participants, the participants tell and discuss their ideas under the questions of how the Bürgerpark should look in the future and what uses can revive the Bürgerpark. The focus will be on the ideas, irrespective of economic conditions. The goal of the event is to develop an initial vision while focusing on regional and local strengths.
Under the subsequent question What is already good today? And what needs to be better? the participants think about the strengths and special features of the Bürgerpark Verden. At the end of each group work, a representative of each small group presented the results of his group to the plenum. The results were documented and structured in writing on the wall newspaper and named deficits and potentials were located on a map using coloured dots.
The results were incorporated into the analysis of strengths and weaknesses and the formulation of a mission statement for the further use and design of the Bürgerpark Verden on the part of the planners.

Information and launch event (09.2011 )

The aim of public participation is to involve interested and affected citizens in the process of redesigning the Bürgerpark in order to find an optimal solution for the users of the park as well as for the city of Verden. The aim is to promote understanding for a possible redesign of the Bürgerpark, e.g. with regard to the requirements of monument protection and nature conservation, and at the same time to harmonise these with the wishes and ideas of the citizens and to activate new user groups.


The aim of the kick-off event on 21. The aim of the kick-off event on 21 September 2011 at the Parkhotel Grüner Jäger was to establish a working group of interested citizens who can participate in the development of the use and design concept in three working forums following the kick-off event.

Following the presentation of the project, the participants' feedback already gave a first impression of the current perception of the Bürgerpark Verden among the population and the current need for action.

What happened next? (2013 bis heute )

The subsequent implementation of the concept was carried out exclusively under the direction of the city of Verden without the support of the planners. The park was functionally upgraded with a boules court, a football pitch, an intercultural garden and a dog play area in cooperation with citizens, local associations and sponsoring partners and in the conceptually planned sub-areas. The beach volleyball court, for example, was created through the energetic support of young people in the context of the youth exchange with the twin towns of the City of Verden.
The project has also shown that planning support by landscape architects should not stop after the definition of objectives and measures and the successful activation of groups of actors. In particular, concretising specialist planning should be indispensable in order to achieve the desired design and residential qualities in particular.

to the stories back to overview

1. Presentation of the concept for journalists and in the committee for streets and city green of the city of Verden/Aller (2012)
2. 2nd working forum (11.2011)
3. 3rd working forum (11.2011)
4. 1st working forum (10.2011)
5. Information and launch event (09.2011)
6. What happened next? (2013 bis heute)