Spreebogenpark

The new buildings of the government quarter are a signal for a new urban beginning and have a high identity of their own. Accordingly, the overarching theme of the park design is the examination of this historic site of the Alsenviertel, its overlays of different eras and the current changes and visions.

Based on the historical background, the Spreebogenpark is designed with a new language of landscape architecture and art. The interplay between linking and juxtaposing the old and the new, the conventional and the unfamiliar, the artificial and the natural creates a dialogue. The tension between history, present and future generates the artistic concept of the entire complex: generosity and restraint, designed with few but expressive elements.

The park
The inner Spreebogenpark is designed as a spacious park with individual groups of trees, paths, meadows and a pavilion, which allows a variety of uses, such as games and sports, concerts, sunbathing, resting, socializing and much more.
The site-specific conditions of topography on the one hand, and history and the present on the other, are thematized by horizontal and vertical layers. The new fill in the middle area, on the terrain that rises slightly towards the north, and the incision, the "landscape window", stage the new situation. The incision, framed with two steel plates, emphasizes the unexpected historical view relationship to the other shore, to the harbor, through the walkable horizontal surface. Exactly formulated edges and transitions to the Spree again form the urban striking boundaries towards the north.

The garden spaces
In this area, two garden sections, starting from the highest point of the fill, connect the different levels in an even gradient: Park and Spreeufer.
In the western drawdown is the trace garden. From the three bridges above, this space is visible as if through a time window into the past: it extends a carved out piece of a historically designed garden.
Through the new opening in the old natural stone revetment, one can reach the waterfront from the trace garden. The precisely cut out wall element, like a sculpture, pushes against the Spree and symbolizes the departure to something new.
The garden track, the counterpart to the track garden, leads on the east side of the Spreebogen down to the riverside promenade. Here a blue wall and a colourful flower meadow meet - timeless means of expression of modern times. They correspond to the perpetual dialogue between architecture and landscape architecture.

Along the Spree
The panoramic path leads over the old natural stone revetment and across terraces along the northern edge of the Spreebogen Park. Missing historic wall elements were not reconstructed, but linearly supplemented by a path. Newly constructed retaining walls run as a new layer behind the former natural stone revetment.
The existing boardwalk was widened and the riverbank area was largely left in its current form. In the middle section, shallow steps provide access to the water. Individual weeping willows line the bank.

Lighting
During the evening hours, the curve of the Spree is accentuated along the riverbank by spotlights set into the ground. On the other hand, the passage of the landscape window remains without light sources and sets the scene for the nocturnal city skyline on the opposite side when walking through towards the river. The parapets of the rusty iron walls as well as those of the adjoining walls of the parking spaces form delicately shimmering triangles. The two main paths are illuminated in a restrained manner by individual stelae.