Park at the Gleisdreieck

From the Landwehrkanal at Potsdamer Platz to the Yorckbrücken bridges in the south, the ten-hectare Westpark of the Park am Gleisdreieck was created by spring 2013. With its opening, the already completed Ostpark was expanded and now also serves the residents of the Schöneberg district as an extensive park landscape with sports, play and recreation facilities.

Citizen participation played an important role in the development of the park at Gleisdreieck. The individual steps before, during and after the competition are presented in the stories.

While in the Ostpark the wasteland nature characterizes the atmosphere, here it is the mighty viaducts of two subways that run across the site. This strong, spatial framework is complemented by wooden buildings within the landscape scale, such as a giant bench and a grandstand. Silver-leaved woody plants frame the park meadows and give Westpark a distinct vegetative image. The expansive meadow areas are framed by a framework that offers a variety of possibilities for stay and use. Spaces with or without vegetation, protected or more open, lively spaces, quiet areas and recreational spaces are envisaged. The park offers varied atmospheres so that every visitor can find his or her 'favourite place'.

A special feature of the Westpark is the pilot project 'Garden in the Garden'. The existing private allotment garden site opens up with its northern plots towards the park. Here a public market place, a nature experience space as well as community gardens for the residents of the city were created. Working on one's own garden creates self-confidence and a point of identification that creates new social structures. Park visitors also benefit from these examples of civic engagement.

With the Park am Gleisdreieck, an open space is being created that shows what Berlin is really like - multicultural, chic without ostentation, modern, mobile, fun-oriented and, above all, sensual. As a change from the hustle and bustle of the surrounding city can be experienced here looseness and relaxation.

First prizeGerman Landscape Architecture Award 2015

Jury verdict: The Park am Gleisdreieck Berlin is submitted by the authors under the heading "A Park of Possibilities for Tomorrow's Urban Society". In fact, the 34-hectare conversion area is of outstanding quality on all scale levels - from urban/landscape development to the planning and construction process to object and detailed planning. Throughout the complex realization process, the landscape architects of Atelier LOIDL and their planning team, as well as the client (the State of Berlin, represented by the Senate Department for Urban Development and the state-owned Grün Berlin GmbH), have obviously understood how to meet the diverse requirements of residents, affected parties, citizens' initiatives and institutions to be involved.

In doing so, the main line of the competition concept was always pursued as a common thread and supplemented, further developed and qualified in detail. The triad of aesthetics - ecology - innovation was thus met in a nationally and internationally exemplary manner. The interplay between the overall landscape planning concept and the object-related sub-areas creates a new dimension of landscape architectural responses to current social challenges. This is also reflected in the high frequency and acceptance by different user groups and intensities of use. As a result of the qualifying preliminary and planning phase, several landscape architectural sub-projects have emerged, such as "catwalks", "skate pool", "citizens' café", "stage and tribune" or "children's room", which create adequate offers for use. At the same time, the park is held together aesthetically and functionally by a structuring framework of divided usage zones. It is thus able to compensate for the fragmentation caused by the ICE railway line and the subway viaduct, and even make use of these elements to some extent.

In conclusion, the jury considers the work to be an outstanding contribution to the task set out in the competition and awards the German Landscape Architecture Prize 2015 to the Park am Gleisdreieck.