Land+Living: Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord

Landscape — August 30, 2005 Posted by James

"At a site where the blast furnace heat was almost unbearable you can now cool down and relax"

Archinect points us to an article in Stars & Stripes about the Landschaftspark "country park" at Duisburg-Nord in central Germany. We have featured the work of Peter Latz before, as well as a few other post-industrial landscape regeneration projects. The Landschaftspark no doubt inspired projects such as Amsterdam's Westergasfabriek and North Sydney's BP Site Parkland, yet it retains and reuses even more of the industrial infrastructure than either of these more recent projects.

Link: Landschaftspark
Firm: Latz und Partner
Article: Stars & Stripes - Urban decay now a family climbing getaway in Germany
Reference: Latz + Partner (L+L)
Reference: "From Ruin and Artifice, Landscapes Reborn" (L+L)
Reference: Manufactured Sites (L+L)

Click here for park maps.

Duisburg-Nord Country Park is a 200 hectacre post-industrial wasteland which has been transformed over a period of more than ten years into a multifunctional park that combines industrial, cultural and natural heritage.

At the centre of the park there is a decommissioned metal works, the old industrial facilities of which are today being put to a variety of different uses. The former factory buildings have been converted to accommodate cultural and corporate functions; an old gasholder has become the biggest artificial diving centre in Europe; alpine climbing gardens have been created in the former ore storage bunkers, and an extinct blast furnace has been developed into a panoramic tower.

The idea was to integrate, shape, develop and interlink the existing patterns that were formed by its previous industrial use, and to find a new interpretation with a new syntax. The existing fragments were to be interlaced into a new "landscape".

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4 comments

Comments (4)

Sevin Yildiz — August 31, 2005
Incredible transformation of Use

I saw part of this park 2 years ago, this is an incredible transformation but not in the form, in the use..My fav. industrial park so far..

e — May 20, 2006
Inspired

I'm a first year architecture and urban planning student. We're learning about urban landscaping and this project is just so inspiring to me. Those pictures are amazing! esp the rock climbing. ...

B. Raposa — January 6, 2007
World of Color, Light, and Steel

I had read the description of Duisburg Nord being a 'world of color, light, and steel' several times before I visited this past semester. I had very high expectations after finding the project in various publications, including the book 'Groundswell,' which I recommend to the first year architecture and urban planning student whom responded above. All the expectations I brought with me were blown away once I actually got there. Once the sun sets and Jonathan Park's installation brings the rusting hulk to life, THAT is when one can truly experience the power of the project. It is beautiful, certainly, but it is actually moving through Furnace 5 that will transport you to that other world... blindingly bright lights slice into the dark interiors, swathing the occupants as if done so by paint. It is then that one becomes a PART of the project; one enters that world of color, light, and steel... It was truly one of the most engaging projects I experienced in 8 months of travel. So much so, my thesis this coming May will utilize Duisburg-Nord as a case study. The project must be visited! It is well worth the trip.

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