How to Learn From a Regional Garden Show – Stadtpark Papenburg

By Land8: Landscape Architects Network on August 4, 2015 No Comments / 5552 views

Stadtpark Papenburg, by RMP Landschaftsarchitekten, Papenburg, Germany. Have you asked yourself what a garden show is or what the transformative effects of it are? Since becoming popular in Germany and Austria in the 1980s, garden shows have aimed to improve the quality of life and the urban climate of cities. They also work toward regional-political development objectives. Regional garden shows are developed on disadvantaged sites, transforming them into attractive and pleasant locations. RMP Landscape Architects have extended the benefits and advantages of a regional garden show into a functional adaptation to meet the current requirements of the city park in Papenburg, Germany. Embedded in a larger context of city development, the implemented regional garden show in Stadtpark Papenburg is also a method of urban marketing, increasing the publicity and level of awareness of the city. Let’s see how these elements – regional garden show, urban marketing, and landscape design – interact in a single city park and how we can learn from such opportunities.

Masterplan of Stadtpark Papenburg. Image credit: RMP Stephan Lenzen Landschaftsarchitekten

Winds of Change – Stadtpark Papenburg

Located in the northwest section of Papenburg neighboring a shopping center, detached housing estates, and free fields, the city park has had to deal with the signature of nearly inconspicuous transit space. Where the shopping mall hides public activity and urbanity behind walls and detached houses preserve private leisure space, Stadtpark Papenburg has managed to evolve into an attractive and pleasant location. The park introduces a successful combination between new landscape elements and former structures in a city with maritime flair. (Papenburg is not only a center for shipbuilding, but also a center for flowers and horticulture – 35 M herbaceous plants and 25 M cucumber grow in Papenburg in a year.

Stadtpark Papenburg. Photo credit: Juliane Werner

Regional Garden Show – More than a Framework

Using the benefits of a regional garden show, RMP landscape architects brought a wind of change into the city with a new garden and park culture. Visitors and residents now have the chance to admire flower shows, ships, and water elements incorporated with an urban flair. Paying attention to the historical structure and existing vegetation, the designers combined the vastness of lawns with compact structures of native trees and shrubs, resulting in interesting light and shadow effects. The implementing company (Landesgartenschau Papenburg 2014) saw in the garden show not only a framework; they went beyond classical structures and made the area attractive through landscape investments.

Stadtpark Papenburg. Photo credit: Juliane Werner

Stadtpark Papenburg As Part of Urban Marketing

In the economic development of a city, urban marketing is a strategic element. Marketing helps cities accomplish multiple objectives, such as developing tourism, attracting new companies, or consolidating technical infrastructure. But how can urban marketing benefit from landscape architecture? The city park in Papenburg is now a main element in tourism development, from which local companies can also profit and evolve. From a neighborhood perspective, residents now benefit from a newly designed park and can spend time in its direct proximity, which offers much more than a private garden.

Stadtpark Papenburg. Photo credit: Juliane Werner

Even if some of us would argue that architecture per se plays an important role as a strategic element in urban marketing, green spaces such as parks are at least as important as buildings, maybe even more so. Due to the fact that the city park offers scenery, a location for events, and a place for relaxation and leisure, the power of transformation expands from the park to the whole city, with the result that city marketing benefits indirectly from the composition and design of landscape within Stadtpark Papenburg. Taking in consideration the importance of landscape design for economic and social development, RMP landscape architects restructured the old site for different groups of visitors and users, integrating the old character (main trail and network of footpaths) with new components (water elements and compact structures of trees and shrubs). Existing solitary trees were pruned, so that they strengthen and guide new visual connections.

The Right Time and Right Connections

Before deciding to use a regional garden show to improve the livability and urban climate, additional factors have to be taken into account. Besides the location, economic considerations, and political perspectives, the transformation has to be made in the right time with the right connections.

Stadtpark Papenburg. Photo credit: Juliane Werner

Accepting the relativeness of “right time”, it is important to be aware of the existing structures and their condition. Stadtpark Papenburg shows that existing networks and arrangements were old enough to keep them as character traits, but not too old for making a modern activation impossible. Physical connections are also a decisive factor for the success of garden shows. The park entrances are physical connections, which allow visitors to get to the desired place. RMP landscape architects emphasized these connections with new slight lines that lead deeply into the park.

Questions to Reflect Upon

Even if a regional garden show reveals many positive aspects, it is “just” a time-limited program of active transformation. But what remains after the events, shows, and temporal staging? Which are crucial aspects that have to been taken into consideration after such a program? How can a city sustain the positive transformations after a garden show ends?

Stadtpark Papenburg. Photo credit: Juliane Werner

Full Project Credits for Stadtpark Papenburg

Project: Stadtpark Papenburg Location: Papenburg, Germany Designers: RMP Stephan Lenzen Landschaftsarchitekten. (Thomas Brenning, Philip Haggeney, Chris Hoffmann, Inga Janßen, Thomas Kißmann, Jan Kückmann, Karsten Lindemann, Franziska Schmeiser, Katharina Thoma) Completion: 2014 Costs: 4.1 M Euro Area: 15 ha Client: Landesgartenschau Papenburg 2014 gemeinn. Durchführungsgesellschaft mbH Show on Google Maps