Westpark Bochum

From CollabLandWiki

-Once the site of the Krupp steel works. This made it a 'forbidden zone' to non-employees and to town planners.

-Was a positive move to lose the noisy pile hammers and the sulphurous air

-To become a public urban space it was necessary to:

treat the contaminated soil
shake the image of 150 yrs of industrial program (since 1842)
make the district attractive to investors

-Initial planning had the site contain 'Anima', a pleasure ground for performance.

-The park needed to be a new local recreation site for locals and also to provide views of the city for visitors and locals alike.

-Will be the next layer after years of machinery, buildings, rail being installed and removed constantly.

-Due to the industrial program the landscape got altered to having three levels (city, outer rim and the crater floor - refer to section), something the city didn't have to offer anywhere else.

-Between the industrial ages ending on the site and the design of the new urban park the site blossomed with wild vegetation, including birches, butterfly bushes, poplars and willows. An asset to the site and worth preservation in the development of the park.

-The leisure-oriented park has been done on a scale appropriate to the region in which it stands. It has also been done in an a appropriate manner to uphold the past of the given sites, continuing to tell the story, but all in keeping with the rhythm of the dynamic cultural landscape.

- The business world is doing its best in continuing the development of the site but is not developing enough areas to fill all the gaps left behind by heavy industry.

-It is rather the populace who is giving direction to further development, but this will come slowly as it changes its industrial darker ways and adapts to new economic conditions at the same time.

-The design required a certain amount of restraint due to the states subsidies, the city's financial situation and the attraction property developers and trade businesses feel for the site.

-The concept of the park anticipates the question that visitors will ask the moment they arrive at the park:

What is this park about?
What existed before it was constructed?
What has changed?

-One of the biggest changes was the access to a site that was 'forbidden' for decades.

-The Jarhunderthalle is the only structure remaining from the industrial past as a reminder and memory.

-Currently pathways on the site avoid areas of highly contaminated soil. Instead, leading the person to benches and views of the city's western reaches and Thyssen Krupp's steelworks in the Goldhamme district.

-Two bridges close the gaps in the uppermost level (90m above sea level), a steep stairway in the west leads down to the lowest level (70m above seal level), and a third bridge in the north links the park to the regional green space corridor.

- In the north the uppermost level widens out into a wide stretch of flat land that is extremely contaminated. So that it has to be covered with cohesive soil. This drains badly and isn't allowing the newly planted deciduous trees to do so well.

-'Anima' (the pleasure centre) did not go ahead due to no investors coming forward. Financial backers for buildings on the uppermost level at the southern end have come forward though.