Day 44_Duisburg, Germany

I am slowly making my way to the conference in Maastrict, The Netherlands.   There were no direct flights from Gothenburg so I flew to Dusseldorf and took the train to Duisberg, Germany.  What a difference an hour flight makes.  The landscape in Germany is lush, green with lots of trees.  Passing small villages, a tall steeple highlighted the church in each town.  Modern wind turbines mix with ancient wind mills in this landscape of old and new.   (With Ryan Air, you never know where you are going to land.  I thought I was flying to Dusseldorf, but was actually an hour away in Weeze.  Be forewarned with Ryan Air that you will eventually get to the advertised city, but you will need to train or bus there after your flight.)

I came to Duisburg to see the most innovative park designed in the last 15 years.   Landscaftspark Duisburg Nord is a re-imagined park on a former 200 hectare industrial site.  Landscape architect Peter Latz built off Rich Haag's ideas at Gas Works Park in Seattle, re-using the industrial buildings and remnants in new ways.  This brilliant park combines industrial history, nature, recreation, leisure and culture into one place.  Latz's concept here was to heal and understand the industrial past, rather than try to reject it (as most designers would have sent everything on site to the landfill).  He allowed the polluted soil from this very large gas plant to remain on site and remediated it through phytoremediation (which is when plants pull the pollutants out of the soil).  Some of the park is intentionally planted while other parts are allowed to keep the weeds/seeds that were brought in over time by ship and train to the site.  Both are lovely.  The Old Emscher river, which was formerly a disposal outlet for wastewater, has been redesigned to now hold only rainwater  (wastewater is carefully separated and taken to the sewer).

Using the old equipment, you can climb high onto the plant pieces to see over the park.  Other elements from the factory include the gas holder used as a scuba diving tank and former ore bunkers are rock climbing walls.  Children's playgrounds have been woven into the site, cutting the concrete into doorways or steps.  Trails follow the former train tracks and sewer system.  Concert venues, amphitheater, restaurants are also on site using old buildings. With so much steel in the factory, new elements use more steel to tie the new design together with the old.   A sustainable farm highlights the past use of the site before the Industrial Revolution.  The park design is incredibly beautiful and you can see the way the natural world is being allowed to take over the industrial one.