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In the Landscape Park Duisburg Nord extending over an area of about 180 hectares, nature, industrial heritage

and a fascinating light installation combine to create a park landscape unlike any other in the world.
At the centre stands a disused ironworks whose old industrial facilities have today been put to a wide variety of
uses. The huge buildings of the former ironworks have been equipped to cater for cultural and corporate
functions; in an old gasometer Europes biggest man-made diving centre has been created; alpine climbing
gardens have been created in ore storage bunkers; in a former casting house a high ropes course has been set
up; and an extinguished blast furnace has been modified to provide a viewing tower.
The Landscape Park is open throughout the year and with no time limitations. Entry to the park site is free.
The Thyssen Ironworks in Duisburg-Meiderich, built in the grandiose style so typical of the time of advanced
industrialisation, finally saw production come to an end with the last tapping of Blast Furnace 5 on 4 April 1985. At
the same time, this was also the beginning of an unbelievable period of development.
Whoever sets off today to climb to the top of the 70m high platform on Blast Furnace 5, now open to all, will be
amazed at the result. Through the contrast between continuous redevelopment and the constant need for
preservation, an industrial wasteland has developed into a unique adventure playground for young and old a
development which is ongoing.
The idea for a new type of natural and man-made landscape with an industrial stamp was born in 1989. Based
on designs by Professor Peter Latz and Partner, a Landscape Park has been created on the north Duisburg site
measuring roughly 200 hectares, which is neither park nor landscape in the traditional sense.
So, if you set off on a tour of the area, familiar concepts will not get you far. For youll see vegetation which has
grown wild next to landscaped water features, and green spaces and gardens on land which has been heavily
shaped by industry, like for example the old layout of railway tracks. Nature is growing and taking on new
dimensions in the Landscape Park, inviting you to come and explore.
So-called Open Space Planning is an important component of the Municipal Development Plan for the planned
redevelopment of non-built-up areas.
Open Space Planning, also known as landscape architecture, is to be understood as an aesthetic and artistic
discipline which creates, on a scientific and technical basis, living space sensitive to ecological and social factors.
An example of this is the endeavour to achieve a balanced relationship in major cities between residential areas
and open spaces.

In seeking to create living space, landscape architecture relies on the use of dynamic means often natural
components such as hedges, trees and ground cover. For this reason a landscape architecture project is never
truly finished, but a concept in development.
By Landscape Park one means in general a park or garden, a landscape which has been reshaped on the basis
of certain landscape architectural plans. It is only since the International Building Exhibition Emscher Park (IBA)
that a redeveloped industrial landscape has been classified as a Landscape Park.
In the case of a redeveloped industrial landscape, a Landscape Park functions on the principles of urban
development with regard to ecological, social and cultural factors. It confronts the challenges of structural change
and entails the restoration of nature.
Over an extended period of time one tries to restore natures own cycles to full working order on an industrial site.
But this reconstruction of the landscape is not a return to a previous state, but rather letting nature take the lead.
In a post-industrial Landscape Park whats already there is to be preserved, space is to be created and nature
and culture developed.
The replanted and maintained open spaces and gardens in the Landscape Park Duisburg Nord have been
designed on the basis of specific ideas inherent to landscape architecture. The Sinter Gardens, the
Stadtrandgarten and the farmers gardens on the farm at Ingenhammshof are examples of just such gardens. But
the rock gardens in the Storage Bunkers are very different, where nature is taking over again in the wild
chambers.
The visitor, following paths and traversing boardwalks, will gain a good look down into the Sinter Plants hoppers,
planted with lavender, silver camomile and other plants, and the charge bunkers where vegetation has grown
wild.
The planted and maintained Stadtrandgarten consists of three sections: a garden with herbaceous perennials; a
fruit orchard; and a wildflower garden where specimens from the site have been left to self-seed and colonise.
The farmers gardens on the farm at Ingenhammshof have been laid out on the basis of an old French model
separate beds with flowers, herbs, vegetables bordered by box hedges in the parterre style. The pretty picture of
the garden is rounded off with watering places.

The work and especially the landscape architecture in the Landscape Park Duisburg Nord entails far-reaching
ecological issues which can be applied to the Open Space Planning of the whole Ruhr District.

Investment in the environment and the issue of sustainable economic activity are important points in the
ecological renewal of a contaminated site.
During the course of the International Building Exhibition, for example, work began on the ecological remodelling
of the Emscher system, work for two generations but which has pointed the way forward in terms of creating
living space in the Ruhr District.
Surely nobody would have thought, even just a few decades ago, that disused industrial works would one day be
numbered amongst the richest living spaces in heavily populated areas. And yet the site of the Landscape Park
which once saw a rapid change from agriculture to industry, has, since the closure of the works, seen nature take
over again and revitalise the area.
The trees play a special role. From the plane trees by the car parks to the rows of poplars by the Clear Water
Canal and the black locust trees by the park promenades, the trees have claimed back for themselves a major
part of the Landscape Park. The colourful mix of the ornamental blossom trees by the park entrance can be seen
as a distinctive symbol of the Landscape Park.
In addition the park is home to lots of species of plants which have travelled here with the iron ore and created for
themselves a new place to live globalisation, but of a rather different sort. But the park offers a home not only to
plants, but also to lots of animals. And so the Landscape Park with its site comprising almost 200 hectares has
become a modern symbol for post-industrial natural open spaces.
In addition to the most varied species of plants, lots of animal species have also found a natural habitat in the
Landscape Park. Rare and exotic plants attract ever more varied residents to the old ironworks.
And so, on the occasion of the Geo Day of the Diversity of Species 2001, several species of bats, natterjack
toads, around 100 species of beetles and more then 60 species of birds were observed. Many of these animals
are to be found, first and foremost, in the wilderness which, after the closure of the ironworks, was able to
develop without any interference into one of the most valuable biotopes in the Landscape Park.
Today numerous species of birds, such as garden warbler and blackcap, willow tit and great tit, hedge sparrow,
willow warbler, chiffchaff, icterine warbler and yellow wagtail, live and breed in the dense vegetation cover
comprising black elders, common hawthorn, willow trees and blackberry bushes. Even the song of the
nightingale has been heard here. And in the wilderness nature also has priority over recreational use in order to
continue to offer the animals an undisturbed habitat and sanctuary. And for this reason visitors are not allowed in
the densely vegetated site.
At Ingenhammshof, the farm on the site of the Landscape Park, youll also find species of animals which are now
rare: Bentheim pigs and sheep, German black pied cattle, Pomeranian geese and draft horses. And people really
enjoy the rustic ambience and the livestock in the shadow of the extinguished blast furnaces.

Very attractive, these stowaways: small grains of seed which were brought in on the great ore carriers from all
over the world, landing up in the ironworks. They rooted a long time ago and have been bearing colourful
blossom for years. Bright green transforms the ironworks into a nature park, a space for a rather bizarre
collection of colourful symbiotic communities which do not exist at all in this form in unspoiled landscapes or, if
so, only in completely different climatic areas.
On the Reliefharfe, the former layout of railway yards between the ore bunkers and the Sinter Plant, Mother
Nature plays with the colours.

Take just a few more steps and the wilderness lies in wait, an ancient piece of primeval forest in the midst of the
big city jungle: clearly visible for walkers, shut off from every sort of hustle and bustle. Originally there were
gardens here, but they were cut off from the residential areas by the building of the A42 and A59 motorways.
After the demolition of the garden buildings, the inaccessible area was left to itself for a long time as a bit of spare
land in the ironworks, which at that time was still operational. It grew wild, in time becoming a small, dense,
impenetrable forest.
Thus, even before the closure of the ironworks, the wilderness was undergoing a period of development which
was largely undisturbed and its now at a stage of development which is unusual for the Landscape Park. Today
the healthy biotope is home and habitat for lots of animals.
In the course of the International Building Exhibition Emscher Park (IBA), a subject of debate was not only the
conversion of some of the halls, but also the ecological concept of the future Landscape Park Duisburg Nord, and
water was to play a major role in this concept.
The architects Latz + Partner developed the water park which now consists of the old River Emscher, subdivided
into five main sections: Klarwasserkanal (Clear Water Canal), the Emschergraben (Dyke), the Emscherrinne
(Channel), the Emscherschlucht (Gorge) and the Emscherbach (Stream).
In an ingenious system of water collection, rain water is fed into the Old Emscher: by means of the interplay of
barrages and water shoots its possible to collect rainwater and feed it in after a time delay so that, even in
lengthy dry spells, water can be supplied to the Old Emscher to replenish the oxygen levels.

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