Georgswall Parks and town squares in Aurich

With the redesign of the Georgswall, the park in the heart of the city of Aurich has blossomed anew and forms a green address between the town hall and the market square. The main aim of the competition design was to make the swirling of space and time legible and emotionally tangible.

The result is a place where the traces of time are recognizable and history can be experienced visually and spatially: the former mightiness of the ramparts, the former harbour basin, the man-made canal.

This is about identification rather than restoration. It's about the citizens of Aurich identifying with their Georgswall and its history.



Today, four water basins trace the historical shape of the buried harbor basin; the town square reveals the old contours and proportions of the harbor. The name of the adjacent harbor street makes sense again. The words "Oll Haven Auerk", "Old Port of Aurich" in East Frisian Low German, can be read at the bottom of the basin. This quote is closely linked to Aurich's regional identity, which is being promoted, for example through bilingual street signage. The Pingelhus, where the harbour master announced the departure of ships by ringing a bell (East Frisian "pingeln" = "to ring"), is located at the old harbour and its bells still ring every hour today, albeit automatically. The historic buildings of the municipal association "Ostfriesische Landschaft" and its affiliated insurance company "Brandkasse" can also be found here, which together frame the area of the Bürgermeister-Müller-Platz, the old harbor area.



A play and path band marks the course of the historic rampart and sets it apart spatially by gently modeling the lawn. The central fountain field is located at the interface between the green corridor and the town hall passage, where it functions both as a hub between the park and the city and as an area for the weekly market.