Plantation Potsdam A multi-coded movement space

A place is a place is a place...



Sometimes it is also more, a green space, a park or, as in the case of the plantation in Potsdam, a school sports area with simultaneous public use.



The landscape architectural competition program envisaged the restoration of the historic 1850 plantation according to plans by Peter Joseph Lennè as an inner-city, representative town square in the center of the Brandenburg state capital of Potsdam. At the same time, today's requirements were to be integrated, such as high recreational and leisure qualities or extensive play and sports facilities for the neighboring Max Dortu elementary school.



History:



The plantation is one of three green, tree-lined city squares in Potsdam's city center that were laid out in the 18th century and is an important element in the legibility of the historic city layout. The originally marshy ground was initially used as a mulberry plantation from the 18th century. As part of the Baroque expansion of the city, the area housed facilities for the court and the military (stables, horse stables, riding hall, horse hospital, garrison church and parade ground). The area was divided by narrow cross and diagonal paths and bordered by linden trees. In 1850, the plantation was redesigned into a spacious green area according to plans by Peter Joseph Lenné, the garden artist and general garden director of the royal Prussian gardens, leaving a parade ground in the middle of the square, framed by rows of lime trees.



The caesura of the Second World War destroyed the square and the buildings framing it to the east. At the end of the 1960s, the remains were also demolished and a data processing center was built in prefabricated construction. This use is now being relocated and the building demolished. The open spaces have been destroyed, reshaped and are now in an overused and neglected state.



The urban quarter, in the middle of which is the plantation, is to be developed as an inner-city living and working quarter in line with the city's redevelopment objectives.



The project planning is prepared and accompanied by an adult and extensive child and youth participation process, author: gruppe F Landschaftsarchitekten.



Movements:



Based on Lenné's planning from the 19th century, the idea of the double frame of lawns and rows of trees is taken up. The urban lines of the city canal in the west and those of the long stable in the east are shifted parallel as before, but now playfully broken up by a shift of two frames. This creates an interweaving of inside and outside.



The green frame, the historic rows of lime trees are retained, supplemented and important individual trees integrated. It encloses the square on all sides and forms a quiet, transparent buffer to the street traffic to the west and north and to the new residential development to the east. The black frame made of asphalt concrete (with grit covering using the grinding process) is a circular park path, 100 m track for school sports and 400 m running track. Long concrete seating elements accentuate the two frames.



A spacious multifunctional landscape made of colored plastic (EPDM) for numerous school and leisure sports and play uses is located in the protected interior: A small playing field for soccer, handball, basketball, volleyball, etc., a long jump facility, table tennis tables to the side, streetball, a trampoline track, and much more. These flat surfaces are complemented by a concrete section of the same color for BMX, roller skating, running and cycling, scating and informal play. Water-bound path surfaces enable boules play.



The central sand play area "Rechnerhalle" (planning: spielAHOI Tilmann Stachat) refers to the use of the site over the last 50 years with play and tree houses, a tunnel slide, climbing game, swings etc. and the "abacus" made of movable, oversized balls on steel rods.



The eastern half of the plantation will become a gently sloping lawn with a gymnastics meadow and a framing embankment planted with shrubs as a boundary to the access road. The lawn will become a "small plantation", a gridded grove of solitary trees with particularly beautiful seasonal aspects, flower, fruit or leaf decorations, reminiscent of the mulberry plantation. Meadow cushions, softly shaped concrete elements, invite you to relax and unwind.



The landscape architectural design respects and intensifies the significance of the historically valuable site. The innovation lies in the diverse overlapping uses. History and the future meet in coexistence and togetherness. Urban quality of life is created in the multiple coding of tranquillity and dynamism, residence and representation, communication and contemplation, public and institutional use, play, sport and leisure activities for young and old. The discussions on safety and liability issues will be instructive for everyone involved, and the project is certainly an opportunity to give residents and children the confidence to take responsibility for themselves again.



The March Revolutionary of 1848 and namesake of the adjacent elementary school, Max Dortu, would certainly have enjoyed these multifunctional movements.