Brigitta van weeren landschapsarchitectuur

Brigitta van Weeren Dutzendteich Difficult heritage as new public park spaces bvanweeren@gmail.com www.brigittavanweeren.com +31 6 2628 6358

Amsterdam Academy of Architecture Graduation Projects 2016-2017

Landscape Architecture

Brigitta van Weeren Dutzendteich Difficult heritage as new public park spaces

Cultural history and heritage are often seen as positive and purposeful subjects in design- or planning processes. It contributes to the character of the place; the ‘ genius loci’. However, I find the existing approach to cultural history in landscape architecture too narrow; it is often used as a reassuring nostalgic layer which gives a positive feel to the project. Yet this approach does not apply everywhere. How do we then deal with locations that have a difficult heritage and no pleasant history? These locations are often controversial and therefore left to decay, while some of them tell an important story.

Dutzendteich is one of those sites. It is the location where in the 1930’s the Nazi Party rallies were held. These rallies tell the story of the Nazis megalomania and the methods they used to indoctrinate the people. It is now a 340 hectares event- and recreational park on the outskirts of Nuremberg.

In the 1930’s Albert Speer made a masterplan with an enormous scale of which some prominent structures remain until today. These structures and buildings have been in decay now for quite some time. The city of Nuremberg recently decided to conserve the sites. But what would be the best way of doing this? My idea is to not look at the structures and architecture alone, which is done now, but to connect them to the surrounding park and the city. The current condition of the park isn’t so good, it is outdated, fragmented and the Nazi structures create an immense scale with lifeless open spaces. How could a new approach to this difficult heritage give an impulse to Dutzendteich becoming a high quality city park?

My proposal is to incorporate the heritage sites in a better way by making them ‘open spaces’ in the forest. Long before the 1930’s, Dutzendteich started out as fishing ponds in the forest. Since then the city grew around the park with some parts of the forest still present at the site. Instead of reducing the scale of the heritage sites they would become better controlled and defined spaces by placing them into something even bigger: the forest. With this intervention, the difficult heritage gets a place in the longer history of the site.

My design focuses on the four open spaces that contain the most prominent and problematic heritage sites. First of all the Grosse Strasse, now an 8 hectares paved parking area, becomes a water axis. The footprint of the road remains and the historic structure stays visible but the function changes completely. Instead of a parking lot, it can now be used as a place to swim, row or cycle along. This intervention provides the material for two of the other sites. The soil that is left from digging the water at the Grosse Strasse, is used to fill up the heavily toxic and polluted Silbersee.

The Silbersee is an excavation made for the planned ‘Deutsches Stadion’ and has since filled up with ground water and chemicals from the adjacent Silberbuck (debris hill). By filling up the Silbersee, it becomes a Silberdüne, a new park typology that refers to the dunes in the forest surrounding Nuremberg. For the third location, the Zeppelinfeld, the granite stones on the Grosse Strasse are used to create a new public sports square on the now closed-off Zeppelinfeld. The last location is the Congress hall, the biggest preserved national socialist building. The two head-buildings are used for cultural functions, the ‘Dokumentationszentrum’ and the Symphony Orchestra. The proposal is to open up the facade of the U-shaped building that is now mainly used for storage and to make the courtyard, now mainly used for parking, into an exotic courtyard garden.

With these interventions I’m not trying to erase history, but to use it and give it a new meaning for the future. In this way, the heritage contributes to and interacts with its surroundings by becoming new public park spaces, that will keep on telling the stories of the site.

Graduation date 27 06 2017

Commission members Yttje Feddes (mentor) Marieke Kums Joyce van den Berg

Additional members for the examination Roel van Gerwen Hanneke Kijne

Brigitta van Weeren

Landscape Architecture

Masterplan 0m

Redefining the scale of the heritage sites: four open spaces in the forest with each their own character

250 m

500 m

Brigitta van Weeren

Impression of the Grosse Strasse as a water axis

Now: a paved parking area of circa 1.5 km long and 60 m wide in the centre of the park

Small-scale park program along the water

Proposal: the water creates a new use and sense of place but also shows the history by keeping the form intact

1594

1700

1909

1953

Dutzendteich is named after its ponds, the new water fits into the history of the always changing composition of the ponds

2017

future: new pond

Landscape Architecture

Re-use: The existing material at the site provides for most of the material of the new designs. The soil from channelling the Grosse Strasse is used to fill the Silbersee, the granite on the Grosse Strasse is used for the square on the Zeppelinfeld. The leftover bricks from opening up the Congress hall get a new usage at the entrance squares of the park. This re-use of material makes the project sustainable and cost-effective.

Existing situation: polluted toxic lake

Proposal: SilberdĂźne

Filling up the toxic Silbersee creates a new dune, the SilberdĂźne

A tennis practice wall on the backside of the Zeppelintribune

The now closed-off Zeppelinfeld becomes a public sports square made out of the granite from the Grosse Strasse

Playing basketball on the Zeppelinfeld with the Zeppelintribune in the background

Brigitta van Weeren

The new public courtyard garden with lush planting and exotic plant species

The courtyard garden is located at one of the main park entrances and could be programmed by the cultural functions that are in the head-buildings of the Congress hall

Architect, Master of Science Urbanist, Master of Science Landscape Architect, Master of Science Architects, urbanists and landscape architects learn the profession at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture through an intensive combination of work and study. They work in small, partly interdisciplinary groups and are supervised by a select group of practising fellow professionals.

There is a wide range of options within the programme so that students can put together their own trajectory and specialisation.

With the inclusion of the course in Urbanism in 1957 and Landscape Architecture in 1972, the Academy is the only architecture school in the Netherlands to bring together the three spatial design disciplines under one roof.

Some 350 guest tutors are involved in teaching every year. Each of them is a practising designer or a specific expert in his or her particular subject. The three heads of department also have design practices of their own in addition to their work for the Academy. This structure yields an enormous dynamism and energy and ensures that the courses remain closely linked to the current state of the discipline.

The courses consist of projects, exercises and lectures. First-year and second-year students also engage in morphological studies. Students work on their own or in small groups. The design

projects form the backbone of the syllabus.

On the basis of a specific design assignment, students develop knowledge, insight and skills.

The exercises are focused on training in those skills that are essential for recognising and solving design problems, such as analytical techniques, knowledge of the repertoire, the use of materials, text analysis, and writing. Many of the exercises are linked to the design projects.

The morphological studies concentrate on the making of spatial objects, with the emphasis on creative process and implementation. Students experiment with materials and media forms and gain experience in converting an idea into a creation.

During the periods between the terms there are workshops, study trips in the Netherlands and abroad, and other activities. This is also the preferred moment for international exchange projects. The Academy regularly invites foreign students for the workshops and recruits wellknown designers from the Netherlands and further afield as tutors.

Graduates from the Academy of Architecture are entitled to the following titles: Architect, Master of Science; Urbanist, Master of Science and Landscape Architect, Master of Science.

Landscape Architecture

Amsterdam Academy of Architecture