Stage and Stands
Great Cinema
A park should bring people together. It should give rise to a feeling of social closeness and a shared identity. Creating a relaxed atmosphere can contribute to mitigating social tensions or even prevent them from arising in the first place. To achieve this, it is firstly necessary to encourage communication in a targeted manner and, secondly, to produce a feeling of togetherness. How can this be realized using the means of landscape architecture? The stages-and-stands principle orchestrates the coming together of people who would otherwise never take note of each other. People should do things and want to do things in the park: to enjoy life and show off, to let others share in their abili ties and hobbies. For this, there needs to be someone who does something and someone who watches, and perhaps even marvels. This results in interaction and communication. In both halves of the Park am Gleisdreieck, there are formal stages and stands that are immediately recognizable as such: the stands already described at the mouth of the tunnel, the small stands by the dance area, and the Stelcon stands that we had layered together using the heavy-duty slabs with steel frames that were found on-site. The orientation is very important: One faces to the west, which is why it is used particularly in the late afternoon and evening for sitting, sprawling, and drinking wine; the other is oriented toward the south and is much frequented for sunbathing, picnicking, and reading. All three stands have surfaces extending in front of them like stages: The big stands at the mouth of the tunnel have a sandy area and the large meadow, the small stands by the dance area have sanded asphalt, and the Stelcon stands a surface of asphalt as well. I have observed in hindsight that some of the stage areas apparently still have too little animation quality to attract interesting activities. For these areas, events curated by a sponsor or citizens groups would be desirable for bringing smaller, everyday sports or music events onto the stage. Bringing them alive with temporary installations or gastronomy would also be conceivable. Both would
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Designing Parks