The Landscape Park Duisburg Nord is located at the 200-hectare terrain of a former ironworks complex. This urban park has five functions: Neue Natur (protecting flora and fauna), Industrial museum, Volkspark (recreation), Abenteuerspielplatz (large playground) and Kulturforum (places of art and culture). The intention is for the park to develop slowly. So it is not ‘finished’. Latz + Partner came up with the basic design in 1991, and it gained great momentum during the International Architecture Exhibition (IBA). Characteristic of the design is that it makes use of the old complex. Bunkers, for example, were filled with old railway sleepers and covered with ferns. By paying attention to the site’s history and making it part of the renewal, the design is given a deeper meaning. The existing drainage canal, which in fact was an open sewer, was put underground and replaced with a new open canal that only drains clear (rain)water. The new canal is just as straight as the old one was. The designers wanted to show that the function of a ‘canal’ could change with time. Another intervention was not to remove the contaminated soil, but to let plants clean it instead. Heavily contaminated soil was locally stored in bunkers.
-Duisburg-Nord (D) 1991
-Latz + Partner