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Lohsepark – HafenCity’s green center
By 2018, HafenCity will have a green lung at its center, in the shape of Lohsepark, which will run through the new city district from north to south (© Vogt Landschaftsarchitekten AG)
The realization of Lohsepark marks a real milestone in the development of HafenCity. Plans for landscaping the four hectares of grounds, to be laid out in Am Lohsepark neighborhood in central HafenCity, have been the subject of an open space design competition since May 2009. Integrated into the competition are concepts for a place of memorial to honor at least 7,692 Jews, Sinti and Roma, deported from the former Hanover railroad station on the site during the Nazi period. A total of 28 international offices were invited to take part in the competition; in the second phase, four joint first prizes were awarded to: Vogt Landschaftsarchitekten AG (Zürich), Lützow 7 C. Müller J. Wehberg Garten- und Landschaftsarchitekten (Berlin), Büro Kiefer (Berlin) and Global-Arquitectura Paisagista (Lisbon). After the designs had been reworked, the decision was made to award the contract for realizing the park to Vogt Landschaftsarchitekten AG of Zürich.
However, ideas for the place of remembrance are not part of the realization contract. They form the basis of an artistic competition to be held in the coming years. The space for the memorial will not be available until then. All designs for Lohsepark and the results of the ideas competition were on public view in HafenCity in June-July 2010.
The central objective of the competition carried out under the aegis of HafenCity Hamburg GmbH in agreement with the Hamburg ministries of Urban Development and Environment (BSU) and Culture, Sport and Media (BKSM) was open-space planning for Lohsepark, which will be the largest contiguous park in HafenCity. The jury, chaired by landscape architect Guido Hager, initially made a selection of nine designs from the total entries to be worked over again in detail. In the second phase, the prize jury awarded a first prize to four works, both for realization of Lohsepark and for ideas for the memorial. In line with the jury’s recommendations, HafenCity Hamburg GmbH invited the four first-prize winners to participate in a final revision and negotiation phase.
Vogt Landschaftsarchitekten AG’s concept was a convincing one: an area for movement in a park is to be created "from waterside to waterside", with expansive areas of lawn and long grass and a large number of trees. The long sides of the park will be edged with green terraces which link in with street level, dovetailing the park with the urban surroundings.
The park will be laid out at three different levels ranging from 5.5m above sea-level (the historic level of the memorial location), 6.5m (the actual level of the park) and 8.5m at the level of the adjacent urban space. To the south it will give way to the campus of HafenCity University at Baakenhafen and a large open stairway. Now, since the reworking of the Masterplan for eastern HafenCity, Lohsepark will also continue across the harbor basin in Baakenhafen neighborhood. There it joins up with a 30m-wide green promenade beside the Elbe.
Winding paths lead through the green areas and mixed-species clumps of trees in the park’s interior. A range of play and leisure areas are planned, as well as a community building. The prize jury also gave special mention to the economic concept and ecological standards. An example of the latter is the use everywhere of water permeable paving.
Central to the idea of a place of remembrance is the integration of the existing historic remains of Hanover Station, which was dynamited in 1955 after having been severely damaged in the 2nd World War. To the west of the park, a documentation center about Nazi deportations is planned, which will provide a permanent venue for the exhibition "Sent to their Deaths", which has already been shown in Kunsthaus.
Taking part in the planning process with the Hamburg Culture, Sport and Media Ministry are the Jewish Community in Hamburg, the Roma and Sinti Union and the Auschwitz committee.
