Hamburg’s exercise islands

By Kolja Naumann (Planungsbüro Naumann Landschaft)

© Anne Oschatz, Naumann Landschaft

Exercise islands – a feature of the ‘Active City’ master plan of the City of Hamburg

Following the adoption of the ‘Active City’ master plan by the Hamburg Senate in 2016, a total of 26 sport infrastructure projects, beginning in 2017, are to be realised throughout the entire city by 2024. Most of the projects had their origin in the programme drawn up by the city as part of its bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, which had to be abandoned following the result of a referendum in 2015. A budget amounting to an approximate total of €50 million has been made available for the implementation of the plan that includes concepts for popular activities as well as professional sports.

The concept of the exercise islands falls under the heading of ‘park sport’ in the master plan. This means they are clearly differentiated from those projects associated with professional sport and club-associated exercise options. The declared objective of the Hamburg exercise island scheme is to provide outdoor sport and exercise facilities available to everyone that are located in the neighbourhood of residential areas.

The few open air fitness facilities that were available in Hamburg prior to 2017 proved to be particularly popular. At the same time, the results of many studies and surveys have demonstrated that such informal exercise amenities are very much in demand and readily accepted. It was with this in view that the basic idea for the exercise islands was drawn up. They were to provide readily accessible and attractive exercise opportunities for young and old, for the well-trained and the less competent and those who had not previously bothered with physical exercise. The various sites were to be positioned in parks and districts throughout the city to ensure that users had no great distance to travel to reach them.

Using the above as guidelines, the various districts began to cooperate with each other. Personnel of the parks commission offices of all seven of Hamburg’s districts collected suggestions for the locations of the exercise islands and pooled their experience of projects completed in the past. In the next phase, we were commissioned to plan and supervise construction of the seven sites. A major objective was that the design should be succinct and have an adequate recognition factor so that the ‘exercise island’ and ‘Active City’ concepts would become clearly distinctive parts of the city infrastructure. Each exercise island plan would need to function, be transferrable and flexible in terms of use as far as possible, irrespective of the various spatial demands.

Locations and designs of the exercise islands

Following an analysis of the existing public fitness amenities, it was determined that the best locations were those close to much frequented footpaths. A combination of forms of endurance exercise such jogging and walking with stationary options for strength, coordination and stretching exercises looked to be a logical and popular arrangement. At the same time, those using the equipment needed to be impressed by the quality of the location and the outdoor situation. It proved possible to place exercise islands in the close vicinity of a body of water in five of the Hamburg districts. Users of certain of the islands now have splendid views of the lake Bramfelder See, the Cuckoo Pond in Wilhelmsburger Inselpark and the quarry pond in Nettelnburg.

Because of the limited budget available, it was necessary to find equipment for the exercise islands that could be used for a larger range of different and variable exercises rather than just one specific type. There also had to be barrier free – or at least ready – accessibility to the equipment. What was on offer needed to appeal to senior citizens as much as to young people. Many of the products reviewed had to be rejected because of the psychological barrier associated with using them or their too specific target group concept. After consultation with sports scientists and representatives of other local authorities that had already worked on comparable projects, we were able to put together a basic range of suitable equipment. We also interviewed users of similar facilities, and the results enabled us to refine our selection of equipment and choice of exercise options that the islands would offer.

Important information on the suitability for daily use of the equipment and the features to be provided was supplied by the recreation divisions of the district authorities. They had learned that equipment with movable parts was far more difficult to maintain than equipment that employed a user’s own bodyweight for training. Equipment of fitness facilities constructed in Hamburg in the late 1990s and 2000s had had to be fully dismantled as large numbers of the bearings and joints had become thoroughly defective through overuse, wear and corrosion. The necessary repairs required over the years had grown to such an extent that the work was no longer cost-effective and removal became the only option.

It was also necessary to pay particular attention to the surfacing of the exercise islands. Thanks to our many years of experience of planning and construction of various playgrounds and sport facilities, we were able to conduct a systematic discussion with the district authorities and, after a consideration of the various advantages and disadvantages, identify a type of surfacing that all involved were happy with. The impact-attenuating artificial turf with silica sand infill conforms to the requirements with regard to durability and compatibility with the natural surroundings. It was also necessary to design the exercise islands so that they would withstand intensive use and require little maintenance. The islands were all located within existing parks and green spaces; they were to be visible but, at the same time, not optically overshadow their natural environment.

Implementation

In order to allow as large as possible a number of contractors to bid, and thus obtain the best possible offers, the whole project was divided into three tranches. The work required for all seven exercise islands was combined so that each contractor would be able to collaborate with the others when it came to the purchasing of construction materials and to the actual construction work. All services to be provided were described in a way that did not specify particular products to ensure that competition was not unnecessarily restricted. For the landscaping work and construction of the sports facilities, specifications with standardised prices were used while for the fitness equipment tranche we limited the description to functional needs. For this purpose, a separate evaluation matrix was drawn up that covered all the aspects of the planning and coordination phases and the various costs. In this way, it was possible to make sure that not simply the most inexpensive collection of equipment was commissioned but an economical and sustainable range was obtained that met all defined needs.

During the construction phase it became apparent that the separation into tranches, which some of those involved felt was too complex or fraught with risk, was a concept that worked well. The whole of the project was completed by target and within the specified budget. Work on all seven sites within the city perimeter was begun and completed within period of roughly 4 months.

The outlook

Over the following 2 years, we were able to build a further two exercise islands. These nine Hamburg exercise islands, in addition to being profiled online on Hamburg’s official website hamburg.de, have garnered considerable feedback on social media. During our regular tours of status inspection, we routinely encounter satisfied users who, according to their own accounts, visit the facilities at least once weekly to exercise. The coronavirus pandemic has caused another major increase in the extent of use of outdoor exercise amenities. In the meantime, the exercise islands have become an integral feature of their local park facilities for many of Hamburg’s residents.