17.08.2011 - Ausgabe: 4/2011

From the garden festival to Bürgerpark - subsequent use in practice

Under the title "From the garden festival to Bürgerpark - subsequent use in practice" the Deutsche Bundesgartenschau-Gesellschaft (DBG) hosted an event on 8 June in the Bonn Federal Arts and Exhibition Hall.

Sustainability is today's over-used buzz-word. For garden festivals sustainability comes true, if it is possible to use the area successfully afterwards, for, as an important tool for urban and green spaces development, a garden show has effects on much more than the actual event. Therefore it is even more important nowadays to consider the care, use, programming and administration of the exhibition area as a park before holding a Regional, National or International Garden Festival. In Bonn the topic was examined critically from all sides: from the park concept through management, the costs and value creation, petitions for a referendum and preservation orders for tourism purposes. The contributors - all practising horticulturalists - presented exemplary schemes for maintaining the area after the national garden festival as a highly popular and successful public park.

Is this simply a green issue or is there more to it?

The National Garden Festival comes to an end and with it disappears the floral decoration - a classic problem. Thomas Hanster from Essen Parks Department recounted what can be done with a bit of imagination despite tight budgets in the communities concerned. Essen Parks Department has in the meantime refinanced the GRUGA Park in Essen with the help or some 60 collaborating partners and by charging admission and draws in its public in Essen with plenty of new events at regular intervals. For example they come to take part in a rare plants exchange or to visit the show garden. The well groomed dahlia garden is also a popular attraction. Most importantly, this takes places in a climate zone today, which has proved its worth in enhancing the quality of the town as a spa. In the park grounds "Kur vor Ort e.V." has opened the Blumenhof, which offers health-related products. This brings Essen bang up to date! With their ideas of how to get the best further use out of the former National Garden Festival grounds the parks management is already proving to the City the value of green spaces. Today this city on the Ruhr is one of the three greenest cities in Germany.
Dieter Fuchs, a colleague and Head of the Parks and Gardens Department in Bonn, which gives him responsibility for the Rheinaue Park of 1979, reported on his experiences with major events: each year the open air concert, "Rheinkultur", with up to 200,000 visitors, is staged there. His lecture offered plenty of practical tips, for example he described in detail his solution for constructing paths: he paves paths leading to the exhibition area in the park parallel to grass pavers; this makes it possible to avoid delivery vehicles damaging the grass by supply vehicles and the aesthetics do not suffer. He is also convinced that it is essential to lavish constant care on maintaining and refreshing green spaces. This task cannot be accomplished without cost and must be granted a guaranteed financial budget from the outset by the local authority. Security measures against vandalism, sensible contracts with event organisers and support for the policy from the infrastructure on a clearly formulated basis contribute to this.

Unique features and good marketing help

Diethild Kornhardt, who manages the Volkspark Bornstedter Feld Park, has laid good foundations for the future of the park by encouraging tenants from outside and other cooperating partners to install new attractions. In the Volkspark Bornstedter Feld Park, which is a popular outing for families, there is a football school, a youth circus, party gardens and a beach volley ball area. The fact that several branded events could be established there, has definitely contributed to the park's high degree of consumer acceptance. Through publicity campaigns, appealing especially to young people and families, she has created a unique fresh image for the park. Every year since it was founded in 2002 the visitor figures have increased: in 2010 370,000 people came and enjoyed the relaxing greenery. Diethild Kornhardt does not omit to mention that development work on the theme "The Value of Green Spaces" has contributed to the cultivation of Bornstedter Feld. Annual cutbacks in the budget resources threaten to cause deficiencies in the maintenance programme, which will be difficult to recover from. The constantly rising infrastructure needs cannot be met because of the limited funds available. She recommends anyone operating a park to negotiate a base figure with the local authority for maintenance and development of the concept of finding further ways of using the park.

Management, legal structures and finance must be settled in advance

Christoph Schmidt, Director of GrünBerlin GmbH gave a lecture on the park management of the Britzer Garten of 1985, which incorporated a new conceptual design for long-term care and development: incidentally, a survey among the population revealed their wish that the park's basic structures and surroundings should be kept. Originally it was planned to have an extensive biotope area and great stretches of meadows subsequent to the Garden Festival. However the success of the National Garden Festival increased the pressure to maintain a high quality free space. It is true that now there are fewer annual plants, but a total of some 85% of the old Garden Festival site including the areas planted with perennials and theme gardens are available to the people of Potsdam. To protect the quality of the site it is surrounded by a perimeter fence and visitors pay a nominal 50 cents towards its upkeep. The success of this still very popular and well-groomed park is due to an extensive demolition programme and the conversion of the remaining buildings, a reduction in staffing, competitive and well managed external contractors and the fact that, because of the special status of GrünBerlin GmbH, they have control on how the earnings are spent; additionally they launched a targeted marketing campaign.

Host a National Garden Festival once – host National Garden Festival again and again.

This was the question put by Deutsche Bundesgartenschau-Gesellschaft mbH (DBG) to their lecturer, municipal landscape gardener and Director of Stadtgrün Dortmund. And his answer was a surprise: during the practical forum he announced that he and the Mayor were already in discussion about organising another German National Garden Festival. In Dortmund everyone knows how important greenery is for the town - 49% of the town given over to green spaces speaks for itself. Westfalenpark, which has already hosted three National Garden Festivals, is one of the most important factors in the value Dortmund sets on leisure. Green spaces dissipate the prejudice about the “grey Ruhr landscape". A new National Garden Festival always links with renovation of the park and innovative new attractions: in 1991 teaching and learning facilities were established, such as the Nature Protection House, the Rainbow House, the German Cookery Book Museum, the VEW Solar Energy House and the Public Observatory. Through its constant "renewal” Westfalenpark has significantly increased the attractiveness of Dortmund as a residential and industrial location. A future National or International Garden Festival, with the inclusion of the Romberg Park and the Botanical Gardens - near Phoenix Park and the Emscher Valley - will play to the demographic development of the future: young people are looking for local recreational areas in the centre; old people do not want to be isolated on green meadows. Johannes Blume sees great potential in the Bürgerpark. Cologne also expects that another National Garden Festival will lead to the expansion of the "Green Corridor South", including the Peace Park and the site of the Großmarkt - if the politicians have set course towards that port, as Dr. Bauer of the Cologne Parks and Gardens stressed.

National Garden Festival supports conservation of ancient monuments

The Schwerin National Garden Festival offers a good example of how the restoration of a Baroque garden can be achieved through the medium of a Garden Festival and its subsequent use. Stefan Wenzel, Ministerial Advisor in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Ministry for Transport, Construction and State Development gave a lecture on the cooperation between authorities and tendering firms, between the BUGA Gesellschaft, the city and the conservation authority when the Schlossgarten was renovated to become the central exhibition site in accordance with Peter Joseph Lennés's plans. Schwerin's Schlossgarten was given a new bank reinforcement, its water regime was organised, the weirs were automated and the canals desludged. Lines of sight were cleared, new shrubbery planted and the splendour of the Baroque castle could once more be seen in its original form and surroundings. Meanwhile the Schwerin Gartensommer (Schwerin Garden Summer) became established, a festival which takes place between May and September and which takes forward the Bundesgartenschau's (BUGA) tradition and invigorates the tourist industry in Schwerin.

The Garden Festival is an attractive ambition - but is it durable?

Dieter Hütte, director of TMB, Tourismus-Marketing Brandenburg GmbH shared his experiences of two National and 4 Regional Garden Festivals with his colleagues in Bonn. The upshot is that with an overarching design concept as regards urban development, which not only affects the clearing or creating of green spaces, but also means massive investment in the tourist infrastructure, towns and cities can transform themselves - even medium sized towns and old regional metropolises can be rediscovered as tourist destinations. The positive spirit of a National Garden Festival is sustainable - particularly when integrated into subsequent Theme Years, for example Kulturland Brandenburg. Dieter Hüttes recommends that the benchmark for the planning should be urban development issues, which improve the quality of the whole location for tourists. Plans for subsequent use for tourist purposes must be fundable. Impulsive plans only work via a network of local and regional service providers. Towns and cities without a relevant tourist image and without marketing budgets find it difficult in the period after the Garden Festival to maintain its profile in the long term. It does not matter whether a park is supported by the Parks Department or community associations - financial commitment must be guaranteed before the subsequent use of the site.

Improve your image with an award

In order to sharpen the citizens' awareness of the value of green spaces and in order to support the parks with marketing, every two years the Deutsche Bundesgartenschau-Gesellschaft mbH, (DBG) in Bonn awards a prize for outstandingly sustainable use of a park. Cologne was awarded the prize in 2007 and Essen in 2010, as Jochen Sandner, Director of the DGB explained. The competition conditions lay down strict application criteria: the prize is awarded for the creation of high quality urban development areas, a gain in valuable green spaces, positive economic and tourist development and the maintenance of urban green spaces in a particularly good condition. The competitors are judged by a supervisory panel and the DBG. Most certainly some of the guests, who met after the event on the roof of the Bonn Federal Arts and Exhibition Hall in the Liebermann Garten, will respond to the invitation to enter the competition. Garden design and art in gardens offered ideas for exchange - perhaps these will be the themes for the next DGB Practical Forum.
The new format of the event has proved to be a valuable platform for discussion and because of the demand for a more workshop-type format and more time for exchanging views and experiences it will be tried again in 2013 in Bonn and will alternate with next year's DBG Forum.