Post by Svetlana Ilicheva

🏭Day 2 in the Ruhr region: exploring UNESCO World Heritage site Zollverein and Peter Latz’s iconic Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord. Today was all about a completely new typology of territory, where landscape architecture shifts from creating something new to stewardship and maintenance of what is already there. 1. Zollverein Park: "Do less, but accompany the process" • The Masterplan Evolution: From OMA/Rem Koolhaas’s 2002 masterplan to the 2005 multidisciplinary competition, the park is a masterclass in scale. We were lucky to be guided today by our tour leader, Sascha Wieneke, who was actually part of the winning team that shaped this landscape. • Carving, Not Planting: Instead of traditional planting, the designers proposed carving the park out of the existing spontaneous vegetation and implementing a strict maintenance concept. • Stewardship & Succession: Ecosystems here rely on disturbance. To maintain biodiversity, specific areas are set back to early succession stages every 3 years. Minimal changes in topography (like creating minor depressions) completely shift habitats, creating micro-wetlands. • Extreme Substrates: 40% of the plant species here are non-native. On infertile, high-heat industrial slag, only highly adaptable species survive—some insects and plants depend entirely on these harsh, extreme conditions. • Growth through Maintenance: Since 2024, the park has its own dedicated gardening team executing this philosophy. It's about 'switching nature on and off' and accepting that when a tree dies, its replacement doesn't have to grow in the exact same spot. 2. Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord by Peter Latz • New Meanings for Old Structures: This is the ultimate example of zero demolition. Blast furnaces became viewpoints, an old gas holder was turned into a diving center, and concrete walls now serve as climbing hubs. • Cozy Courtyards & Contamination: Latz turned old industrial yards into intimate, enclosed gardens. Since the soil below was heavily contaminated, they filled the yards with clean topsoil just for the root layer, keeping the toxic material safely contained beneath. • The Signature Touch: Spotting the classic Cornus mas hedges—a distinct signature of Peter Latz's planting palette. We also ended the day checking out the pedestrian and bike bridge connection near Gehölzgarten Ripshorst, seeing how these once-isolated industrial fragments are now stitched into a massive, continuous regional green network. 🌳The core philosophy of the Ruhr region keeps proving itself: don't over-design. Real sustainability lies in strategic moderation, light touches, and letting industrial nature build its own soil. ❤️I want to wrap up with a huge thank you to our professors, Cassian Schmidt and Peter Rohler—not only for sharing their priceless expertise and teaching us on-site, but also for being awesome enough to slide down the slides with us!