Dr. Harald Kegler -
www.regionalpark-mitteldeutschland.net
The Regional Park Central Germany is a vision for the laying-out of a European
Region. It combines the protection and development of a space between two
metropolitan settlement areas: Berlin/Potsdam and Leipzig/Halle. The regional
park is an example and a possible model for a prospective shaping of the
urbanized cultural landscape, the ”Regional City“, as it exists similarly all
around the world.
By creating a balance between the utilization and the preservation of resources,
the regional park provides the opportunity to the communities, districts,
companies, associations or citizens’ initiatives involved in its shaping to
preserve and develop a vitality of the region as the basis to keep place in
global competition.
The regional park gives the chance to get under control the spreading ”sprawl“,
the progressing spoilage of the landscape by the indiscriminate spread of
detached-house settlements of low density , shopping centers as well as
industrial and infra-structural facilities, i.e. it is an alternative to the
developing, culturally equalized, economically and ecologically one-sided
“intermediate city” of amorphous design.
By the vision of a regional park, the opportunity is given to overcome
administrative limitations which have become obstructive for long, to modernize
hierarchic structures of an outdated land-use system, and to make cooperation
the basic moment of development while respecting individual interests.
In a “Europe of Regions“, spatial fusions according to the principle of
voluntary participation are an inevitable prerequisite of prosperity and
stability. The regions need a relevant size and a specific cultural as well as
infra-structural connection, as it is offered in the Regional Park.
Recently regional parks have been laid out in several areas of Europe under
different synonyms. There is an obvious trend to informal cooperation as the
basis for the preservation and development of resources. So the Regional Park
Central Germany is a prototype of this tendency.
The region shows the social wealth as the optimum space of resources: culture,
economy, social issues, nature.
In the Regional Park Central Germany, these resources are found in the form of a
compound of different landscapes – from south to north:
• the large landscapes after mining in the southern area from Leipzig to Halle
as future ”second-hand“ recultivated areas
• the urban and suburban settlement areas of the cities of Leipzig and Halle as
a developing spatial and functional continuum – a metropolitan focus of city
culture, of education and media development and future-oriented industries
• the northern area of Leipzig as the prosperous zone with all elements of an
internationally active region with trade fair, airport, new trades and
industries – a European traffic turntable
• an ecological and socio-cultural “place of rest“ in the area of the Natural
Park Dübener Heide, a precious natural and cultural landscape for tourism and
new services
• the experimental landscape area “Industrial Garden Realm“ with projects of the
”artificial landscape“ Goitzsche and the new industrial town Bitterfeld/Wolfen,
the historic garden realm – the exemplary reform landscape of the 18th century,
the Bauhaus-City Dessau and the Reformation City Wittenberg – with architectural
experiments to preserve resources, parts of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Elbe
River Landscape, and – as the highlight – the “City of Iron – Ferropolis” as a
symbolic project for a creative handling of resources by the strict recycling of
materials, energy and knowledge
• the spacious Nature Park Fläming and the Baruth Glacial Valley – a reservoir
for water supply, for forestry and agriculture, for the culture of small towns
and for experiencing nature – the ”place of rest“ for Berlin
• the suburban “prosperous belt“ of Berlin/Potsdam – a buffer zone with new
industrial and housing areas
• the Potsdam Cultural Landscape of the 19th century with old and new landscapes,
areas for the media and events
• the city of Potsdam and the metropolitan area of Berlin
Summing up:
The informal designing elements of the Regional Park Central Germany as a model
for a new, preserving handling of resources, fostering competition at the same
time, are:
- the “corridor“ as an open connecting, planning and cooperation space for the
development of different individual spaces
- the “networks“ as combinations of several actors on different levels for
cooperative competition
- the “projects“ as the impulse generators of development – model projects as
fields for experiments and standard providers for a new way of handling the
resources for the whole region
A new relationship between formal (hierarchic and legally binding) and informal
(preparatory, self-organized, open and oriented) planning is practized in the
regional park. The tight interlocking of these ways of planning provide for the
optimum development and preservation of the resources.
This regional park is an economical, ecological and cultural “corridor of the
future“. By forming the different peculiarities of the partial areas of the
regional park, their interweaving and further creative shaping, a new
development structure arises – by competition with each other and with other
regions: the regional park is a compound of resources which extends over the
borders of four federal states, connects ecological areas and nature reserves
with expanding industrial areas, limits housing areas, and develops new usable
landscapes. It is a “Fractal“ - a reference model for a self-similar structural
development.
The regional parks keeps the metropolitan areas at distance, but connects them
at the same time. The interrelation of the utilization and preservation of
resources in the regional park offers the unique chance to achieve the balance
between growth and shrinkage, needed in future, as the basis of development. It
is the expression of a “Balanced City“ – the ”Regional City of the Future”.
Figures:
• Ferropolis – the City of Iron
• Structure of the Regional Park Central Germany