Published by Actar Publishers, New York, Barcelona Editor OFICINAA, Silvia Benedito, Alexander Häusler Editorial coordination OFICINAA, Silvia Benedito, Alexander Häusler Texts OFICINAA, Silvia Benedito, Alexander Häusler Contributors Andres Lepik, Günther Vogt, Renate Preßlein-Lehle, Simone Schimpf Graphic design and digital production Siena Scarff Design
Copyediting Jake Starmer Printing Longo AG, Bozen ISBN: 9781945150180 PCN: 2016946854 A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., USA All rights reserved © of the edition, Actar Publishers (2016) © of the texts, OFICINAA, Silvia Benedito, Alexander Häusler, Andres Lepik, Günther Vogt, Renate Preßlein-Lehle, Simone Schimpf © of the designs, drawings, illustrations and photographs, unless otherwise noted: OFICINAA, Silvia Benedito, Alexander Häusler © of the photographs, pp. 48, 49, 50|51, 108, 109, 110|111, 136, 140|141 by Hubert Klotzeck © of the photographs, pp. 98|99, 112, 113, 115, 118, 137, 142, 143, 144|145, 146 by Jann Aversweser © of the historic illustrations and photographs provided by each respective institution on the corresponding captions (publication dates included in captions) Distribution Actar D, Inc. New York 355 Lexington Avenue, 8th Floor New York, NY 10017 +1 212 966 2207 salesnewyork@actar-d.com Barcelona Roca i Batlle 2 08023 Barcelona, SP +34 933 282 183 eurosales@actar-d.com This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in data banks. For any kind of use, permission of the copyright owner must be obtained.
Landscape Tunings
Photographs Hubert Klotzeck, Jann Aversweser
An Urban Park at the Danube
Silvia Benedito + Alexander Häusler
Flowing through ten countries, the Danube (Donau) River is one of the most international waterways in the world. Regardless of its scale, economic output, and ecological relevance, the Danube acts as a cornerstone for civic interaction while “touching” numerous urban fabrics. Landscape Tunings examines the design potentials of the Danube River as a civic anchor, a microclimatic infrastructure, and a space for collective imagination in the city of Ingolstadt (an der Donau), Germany. This exploration first unpacks the city’s littoral history with video-essays, drawings, walks, public installations, and exhibitions—each spotlighting the space where the city meets the Danube’s edge. It then showcases the bottom-up and tactical design approaches of the Stadt Park Donau | Donau-Loop proposal in the present challenges of the anthropogenic era. Initiated in 2012, the Stadt Park Donau | Donau-Loop project resulted from a three-year design study in collaboration with the communities in the city. It aimed at fostering the spatial embodiment of the littoral environments and steering the civic and ecological benefits of the riverbanks. Rather than a totalizing approach, the design emerged as a series of specific tunings, linked by a multimodal pathway—the Donau-Loop—along the river’s edge. The loop connects smaller spatial interventions, creating new places that are designed for play, sports and restful reverie, as the visitor is immersed into the distinct environments of the river. Ultimately, Landscape Tunings leverages the potential of the riverbank as “thick” space, designed for economic, environmental, and social wellbeing. The Stadt Park Donau | Donau-Loop project was exhibited at the Museum of Concrete Art and Design in Ingolstadt during the summer of 2014. The exhibition shared the multiple scopes and scales of the design, inviting the public to envision the Danube’s inherent beauty as a spatial component in the urban fabric of one the fastest growing cities in Germany.