Temporary promenade

Careful mediation between the different stakeholders and a thorough usage analysis thus were the basis for the task at hand. Concentrating the interfaces between land and water relevant for harbor operations in one area allowed for the 1.300 m long security fence to be reduced to 200 m, making 98 percent of the waterside accessible. The arrangement of the new promenade plays with the conflicting fields of urban and industrial dimensions and conceptionally realizes the themes of the harbor – storing, rearranging, stacking.

The three now obsolete rail tracks at the waterfront become the backbone of the promenade. Filled with a waterbased pavement they function as a slow traffic axis. Here and there, gaps in the pavement allow for spontaneous vegetation with herbage and wild flowers. Seating furniture made of wooden pallets and vegetated recycled industrial metal containers structure the belt-shaped allotment. The selection of plants in the containers, undemanding pioneer plants like poplar and birch trees on an understory of fountain grass, a typical garden plant, converts the containers into a vegetal link between the space of the harbor and the landscaped exterior. The seating furniture and planted containers provide the atmospheric frame of the interim usage and accentuate the curved waterline. As mobile basic equipment, these elements adapt to the changing requirements of the interim usage and can be moved. Because change is the creative constant during this period.