District Park and Green Belt South Landau

The district park is the central green space of the Ebenberg residential park. Inspired in part by the tectonics of the Rhine Rift Valley, the park in the former barracks area comprises a varied topography of tilted lawns and broken edges, along which the borders fold up to form long seating areas. The central element of the park is a wide water basin acting as an urban hinge in the transition area between the square and the park. As the final segment of the park topography, it rises up to 55 cm above the ground. The lush water garden contrasts with the calmness of the water surface, where a central, accessible wooden deck allows visitors to lounge. To the west, the park is enclosed by a sparse grove of trees comprising a triple row of gleditschias. Lawn and waterside promenade areas extend under the canopy of leaves and offer shady spots at which to linger and a variety of play opportunities for a wide range of age groups. An expansive children’s playground with a fountain area completes the park in the west, while in the south the wine shop with its wide outdoor terrace and wine garden forms the spatial conclusion.

The Green Belt South forms an important buffer zone between the city of Landau and the Ebenberg nature reserve. The renaturated and dynamised Birnbach tributary becomes the design backbone of this landscape buffer. The landscape axis penetrates this buffer zone and connects the nature reserve to the city. The Birnbach integrates into the landscape axis and draws the visitors’ attention. Direct contact with the river bank is made possible at individual stations such as jetties and nature experience areas. Landscaped stairs lead from the river bank to the plateau of the lookout tower, which completes the landscape axis while offering a view onto the nature reserve. For the horticultural show, the “Südpfalzgärten” (Southern Palatinate Gardens) reflects the sequence of the Rhine plain cultural landscape from forest, then from wine, tobacco, fruit and vegetables and finally to industry on the banks of the Rhine. Model biotopes with dry stone walls and communities of dry grass reference the rich biotopic structure of the cultural landscape. To the north of the railway tracks, Landau’s “Gärten der Partnerstädte” (Gardens of the Twin Cities) invoke the diverse interconnections inherent to an international metropolitan region.