Sports Stadium Rheinpreußen Moers-Meerbeck
The Sports Stadium Rheinpreußen Moers-Meerbecks transformed a formerly fragmented conglomerate of partly enclosed open spaces into a coherent green nucleus and active center for the neighbourhood of Meerbeck. A ring-shaped park promenade connects sports facilities, a cemetery and natural woodland to form a new public open space for the formerly barred Meerbeck district. Sports facilities were opened to the public and are now used both by sport clubs and by neighbouring citizens – they form the active heart of the Volkspark. Quieter open spaces, such as the Meerbeck cemetery, surround the sports facilities and connect them to the surrounding urban landscape.
The new park manifests itself in a central promenade ring that holds the various parts of the park together and links them to the surrounding urban quarters. Here, very different categories of open space come together: a cemetery, sports grounds for clubs, ruderal woodland, complemented by various social facilities. The conglomerate of green spaces is transformed from a barrier in the urban space with isolated, monofunctional islands of use into a networked, multifunctional open space joint. The heterogeneity of the sub-spaces is preserved in independent, clearly identifiable park modules, whose specific characters create an exciting variety of spatial impressions. Small entrance plazas with a recognizable design language emphasize the access areas on the city side.
As a central open space component, the sports park opens up a formerly closed club sports area to everyone. Wide ranges of recreational sports complement the club sports on offer here, consisting of soccer, tennis and archery. Directly adjacent to the park are a youth welfare center and a daycare center, which also use the park. The classic sports facilities of a club sports ground have been supplemented by recreational sports such as parcours, calisthenics and a pump track to introduce children and young people to sport and promote exercise. The entire park is designed to be barrier-free, meaning that a grandstand is just as accessible for visitors with limited mobility as it is for those without. All surface water in the park seeps into underground trenches and is stored for irrigation.
Since its foundation 100 years ago, the former miners' settlement of Moers-Meerbeck has been separated from the actual city center by extensive railroad lines. This spatial separation has led to a distinct identity and a strong connection between the residents, their district, and its development history, which is closely intertwined with mining and the Rheinpreußen colliery. The highly greened district, with its dense network of tree-lined streets and front gardens, consolidates in the center around the former Rheinpreußen Stadium into a conglomerate of extensive green spaces. What they share is their high social significance as important meeting places and recreational areas of the Meerbeck district. The new Volkspark embodies the values of the Volkspark concept — an accessible place for encounters, exchange, physical activity, and relaxation — and bringing these ideas into the present day. Here, the new sense of community is nurtured, and a neighborhood identity is negotiated. The Sports Stadium Rheinpreußen serves as an inclusive neighborhood center for all age groups and social milieus.
