Design Strategies for Using Common Local Vegetation to Revaluate Unused Space in Shrinking Cities

Due to societal and economic changes, residential tower blocks

with approximately two million apartments are currently being

demolished in the former Eastern Germany. The owners are unable

to change the status of these empty areas from built to open space

because this would produce a huge loss in property value. Thus, the

new empty spaces do not automatically mean an improvement in

terms of ecological or open space quality.

Future proposals for these spaces have to guarantee flexibility and

need to take extremely low maintenance budgets into consideration.

By investigating a design- and user-oriented utilization of common

local plants, the research project aims to combine the interests

of conservationists as well as the interests of users and property

owners – an approach which connects ecological, economic and aesthetic

demands. The tentative options for the development of the

empty spaces call for process-orientated strategies.

  • Title Original : Verwendung gebietseigenen Pflanzenmaterials zur gestalterischen Aufwertung ungenutzter Flächenpotenziale in besiedelten Räumen
  • Website : http://www.ila.uni-hannover.de/en/tala/research/thirdparty_grants/
  • Project start : 0000
  • Project end : 2008
  • Contact Person : Prof. Dr. Norbert Kühn; Prof. Dr. Martin Prominski
  • Funding Agency : German Federal Foundation for the Environment (DBU)
  • Image Title : Too much open space in Wolfen-Nord