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Chinese temple in English garden Munich

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What I had not expected from Europe 5 weeks ago when I landed in Munich, Germany, I was expecting a foreign country. What I found was not as foreign as I thought it would be. Although the buildings and city layout looked different, I could still convince myself I was in America for some reason even though nothing looked the same. The stones on the ground all followed the same arcing pattern that looked like ripples in water and many of the buildings sported pointed, orange tiled roofs. We were in the capital of Bavaria, a city with historical architecture and traditional beer gardens. The culture here was stronger and more grounded in history than my town's culture in New Jersey was, and the beer glasses here were huge. Food consisted of Sausage, sauerkraut, potato dumplings, and beef goulash. Many stores closed at 8 pm and didn't open at all on Sundays. Everything you needed in town from the Apoteke to the grocery store was within a 15 minute walk and bike lanes could be found on every road. The public transportation system was excellent and always on time. The parks and gardens here were more accessible than they were back in America and the landscape in general was more beautiful and better preserved. But with all of these differences I did not feel that far away from home, many because I had come with a group of 15 American students from my University that I was almost always with. English was also widely spoken here and I hadn't faced many communication barriers. I think after the first two weeks here I realized that the major contributing factor to me feeling so at home here were the people I was with and the ease of communication with each other, even if we couldn't always talk freely with everyone we met. When we moved to Düsseldorf, we saw a fashionable side of Germany that had not been as apparent in Munich. While nothing was so different, subtle differences in color an atmosphere made a big change. Old churches were showcased with larger plazas to enhance the cultural environment and restaurants playing popular music along the Rhine river gave the city a youthful energy. While we had visited bars in Munich, dusseldorf was the first time in Germany I got to go to a popular outdoor hangout and then a small club. I enjoyed the drinks here more than in Munich, as they were in smaller glasses but had darker more flavorful beer. One thing that had surprised me when I was there though was that the guys we had met considered Bavaria to have a different culture than other states in Germany (dusseldorf is in north Rhine Westphalia), and Dortmund to have practically no culture at all. When they found out we were visiting Dortmund next they were surprised and asked us why we were going there, but we had not yet learned the reason. When we arrived in Dortmund, I realized it looked a lot like New Jersey suburbs even if not everything looked exactly the same. That was when I began to think the guys in Dusseldorf might be right. My town in New Jersey had zero interesting history behind it, or so I thought at the time. And Dortmund looked more like New Jersey than anything we had seen so far because the buildings were farther apart and the tram rides between different parts of the Ruhr region took us by tons of empty looking areas (by empty I mean neither developed nor agricultural/green space). The city was not as polished as Munich or Dusseldorf and there was nothing Baroque here like the historical elements we had seen in places we visited before. We also noticed a high population of immigrants and homeless people since as we later found out unemployment was a big problem in Dortmund. But while it looked rough at the surface, we soon learned about Dortmund's rich history from planning board meetings, museums, and the Emscher Engineering firm. Dortmund's culture was not a diamond in the rough, but rather like a piece of coal that had to be mined for and then purified. We soon found out that since 800 Dortmund had been an important trading town in the Hanseatic merchants League in the Holy Roman Empire. And in the 1800s it became an important industrial town for coal mining and steel manufacturing. It had only recently fallen into abandonment after World War II when industries moved their bases to countries with cheaper resources and labor. This breathed new life into the plain looking Ruhr region, especially when we learned about the pollution effects from the industrial days and the municipal governments new efforts to clean up Dortmund and reconnect the landscape to its cultural and historical past. We also found that despite the instinctively unattractive signs of disuse and unemployment that the city tries to hide, Dortmund also boasts wide swaths of beautiful agricultural land and green space that nobody knows about. The planning board is currently trying to figure out a way to showcase these areas while creating new green developments along the river Emscher as well as between residential areas and post industrial parks to connect the city to its culture. My favorite park in the area, Landshaftpark in Duisburg Nord shows that with some maintenance and care, even an abandoned steel factory can become a family friendly community gathering center. When we moved to Berlin, we learned more about the history of Germany after World War II and the development of cities being rebuilt after destruction from the war. Because Berlin was capital of Germany, it suffered major damage from bombing as well as alterations to the city layout during the rebuilding period due to influences from the Soviet Union, America, Britain, and France. We saw two different takes on an ideal society in Berlin, one from the Soviet/socialist point of view and one from the western/free market point of view. While I made an earlier post about the finer differences in the re-construction of each half of Berlin, the main takeaway was that both governments viewed their community as the perfect post war city despite major differences. The juxtaposition of these different cultures highlighted the differences of man's many ideologies. Unfortunately, while some enjoyed the East German GDR, many citizens did not since the german revolution in 1919 called for the establishment of a democratic parliament. While the GDR claimed to be democratic, in reality only the socialist party had any real power and many citizens reacted to this by attempting to leave the state. The situation got ugly when the GDR constructed a wall around West Berlin to prevent east berliners from migrating and at least 136 people died trying to get across it. When the wall finally came down in 1989 and Germany was reunified in 1990 when the four occupying nations renounced their power, the history of the wall and World War II lives on in the form of monuments. This is a very important aspect of the Berlin landscape, as the city would not be nearly as compelling if it the history had been whitewashed the the landscape had been constructed over these elements. During our final class discussion about what we learned in Germany, the topic of historical preservation in New Jersey came up. We realized that compared to Germany, New Jersey does not highlight its rich history to the point where many Americans do not know their history at all. I strongly believe this is because in America history only exists in textbooks and museums so that young people growing up feel that the information they are learning only relates to the past. This is not true and our present day communities constantly being effected by the decisions our ancestors made in our past. Another reason historical landscapes in New Jersey are lacking is because of the lack of priority for land preservation in our municipal zoning boards. While in Germany land preservation is a major concern, this is not the case in New Jersey and developers often build new malls or housing structures in swathes of land that could have been turned into parks or green space. While I still don't know much about where New Jersey's important historical landscapes may be, I feel like many of them may most likely have already been built over or at least altered beyond recognition. Another big takeaway I got from this trip was the concept of 4th nature and engineered nature. Now that we are living in a largely man made society, we have very few truly natural landscapes anymore. This highlights the importance even more of ecological preservation, but it does not detract from the value of man made green spaces. In a world where global climate change is leading to a rise in sea levels and an increase in stormwater, we need more vegetation to absorb stormwater so it does not flood our rivers and streets. In cities like Dortmund that are now under sea level due to man made effects (sinking due to mine shaft collapse), constant engineering of rivers and bodies of water are necessary to preserve the land. In polluted regions such as former factories and rail yards we need vegetation to heal these landscapes. And in bodies of water such as the river Emscher that have been polluted and canalized, we to renaturalize with engineered re-wilding, since the landscape of the past no longer works and will not survive here. In former biological dead zones and polluted regions, we can find 4th nature, or the succession that occurs in a man made environment. While natural succession is typically associated with repopulation after a natural disaster such as a wildfire or volcanic eruption, 4th nature occurs when vegetation resprouts in a toxic environment. This is a form of succession that has become increasingly common in recent years and is the subject of serious study. I ended up learning a lot from my 5 weeks in Germany, far more than I thought I would learn actually and more than I can fit into these blog posts since some of the information becomes hard to convey in words or even pictures. I would highly recommend traveling abroad since it has opened me to the benefits of learned from other cultures as well as from the past. While I used to never be interested in history, I now see its importance as it continues to effect us in the present as well as the future. This is a concept I had always been told in grade school but could never really understand without experiencing a culture that kept their history well preserved. I also got hands on experience during the project in Dortmund working on design ideas for a landscape park by the river Emscher and learned more about post industrial landscapes in 2 weeks than I could have learned in 2 years on my own. In short, this was an experience that I could not have replicated anywhere else.

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Top 10 Favorite places in Germany in order of which Iv seen them: 1 - Englisher Garten and Hoftgarten in Munich These gardens are one of my top favorite places in Germany because they create the feeling of being in another land outside of the city. Entering from the Hoftgarden or Court Garden, the visitor is transported to an ordered garden shaped with trimmed hedges forming spaces of grass that point toward the temple in the center. A piano plays while the view of the inner city castle is in the background. From there the English Garden comes into view with the "Harmless" statue greeting you. The motto of the park, as the first park in the continent built and dedicated to the public, is for the leisure and betterment of people to relax and mediate on their life. Designed in the style of an English Landscape Garden, clumps and belts of trees over rolling meadows form an open picturesque landscape modeled after the quality of landscape paintings. When the meadows are especially tall and then trees start to look more like an open forest than a scattering, the gardens take on a particularly enchanting feel like that in Alice and Wonderland. 2 - Riemer Park in Munich Riemer Park intrigued me for its community integration and the concept of "green fingers" that extend out into the residential areas. The community is planned with green spaces, playgrounds, and gathering spaces interwoven with impervious areas. This brings people together so that residents have places to meet each other and stormwater can be properly managed. Parking for cars is directed underground or in a parking structure near public transportation to encourage use of trains and subways instead. The area is walkable with small shops integrated with the housing developments. The park itself used to be a former airport which was completely flat, but was redesigned with "sunken gardens", continued play spaces, and an artificial hill built from the gravel excavated to create a swimming lake. The water in the lake is purified by wetlands and people can swim among fish and ducks. A planted hill overlooks the lake. 3 - Petuel Park in Munich Petuel Park was special for its goal of connecting two communities together. The green space was created by directing vehicular traffic in a tunnel underneath the park so pedestrians can access the new space. However, the effects of this improved landscape increased the price of the residential areas around it, which can lead to gentrification and an expulsion of the people the park was originally designed for. The park itself is cute and filled with little pocket spaces of varying atmospheres and activities such as playgrounds and gardens. 4 - Nymphenburg Palace in Munich The "Palace of the Nymphs" was a Baroque summer residence designed for the House of Wittelsbach when they ruled Bavaria. The castle and gardens are designed with a strong central axis that symbolizes power. A canal with symmetrical planting extends about a mile out from the castle into the landscape and visitors would approach along this walkway. This axis continues behind the castle in the garden. The garden was designed first in an Italian style, then transformed into the French style, and then later into an English garden by Sckell. Sckell did not complexly reconstruct the entire park, but rather overlaid the English garden style while preserving certain baroque elements. This is seen with the use of parterres in the design and hedges lining trees to separate the ordered gardens from the wild. However it still has a strong English garden style that can be seen with winding trails that make their way into clearings in the forest and a monopteros or Greek/Roman temple that rest in an island in a body of water. Ancient structures such as these are popular in the English garden style as they harken back to a past time. They are also beautiful, idealist features that transport you to an Arcadian landscape. This effect is created in the landscape by cutting off views to the palace and placing the monopteros so that it is visible between the trees. Artificial ruins are also used in the English style garden of palace Nymphenburg. These differ from the monopteros in that they are not built as clean, strong looking structures but are built purposefully weathered and falling apart. This is supposed to give the structure a romantic feel and mimic the passing of time to remind the viewer life is ephemeral. 5 - Castle of Benrath in Düsseldorf The pink castle, pleasure palace, of castle of Benrath is a baroque palace built for elector Karl Theordor and his wife who stayed in it all but 1 night. Painted a bubblegum pink, this palace is larger on the inside than it appear outside because it was built under fear of an uprising. The gardens of the castle of benrath follow a main axis that leads to a circular clearing with a long open channel extending in several directions. This is because the gardens were used as hunting grounds made by carving paths out of the existing forest, so that when deer wandered into the clearing they could be shot from a distance from any side. It is also another display of power over nature in the form of order and symmetry which was common of the dominant gardening style at the time. 6 - River Emscher in Dortmund The river emscher smells because it was formerly used as a open surface sewage canal. Measures have been taken to clean it up with re-wilding efforts in the 1990s after the mining and steel industries collapsed in the Ruhr region after World War II. Underground sewars are also finally being built now that the ground is more stable. Despite the smell and the unsafe quality of the water, the river emscher is becoming beautiful again due to efforts to create parks and bike routes along its path though cultural wheat fields that sparkle gold. 7 - Landshaftpak Duisburg Nord in Dortmund This is a park designed around a former steel plant after its abandonment. It is part of an effort to connect post industrial landscapes in Germany in the form of parks. It truly captures a unique atmosphere in with its enormous rusted metal structures that visitors can climb. Beautiful gardens are planted over areas with polluted soil that is sealed away with concrete. The park also highlights 4th nature, or ecological succession in a man made environment. 8 - Tiergarten Park in Berlin While Berlin has many cultural hotspots, political monuments, government buildings and embassies, and war memorials, I enjoyed the Tiergarten park because it touched many of these landscape features. The park is large and rest snugly with the Brandonberg Gate, wraps around the Victory Column, grazes the holocaust memorial, and touches both east and West Berlin. The park also has a long history. In the 1500s it was used as a hunting grounds for the elector of Brandenburg. This hunting habit shrank though as the city grew and the hunting land decreased to accommodate city growth. This soon began to transition into a forest park that connected to the city palace. Eventually in 1740, the gardens opened up to the public. In 1818, Peter Lenne transformed the baroque style gardens into a English style garden. The gardens were severely damaged in World War II, with 80-90% of the trees being destroyed. Tree donations were made to the park so it could be replanted and restored. 9 - Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam This magnificent palace was built under the French baroque style and means "without worry". It was the summer residence for Frederick the Great of Prussia among other Prussian rulers. Designed in the Rococo style, similar to the Baroque but with more delicate ornamentation, many C-shell shapes can be seen inside and outside the castle. The gardens are designed with a romantic ideal between man and nature, and both the goddess of garden fruit Pomona and the goddess of flowers Flora can be seen in the form of statues. Grapes were grown in the terraced vineyards behind the palace and many exotic fruits were grown in the greenhouse that would he served to guests as a surprise. Frederick had wanted both art and nature to be united, so he wanted both practical fruit gardens and ornamental flower gardens. Aside from being one of the most beautiful estates I had seen here, it also encompassed a variety of different styles since it was remodeled under various successors. It the gardens it includes a Chinese temple, a Roman bathhouse, and fake ruins that gives visitors the romantic illusion of "the passing of time". Many statues of Greek gods and goddesses such as Apollo god of art and Venus goddess of love can be found indoors and outdoors to enhance the feeling of carefree playfulness and mystique. Because Frederick was considered an enlightened authoritarian ruler, his palace was built with a marble thinking study that he would invite famous philosophers to do that he could receive their opinions. 10 - International Garden Exhibition in Keinbergpark in Berlin With the motto "an ocean of colors", the IGA in Berlin this year revitalized an underused green space and is bringing millions of visitors to the new space. International landscape architects and designers have collaborated to create different parklets with water features, urban designs, and traditional gardens. The "Gardens Around the World" showcase traditional gardens from countries such as Japan, Korea, and Middle Eastern countries. The park also showcases a plant exhibit, a bobsled ride, and an air gondola that transports users from one part of the park to another. In the end, while I saw many places in Germany that I loved, I am also aware I missed more than I got to see. After this first trip to Europe, I would definitely come back here again.

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Berlin - landscape architecture in a post war environment

1806-fall of the Holy Roman Empire 1815 - german confederation 1848 - revolution attempts in Rhineland, palatinate, and Bavaria 1871- german unification under Prussian empire 1919- abolishment of monarchy, adoption of democratic parliament under Weimar Republic 1933 - rise of the national socialist party 1945-abolishment of national socialist party, Germany is split up by the Big 3 (Truman, Churchill, and Stalin) in the conference of Potsdam 1949-creation of Federal Republic of Germany (west Germany) and German Democratic Republic (east Germany) 1961- creation of Berlin Wall by east Germany encircling West Berlin 1989- tearing down of wall 1990-reunification of Germany

During the Cold War times after World War II, Germany and Berlin was divided into four sections. To the east in the German Democratic Republic was the Soviet Union sector, and to the west were the American, British, and French sectors which later unified to form the federal republic of Germany.

West Germany was rebuilt with heavy American influence under the Marshall Plan with a social market economy. Architects from around the world collaborated to develop different styles and arrangements for buildings that were are built together with a push towards modernism. The community was built to be walkable and arranged around public transport with mixed used zoning with the idea that people living in their apartments could walk to a small store to buy their groceries. The International Building Exhibition showcased the different styles. The community was knit together with public green spaces that connected public amenities to residential areas.

East Germany was rebuilt under the political control of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany supported by the Stasi or secret service. East German communities were planned as what were thought of as ideal societies at the time, largely based around class structure and order. Stately “people’s palaces” with ceramic detailing were built in the form of apartment complexes organized by occupation. Buildings were highly ornamented on the outside and lined up in blocks. The apartments themselves were small so that people would be encouraged to gather in public community spaces. Mandatory service projects were also held and gardens were maintained this way.

While many enjoyed this form of “ideal society”, many others did not and sought to escape due to the “economic miracle” in west Germany. To do so, East Germans would have to be allowed to pass through the fenced and fortified Inner German Border. In Berlin, the migrations were so heavy that the east german government built a wall surrounding West Berlin to prevent East Germans from leaving. This was because before the wall was erected, East Germans could escape to west Germany by traveling from east Berlin to West Berlin and then they could travel freely from West Berlin to the rest of west Germany. The wall was officially referred to as the anti-fascist protection rampart by the GDR (East German) authorities and was not merely a wall but an entire death strip with East German patrols running along between two barriers on either side to catch escapees. At least 136 people died trying to get past the wall.

The separation of the east and west led to many cultural differences but we’re similar in the sense that both governments sought to build an ideal post war society. Tensions ran high between the two sides due to the Cold War and east Germany had heavy border control restrictions. In 1989, Hungary (an eastern bloc country) reopened its borders, and many East Germans began emigrating to west Germany and Austria via Hungary. In order to help retain east Germany as a state, the East German authority eased border restrictions. After a period of civil unrest and pressure from revolutions in other Eastern Bloc soviet influenced countries, Gorbachov ended the Cold War and the the Berlin Wall was eventually reopened and torn down.

In 1990 the four nations occupying Germany renounced their rights and gave Germany full sovereignty. Germany was reunified and Berlin was made the capital. However, this was not a creation of a new nation but rather an enlargement of the western Federal Republic of Germany. The modernization of funding for integration of east Germany is an on going project scheduled to last until 2019.

After the wall had been mostly torn down, historical preservation acts began to be passed to keep the memory of the wall alive as a part of german culture. Memorials to the wall are set up in the form of parks and educational exhibits. In other parts of Berlin the strip where the wall used to be is highlighted on the ground in the form of paving patterns or decals, sometimes with signs that pay tribute to the lives lost. In parks like Mauer Park, people are allowed to practice graffiti art where the wall stood. These measures to preserve an unhappy memory in german history now add to the culture the country has today.

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Post Industrial Germany The river Emscher flows through the Ruhr region of Germany and is a small arm of the Rhine river that flows through the town of Dortmund among other towns in the area. The history of Dortmund goes back as early as 882 when it was first mentioned in official documents, later becoming an imperial free city of the Holy Roman Empire in 1220. Located ideally near a river, it was an important trading town along the Hellwig route and a part of the Hanseatic League, an organization of german merchants. The far reaching connections made Dortmund prosperous in the 13th century. After the Thirty Years War in the 1600s and the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 by Napoleon, Dortmund's population shrank dramatically. It's economy was revived during the industrial revolution by coal and steel factories. Beginning in Britain in the 18th century, the industrial revolution began when the steam engine became widespread in factories, locomotives, water mills, and agricultural machinery. Because it was powered by coal, it led to a sudden boom of mining and coking industry during the 19th century. Coking is a process of condensing the energy of coal into a high-carbon fuel made in coke ovens in coke factories. Coke is used in the blast furnace in the process of creating steel. Steel is an iron alloy made by converting iron ores found in the earths crust into pig iron, which is then reduced in carbon content to form steel. This process involved the use of a blast furnace, fired by carbon energy from coal. The resulting steel was then used to create new railroads, ships, cars, buildings, and other appliances. The steel and coal/coke factories actually worked as one big landscape machine. When coke factories produced energy rich gas, this was given to the steel factories to fire the blast furnace. The resulting gas from the blast furnace was then given back to the coke factory to fire the ovens one more time to make more coke and energy rich gas. This efficient practice helped make Germany one of the leading industrial nations after they finally became a unified nation in 1871. Effects on the Landscape: While the industrial revolution helped turn Germany into a powerful nation, the long term effects from mining in the landscape include subsidence, urban decay, and pollution. Subsidence is ground failure at the mining level, occurring when the structure of a mine hundred of feet below the surface collapses. This causes the land mass to sink into a depression called a Poulder and can create structural cracks in buildings above ground. Because of this, Dortmund is sitting in a giant poulder below sea level and is under constant engineering maintenance and water pumping to keep the city from flooding. After World War II, Germany lay in ruins. It was rebuilt mainly under influence from America and the Soviet Union, but industry was not the same as it was before the war. Nearing the turn of the century, countries began focusing less on engery from coal and steel factories slowly began losing jobs as competition from factories in other nations for cheaper steel increased. This left numerous brownfields and abandoned factories across the nation. The third major effect on the landscape was pollution. Germany (like New Jersey) has numerous abandoned industrial sites ranging in pollution severity from mildly polluted railroad tracks to more highly polluted steel factories. This means the soil and all plant material sprouting from the soil can be unsafe in these areas. Another big change to the landscape is the effect on the waterways. Due to ground instability from the mining industry, underground sewage pipes were made impossible because the would burst and flood the land with disease infested waters. To solve this problem, the river Emscher was turned into a open water sewage canal where stormwater, runoff from factories, and sewage would all intermingle. This turned the river into a biological dead zone that is still unsafe to swim in today, though that is rapidly being changed. Solutions and aftermath: Today Germany is a nation with a good economy and a high green rating. This is largely due to efforts after the war to revitalize the community and repair damage done in the past without rewriting history or covering up mistakes. To clean up the river Emscher, coal mines have been shut down and new underground sewage pipes have been constructed to prevent further pollution of the river. Numerous rewilding efforts have been made to de-canalize and re-naturalize the river banks by removing concrete and letting the river meander, planting new vegetation along wetlands, and introducing wildlife. Being "natural" does not mean that the river Emscher does not require maintainable though. Because the landscape around it has been engineered, it will constantly need to be controlled because Dortmund will always be in danger of flooding especially with global climate change, rising sea levels, and increasing intensity of storms. To bring members of the community back to the river, green trails have been sprouting along the river in the form of bike trails, parks, and cultural land preservation areas. The preservation of agricultural landscapes is a priority in german zoning under the Federal Building Code. (The three priorities are: Noxious Industry control for use conflict between residential areas and factories, density control, and preservation of undeveloped land). We got to experience some of these landscapes on a bike tour through Dortmund by the river Emscher passing through rolling wheat fields. Germany also has two exhibitions: the IBA-Emscher Park and the IGA or International Building Exhibition and International Garden Exhibition. These organizations help to encourage economic and ecological revitalization of Germany as well as build a green community while breathing life into old industrial plants. IBA-Emscher was a movement in 1989 to 1999 to change Germany's image as a rust belt into a green nation. Despite the heavy coal and steel industry of the past, Germany has lots of open green space. However, the space is fragmented with little government investment or maintenance. The goal was to link green spaces in the form of forests, brown fields, agricultural land, slag heaps (hills made from mining waste), rail tracks, and other green spaces along the river Emscher. With public funding and support from the IBA, disused rail lines were converted into a bike trail and parks were created to preserve the industrial history of Germany. Today, parks such as Landschaftpak in Duisburg Nord allow visitors to walk through an old steel factory and interact with the structures while learning about the history of the landscape. Rather than tear town these features, Germany has chosen to convert them into public spaces. The Duisburg Nord park boasts rocks climbing, a giant metal slide, an interactive water feature, a lookout feature from the giant rusted steel structure, diving in the old gas tank, and concerts. They also planted gardens over polluted soil made safe by encasing the pollution in concrete and building a ramp for visitors to walk over. Industrial parks like this are also great sites to view and study 4th nature, which is ecological succession that occurs after the influence of man. It rides the line between natural and man made because it is not made up of the vegetation that would typically grow in a natural case of succession. Instead, these are the plants that sprouted up in polluted sites once plants were able to grow there again. The International Garden Exhibition also helps to connect green spaces in present day Germany by funding the revitalization of underused parks and spaces that have the potential to become parks. This year the show was held in Berlin and is focusing on developing green spaces on the outskirts of the city. The purpose is to enhance and drive urban development by creating community spaces for culture, recreation, and sport with innovative design. The park we visited in class called Marzahn Helleradorf had a focus on Gardens of the World that highlighted different cultural styles and accessible design in the form of a ropeway gondola system. Changes in urban design were made to encourage growth in post industrial cities such as Dortmund. We learned at a planning board meeting at the Dortmund town hall that that in order to bring back companies and restart the economy in Dortmund, planners had to focus on Dortmund's strengths which were mostly open space due to the abandonment of other industries. To make the land more palatable to investors, planners created communities that were beneficial to the support of small shops and businesses. This includes mixed-use zoning, which is when areas are zoned to include both business and different types of residential use, as opposed to just single family housing blocks. Dortmund also has a good university presence, which encourages science and education development. Soon, tech and IT companies began moving into the area, brining employees with them. Because companies like to settle where there is housing for employees, Dortmund built housing to encourage further growth. To highlight the history and scenic features in the area around Dortmund industrial monuments were preserved and parks were created in the former sites near residential spaces. In Phoenix See a lake was created in the polluted zone of a former industrial site. The pollution was mild so the water quality is good enough to support wildlife, but human activity is restricted in the lake to preserve the quality. The land excavated to create the lake was contoured into a hill and planted as a meadow. The hill overlooks the lake and a relic from the steel factory that pays tribute to the industry there before. The relic has seating place around it and serves as a cultural gathering point for the community. The area around the park is mixed use, with different housing options and small cafes, grocery stores, and retail services. Overall I was surprised at how much I learned from the city of Dortmund. Before arriving there, the opinions of the people I'd talked to in Dusseldorf were that nothing interesting was in Dortmund. Dusseldorf is considered a posh city in Germany and has a large amount of beautiful architecture. By comparison, Dortmund is not a city for tourists and is more similar to the suburbs. Because of this, I was not expecting to learn much from the city itself and figured we were only there to learn about the river Emscher. I had only discovered after arriving there that Dortmund has a rich history. It was an important trading town in 1200 and was a big factor driving the german industrial revolution in the coal and steel industry. In the grand scheme it has only recently fallen out of the spotlight. However, Germany's take on post industrial landscapes as a whole has been very different from America's and and New Jersey's attitude. In my opinion Germany's stance is better because it maintains the culture of the area rather than washing over it with new shopping malls that don't have any historical value. Germany has strongly preserved their history in the form of monuments, architecture, and parks. By comparison, New Jersey has very little to show visitors or residents. This is not because nothing happened in New Jersey, but because no importance is given to the interesting relics we have there if they haven't already been built over. One reason for this is because in America we have two zoning priorities: conflict of use between industry and residential, and density control. We do not have a focus on preserving the landscape like Germany does. In addition, the developers (building developers) have more power in NJ that the zoning board does. This is reversed in Germany and the zoning board can set regulations for building heights and setback, make green requirements, and control better what can be built on undeveloped land. In New Jersey, the developers typically have their way and turn open spaces into housing developments or shopping malls. This is partly due to pressure for more housing, but open spaces with the potential to become parks are usually not turned into community green spaces. I cannot think of the last time I have heard of a new park being opened in my county but I can point out several new malls and developments near me. I believe there are many important movements in history that can be woven into the landscape though. This is important not just for the environment, but also for educational purposes. Many American students lack interest in history and part of the reasons is a lack of different expressions. The only place history exists in our community is in textbooks because there is a great push for "new" and not a lot of encouragement for remembering the old. In grade school, history is mocked for only telling the side of the victors rather than getting every sides opinion. By working these historical moments into our landscape, we can encourage interest in the subject by showing community members and students that the long lasting impacts of their country's history effects them today and is present around them rather than just in a dense book which doesn't appeal to everyone. History of NJ condensed: History of NJ begins with the ending of the Younger Dryas period when the Wisconsin glacier recorded and Lenape or "Delaware Indians" began settling in the area. In 1524 Giovanni verrazzano sailed for the French and discovered land in New Jersey, Delaware, and New York. In the early 1600's, Dutch and Swedish colonies formed in New Jersey under the names New Netherlands and New Sweden. They co-existed with the Lenape and participated in the fur trade. Soon these colonies were overtaken by the British. It was decided that the land east of the Delaware river and south/west of the Hudson would be named New Jersey after the isle of Jersey. Growth in the colony was encouraged by allowing religious freedom and new farm land for settlers willing to come over. In 1776, NJ adopted its first constitution when the revolutionary war began. In this first constitution, unmarried women were actually allowed to vote, but not in the second constitution of 1844. The rights of other racial groups were restricted further in this constitution until only white males could vote. NJ is sometimes referred to as the "crossroads of the revolution" sometimes because it is in between New York and Philadelphia and many important battles such as Monmouth, union, Springfield, Princeton, and Trenton were fought there. During the 1800's in civil war times, New Jersey was a part of the Underground Railroad. Asbury, red bank, and long branch were some of the towns that freed slaves settled in after the war. New Jersey helped lead the United States into the industrial revolution in the 1850s. Cities such as Patterson and Newark became important manufacturing sites for textiles, silk, leather, firearms, railroad, and locomotive manufacturing. The Great Falls of the Passaic river were used as water power. Thomas Edison who worked in Menlo Park was known as "the wizard of Menlo Park" for his inventions such as the phonograph and his improvements to inventions such as the incandescent light bulb and the telephone.

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Landshaftpark Duisburg nord

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This week in Germany we spent our time in Dortmund, studying a landscape around the Emscher river for an engineering company who was seeking ideas to celebrate their revitalized landscape. Using a spectacular engineering feat to clean up the river and send sewage underground, the client made major changes to the landscape including moving the emscher river north and placing it under a shipping canal. The landscape as a whole is also a giant "poulder", a sunken depression that forms when mining shafts collapse. This puts Dortmund under sea level, so the landscape is under constant engineering control and water management. Where landscape architects come in is in continuing to mitigate stormwater levels through vegetation and permeable pavements, making the landscape inviting for people to walk through, and connecting communities by providing easy access points and green fingers into the community. The idea of green fingers is a mix of community interaction and stormwater management. Extending park space into cities keeps landscapes bio-friendly, reduces run-off and impermeable pavement, cleanses water, enhances the atmosphere, and encourages outdoor activity by linking the community to other green spaces and parks.

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Ink sketches

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Some selected pictures from Dortmund studio

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Sketches of gardens

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Rose garden

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Amsterdam

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Sketches of pink castle, English garden, and Amsterdam

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Dusseldorf and Amsterdam

06/04/2017

We’re heading to Amsterdam for our free time over the german holiday. This means we’ll have to navigate the tram, bus, and train station without the professor this time. Im worried about being able to use the bathroom during this trip because we have a tight schedule for 4 hours.

Yesterday we saw the pink castle or Pleasure Castle. It was built for Charles Theodore and his wife Elizabeth Augusta, who only actually stayed there for 2 nights. The estate was like a Barbie princess mansion built in baroque style with the original garden design still intact and persevered for its botanical and historical nature. Because of this, it is more of a living art peice than a public park. Visiting here allowed us to compare the English garden style (1800’s) with baroque style garden (1700’s).

The main differences are that the baroque is very geometric and rigidly decorated with trimmed hedges and symmetry. It is designed with a main axis and tertiary winding paths as opposed to the English garden which is designed as a sprawling landscape that emphasizes views of an expansive open landscape.

The baroque style is highlighted by its uses such as hunting grounds and orangeries. When the king and his men went hunting, they wanted long corridors that lead to open clearings so that when a deer walked by they could shoot it down from the end of the corridor. Because of this a portion is designed with radial symmetry and long pathways. In the orangerie, the garden is designed with repeating shapes and is like an orchard for orange trees in large pots.

I enjoy both styles, but I think I prefer for the English garden style for its painting-like atmosphere and free flowing design.

06/05/17

We just came back from Amsterdam, and I have to say my taste in style has probably changed. I have a new appreciation for geometric designs after visiting Vonderpark or Wonderpark and stepping out from a dark grove of trees into a rose garden planted in hexagons. I thought the English garden reminded me of Alice and Wonderland but boy did this rose garden so the trick! It was so beautiful I have begun noticing trimmed hedges with bright flowers more now.

In general, Amsterdam is a beautiful city though and is probably my favorite place iv been. Unfortunately I don’t have pictures that do it justice. But what I remember are the canals, with streets lining either side and tall slender m dutch style buildings that look like they were all constructed for the illusion of height. I later found out that past the science museum the buildings suddenly become more modern, but the area of the hostel we stayed in certainly looked like one unified time period which was very cool since most places Iv been are a mix of old and new.

The buildings themselves I found very beautiful because I enjoy the style of elongated windows that emphasize slender forms. All the buildings are tall and squeezed together with pointed roof tops, but none of them are skyscrapers. The windows are also longer on the bottom than the top, and some walls project outward a little to give a perspective illusion of added height. The decorative motifs and sculptings were also very beautiful and I found them to be more elegant than the baroque. Another thing that amazed me was that even though there was not much greenery in the city other than Vondel Park, there were still rose bushes and flowers growing out of the tiniest cracks in the pavement along buildings. They were beautiful color pops and livened up an already colorful city. Sometimes it was hard to notice the lack of green because the buildings are already painted so many bright colors.

Another note about the city layout was that the canal was huge, but the pathways small. Not only were the buildings squeezed together, but they were encroaching on the walking space too. At times there was only two feet of space, enough for a single person to walk on before you fell off into the shared bike and car lane or ran into a set of stairs for a building, or a bike rack for the thousands of bikes they had there, or ran into a bollard. A bollard is a 3 foot tall stand that is simply there to restrict movement. It’s almost like a speed bump for people. I have no idea why the streets are so tight, but at least cars and infrequent. Another interesting planning method I saw were cars parked up on 1 foot raised platforms in center lanes in larger streets. I don’t know how the cars actually got up there, but basically it would be a tiny walking lane, the car lane, a platform for parking and trees, another tiny walking lane, and then bike racks before you hit the buildings. They do a good job of doubling up spaces here but at time it can be inconvenient.

All in all, the city is beautiful, with some trailor houses plopped right in the middle of the canal, arching bridges that light up at night, and colorful buildings reminiscent of a past time. Vondel park, which was designed with the Amstel river running through it, changed my mind on designed centered around repeating shapes even though it was only one portion of the entire space. I suppose I haven’t said much describing it, but there’s not much more I can say other than it was a garden of hexagons with roses planted in them. They were just beautiful, so I will try to draw a picture of them since I didn’t take any good representative ones.

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Munich summary

We just took the train to Düsseldorf, so I figured I should go over some of my biggest "lessons learned" from Munich's landscape architecture: 1. The bike lanes must be accounted for. There is a bike lane on practically every street and rows of bikes locked up along major stopping points. 2. In certain housing developments, green corners are used to tie in plant material and gathering spaces. One development in Munich near the sunken gardens (gardens that used to be an airport), had greenery everywhere and playgrounds every few blocks. Instead of parking along the streets like developments in New Jersey, they would park either under the building or in parking structures located near the U-ban/public transportation. 3. The main modes of transportation are U-ban (subway), train, tram, bus, and bike. 4. In Germany, the municipality has the power over the development. They seek highest earning businesses that create lots of jobs because the government can tax these earnings to devote towards a fund for town improvements. Germany can set more stringent rules such as the exact distance the building is set back and whether or not greenery such as green roofs are required. 5. A good way to connect neighborhoods is to create a park between them and send traffic in a tunnel under it. We saw an example of this in Peutol park. Two communities were brought together with a green gathering space that also raised the value of housing in the area. 6. Canalizing rivers can be tricky. On one hand it gives you control of the water flow to prevent flooding in a city of garden space, but canalizing the river can also be bad. When wetlands are replaced with concrete, the water becomes dirtier because nothing is purifying the water. Canalizing also increases the speed of water flow, deepening the channel and increasing erosion. It also decreases biodiversity. In the river Isar some measures were taken to naturalize the river after it had been canalized to counteract these effects. 6. Contouring can shorten or lengthen a landscape. Artificial hills can be constructed as an artistic element and can add to an environment by creating a view up to it as well as a view out of it when you reach the top. 7. Allium is pretty popular here. 8. There are several landscapes built over gravel soils and it stops trees from reaching their full heights and lifespans. Hills can be constructed from it too. 9. The grid is big in Germany (especially in Düsseldorf from what I've seen so far) 10. Important places get wide streets (like the royal residence). Power came with geometry and order in the old days so the Nuremberg castle in Munich has a long symmetrical axis with a river that leads to the castle. This continues in the back in the gardens. This is the baroque style of strict order with rigid parterres and sharp hedging like in Versailles. This fell out of favor around 1800 when the English country garden style became popular with its idealist natural feel with soft meadows and scattering of soft trees that create and endless escape feel. 11! I need to learn more history...

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Nymphenburg castle in Munich designed in the baroque period with a French garden modeled after Versailles, then redesigned in the early 1800s by Sckell to become an English landscape garden. (Photos are from when I visited yesterday I don't know what the French garden looked like)