District Park “Linden-Süd” in Hanover, Germany Reviving the heart of Hanover’s Linden-Süd, this 2.6-hectare park is a true community triumph! From 2009-2011, locals, city planners, and landscape architecture students teamed up in a bottom-up effort to reimagine this green gem. With €1.9 million approved and a promise to keep citizens involved, the park bloomed into a vibrant space. By 2019, it boasted Hanover’s first skate pool, a flow area, and even a basketball court popular with everyone—girls, guys, skaters, and inliners alike. Today, it’s a buzzing hub of activity, uniting people from all walks of life and proving what a neighborhood can achieve together!
DistrictPark “Linden-Süd” in Hanover, Germany
Everyday Landscape created in a bottom up process
on the example of the district park “Linden-Süd”in Hanover
How do you manage to start a revitalization project of an urbanpublic space in your district? And how do you manage to stay involved duringthe whole planning process?
These questions move more and moreinto focus in the citizenship of Germany. One example of a consistent succededbottom up process for an everyday landscape project is the district Park“Linden-Süd” in Hanover.
Hanover is the capital of the federalstate lower Saxony with around 550.000 citizens in the north of Germany. The districtpark featured here is with 2.6 hectare the largest public green space in thevery densely built up and multicultural district called “Linden-Süd”. This parkalso is located next to one of Hanovers rivers, the Ihme, which means theredesign had to meet more than recreation requirements.
The project started thanks to a bottomup process organized by a cooperation between the private district managementand Hanover`s city administration from 2009-2011. This process involved the university oflandscape architecture of Hanover as well as the citizens of the wholedistrict. By the end of 2011 the city council of Hanover provided 1.9 Mio € tostart the development, not without setting the rule to keep on involving thecitizens in the planning process as close as possible.
In the years 2013 up to 2019 the greenarea office of Hanover´s city administration was in charge of the project and managedto involve the citizens in all stages of the planning process: analysis,design, building.
From 2019 onwards the public greenspace of Hanover in general is enriched among other things by its first skatepool with a following flow area for skaters, inliners and scooters of all age andits first public basketball court which actually attracts girls as well as guysto play. But the best achievement of the revitalization of this district parkis the full day use of so many different people with such heterogeneousbackgrounds as well as a wide network to keep up the maintenance of the park.