Prototyping a Park—Landscape Design of Jubileumsparken in Gothenburg, Sweden

Abstract

The design of Jubileumsparken in Gothenburg, Sweden runs on two parallel tracks—a permanent park will be completed and opened in late 2021, and before that a series of temporary parks and installations had been set up during several public workshops since 2014. The gradual evolution of the site allows ecosystems to adapt and invites the public to leave their imprint on the park through not only directly building and planting, but even more importantly, indirectly voicing their interests and desires which impacts the final design of the permanent park. With a focus on the existing fragile ruderal and coastal ecosystems, as well as the socio-cultural heritage of the site, a 1:1 scale landscape laboratory—the Shoreline Park—was built up together with the public. It allowed for testing new materials, work methods, planting and maintenance techniques that would then be used in the permanent Play & Learn Park. The design process also highlights the need for a closer collaboration between landscape architects and maintenance staff to achieve the sustainability goals and the aesthetic value of the park over a longer period, as well as the importance of landscape architects’ continuous involvement in park maintenance and the use of digital tools. The project also adopted geotechnic infrastructure to create a gently sloping wetland and proposed a mixed planting plan of indigenous species, natural succession and exotics to address climate change, and to create preconditions for high biodiversity even in the long term. Through such prototyping and testing, the wider public, maintenance staff, and experts got engaged in this project, which initiated a dialogue about the persistence in landscape between urban ecosystems, wildscapes, and aesthetics.

Keywords

Harbor Regeneration / Place Building / Urban Ecosystems / Evolutive Design Process / Urban Greenspace Maintenance

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2021 Higher Education Press