“Bad Places” – defines spaces of urban wasteland, of landfills but also neglected parks or harmful and unfriendly traffic and infrastructure solutions. In their exhibition in AedesLand, Latz + Partner describe their approach to dealing with these places – the necessity of which goes beyond aesthetic standards in a time where we are faced with a shortage of space and yet continually create new wastelands.
“Oases” – selective interventions and special places give an answer to bad places. Primarily, this revolves around the acceptance of devastated and polluted spaces, around the qualities that even such spaces can hold and around the layers that define them and hold the potential of fascinating information. Landscape does not merely exist physically. It represents a repertoire of information which is continually interpreted and re-interpreted by the beholder. The design philosophy of Latz + Partner is rooted in the ambition of facilitating and furnishing new ideas to this process.
The exhibition focuses on two key, future-oriented projects: Hiriya, Tel Aviv and Crystal Palace Park, London. These projects, both of which are currently in the planning phase, are complemented by images of built projects, such as the blast furnace park in Duisburg, the Old Harbour in Bremerhaven and the urban transformation on the Plateau de Kirchberg in Luxembourg. Public participation is of great significance in all projects and ecological principles are innate to all of the work.
The Hiriya Landfill transformation is the result of an international design competition of 2004. A mountain of rubbish remains a mountain of rubbish – but its character is transformed and elements that once represented ugliness and contamination are now symbols of ecological renewal. The non-place becomes a usable park and an experimental field for recycling.
The new urban and landscape design for Crystal Palace Park was developed in 2006/07. Originally the first amusement and recreation park of its kind, the site provided a grand setting for Sir Joseph Paxton’s famous Crystal Palace. While historic remnants shall be preserved, mending the fragmented and dilapidated park suffering from an over-development of intrusive structures requires an aesthetic and political reorientation and public participation in the regeneration process. The Masterplan shows the vision for the park’s future.
For more projects and publications see www.latzundpartner.de
Catalogue
An Aedes catalogue was published.
With a text by Udo Weilacher
ISBN 978-3-937093-95-6
German/English
Price € 10,-
