The planned green connection of the ‚Alster-Bille-Elbe Grünzug‘ (Alster-Bille-Elbe green corridor), which is currently being planned and implemented by the Authority for the Environment, Climate, Energy and Agriculture (BUKEA), will perspectively connect the Alster and Elbe beyond the asphalted roads. The transformation of the former recycling yard in Hammerbrook located within it between the river Bille and the Bullerdeich, as well as the connection of the adjacent (green) spaces have been part of a processual and collaborative design since 2019 – PARKS.

PARKS is a programmatic push in a new direction – a collective negotiation of what public space can be, a new way of thinking, planning, designing, using public green spaces and thus creating new practices of collaborative planning. The project is initiated and supported by the many neighbours, local associations, artists and representatives of the commissioning Ministry for the Environment and Energy and the administrative district office of Hamburg Mitte, as well as numerous supporters and visitors. The initiation year 2019 was implemented together with these actors in a programme of planning workshops, structural interventions, walks, cultural events and gardening activities. In the following years, the space has continued to transform and change together with those who use it. 

The possibility of a process that would have a lasting influence on urban planning, bringing together the interests of the immediate neighbourhood, other stakeholders and municipal representatives, encouraged the PARKS team to take on the public space. Ideally, a model project of collaborative open space planning will emerge from the joint negotiation, which will think of cultural and green spaces, their use and caring communities as belonging together and continuously negotiate what public spaces and especially parks mean for an urban society and how they are produced.

More information at: www.parks-hamburg.de