Over the course of some decades Berlin has developed a much-noted idea of urban nature that represents a development of its own kind. Its distinctiveness is worth investigating and elucidat- ing, also as a stocktaking of the achievements of this development. Taking interest in Berlin’s urban structure is nothing new; individual examples of its open spaces and diverse landscape architectures have been the subject of much debate both among experts and within the city itself. However, the particularity of Berlin’s landscape culture appears to transcend individual signature projects, and to have extensive cultural and disciplinary ramifications. It therefore merits to regard the individual open spaces as constituents of a broader culture of public space. Harking back to movements of the late 1970s, critical towards modernist urban developments, Berlin saw – convergingly – the founding of urban ecology, the participatory involvement of informed and involved citizens, and a spatial practice in landscape architecture aligned with urbanism, architecture and art. In pairing with the successive dramatic geopolitical openings of the 1990s, a substantial quantity and quality of landscape projects have been realized, recon- firming and enhancing the city’s specific entanglement with its urban nature. Developed from a fresh and panoramic view on an extensive number of landscape projects since that period, and a discursive research into a contextual reading of these projects, the 2022 Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens of the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche was awarded to the Natur Park Schöneberger Südgelände as a seminal reference project. The findings on its ontology and out- reaching reverberations laid base to an anthological publication that is to serve as invitation for further research. The presentation introduces a contextual reading of individual projects and of the confluences that since the initiating developments have fostered trans-disciplinary coopera- tion, now considered indispensable in reenforcing the city in the face of current challenges.
Over the course of some decades Berlin has developed a much-noted idea of urban nature that represents a development of its own kind. Its distinctiveness is worth investigating and elucidat- ing, also as a stocktaking of the achievements of this development. Taking interest in Berlin’s urban structure is nothing new; individual examples of its open spaces and diverse landscape architectures have been the subject of much debate both among experts and within the city itself. However, the particularity of Berlin’s landscape culture appears to transcend individual signature projects, and to have extensive cultural and disciplinary ramifications. It therefore merits to regard the individual open spaces as constituents of a broader culture of public space. Harking back to movements of the late 1970s, critical towards modernist urban developments, Berlin saw – convergingly – the founding of urban ecology, the participatory involvement of informed and involved citizens, and a spatial practice in landscape architecture aligned with urbanism, architecture and art. In pairing with the successive dramatic geopolitical openings of the 1990s, a substantial quantity and quality of landscape projects have been realized, recon- firming and enhancing the city’s specific entanglement with its urban nature. Developed from a fresh and panoramic view on an extensive number of landscape projects since that period, and a discursive research into a contextual reading of these projects, the 2022 Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens of the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche was awarded to the Natur Park Schöneberger Südgelände as a seminal reference project. The findings on its ontology and out- reaching reverberations laid base to an anthological publication that is to serve as invitation for further research. The presentation introduces a contextual reading of individual projects and of the confluences that since the initiating developments have fostered trans-disciplinary coopera- tion, now considered indispensable in reenforcing the city in the face of current challenges.
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