Implementation of the model

Figure 1 shows the Natur Park Sudgelande today, after significant imple­mentation of the master plan. A few new elements were added to our plan­ning during the implementation phase, including additional paths and the integration of works of art in the nature park.

Access concept

Starting from the park’s main entrance at the S-Bahn station Priesterweg, a path system was developed that is based, fundamentally, on the linear structure of the earlier railyard. Here train tracks were made into paths (Fig. 2). Existing ramps and underpasses that once served for crossing the tracks were used to establish the path system on three different levels. Through this inclusion of the third dimension, quite different views of the area result. Because the vegetation was maintained between paths that are very near to each other, the area is perceived as larger than it actually is. A few new connections make circular routes possible.

The nature conservation area in the middle of the Sudgelande is ac­cessed by a path as well, this one, however, runs as a raised walkway 50 cm above the vegetation while following the old tracks for the most part (Fig. 3). Its design was the result of the work of the artists’ group Odious. Through this new path typology it is clear to the visitor that the nature con­servation area, in contrast to the rest of the Sudgelande, should not be ac­cessed off of the paths.

Main entrance
Priesterweg S-Bahn station
Water tower
Exhibition	Turntable
Locomotive
Nature conservation area
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Landscape conservation area
Fig. 1. Plan of the Natur-Park Sudgelande (above); enlarged central section (below). During the implementation of OkoCon & Planland’s master plan further elements were added, mainly works of art of the Odious group (Illustration: M. Ley and K. Zwingmann, Berlin, on behalf of the Senate Department of Urban Development Berlin)

Fig. 2-4. Existing train tracks are used for the path system in the Natur Park Sudgelande (above). The nature conservation area in the center of the Sudge – lande is accessed by a raised walkway (center, be­low) from which the dry grasslands and the uncon­trolled wilderness of the ur­ban woodlands (below) can be perceived without leav­ing the path. The lower picture shows a stand of the non-native Robinia pseu­doacacia, which has been entirely left to the natural processes of the forest dy­namics.