Berlin’s Volkspark Prenzlauer Berg is home to a special butterfly population. Anh Thu Pham’s design shows how the park can be redesigned to provide new habitats for butterflies and other animals. In the following presentation of her project, Anh Thu Pham explains how the park’s animals should also be given a voice. The work was created as part of the “Into the Wild” design studio at TU Berlin. Anh Thu Pham worked on the “Animal Park” variant from the three pointed scenarios given in the studio.
View from the main path into the meadow mosaic, graphic: Anh Thu Pham
It’s not just in our September 2023 issue that we make space for student projects. Students also present their own work on our website – for example in this article. You can find all the projects on our “Studies” topic page and the September issue is available in our store.
Forest areas are based on the occurrence of animals
“Diversity” takes a new look at the relationship between open and closed spaces in Volkspark, focusing on the special butterfly population in the park. The existing open land areas will be further developed and expanded so that they connect to form a corridor. With new meadow areas, this offers a variety of new habitats for different fauna and, above all, butterflies.
The dense forest structure will be preserved on the western and north-eastern edges of the park. It is available to the breeding birds, beetles and other small organisms that occur there. The forest areas to be preserved are based on the occurrence of the animal species and the deadwood stands classified as valuable.
Existing and new open spaces connect to form a corridor that creates valuable habitats for insects and amphibians, but above all butterflies. Site plan M 1:1000, graphic: Anh Thu Pham
Valuable rough grassland areas as species-rich habitats
In order to provide a protected habitat for the animals for which the concept is designed, the main part of the existing paths will be removed so that only the north-south axis serves as the main access route. This is supplemented by subordinate cross-connections that incorporate the development of the planned residential quarter. Along the main route, there are various stations such as the meadow oasis, flight station, butterfly garden, wildwatch station and nature meeting point , which provide recreational areas with different atmospheres and qualities of use.
The extended and newly created open land areas create a mosaic of different meadows. This not only creates a varied spatial effect, but also increases the biodiversity of the flora and fauna. The planned meadow species are adapted to the existing relief.
The location factors of the elevated and sun-exposed areas are to be used to form rough grassland areas, which can represent a particularly valuable area as a species-rich habitat. Extensive open land areas represent a threatened and increasingly important habitat not only for protected butterflies, but also for a variety of insects (e.g. wild bees and grasshoppers) and amphibians.
A reduced path system leads past the butterfly garden, which offers a view of the meadow landscape and example plantings for insect-friendly plant use. Graphics: Anh Thu Pham
Open and closed areas are reconsidered in the concept and form different habitats for existing and potential animal species. A reduced path system is created along the old route.
A handrail communicates with visitors
With various side paths, visitors can explore the park in a circular route and experience an alternation of light and shade in the forest away from the butterfly corridor. A restrained steel railing with a wooden handrail runs along the entire meadow mosaic with the main path. By varying the handrail widths, the railing not only guides visitors through the park, but is also intended to protect the fauna and flora or communicate with visitors as an information board, depending on its position.
Wide sections of the handrail signal to visitors that they are in places with special lines of sight or qualities of stay. At the respective nature stations, the railing widens even further and takes on the function of an information and communication board that gives the animals a voice and can be used for further education or information.
Observation of meadow mowing and a butterfly cycle, graphic: Anh Thu Pham
The design was created as part of the “Into the Wild” design studio at the TU Berlin. You can read more about the background to the studio and Volkspark Prenzlauer Berg here, and discover more designs by students here.