State Garden Show Günzburg Competition

The competition for the Günzburg 2029 State Garden Show has been decided. The winner was a design by A24 Landschaft und yellow z.

“The history of the town of Günzburg begins with its rivers: The Danube, Günz and Nau run through and shape the town and landscape,” says Gerhard Jauernig, Lord Mayor of Günzburg. The core theme for the State Garden Show, which will take place in 2029 at Günzburg, is therefore obvious. Under the motto “City on the water”, the areas along the rivers are to be developed in future and new connections from the city center to the water are to be created.

In order to find a suitable design and concept for this, those responsible announced an open space planning and urban planning ideas and realization competition. The planning area included newly created public open spaces along the Auweg to the banks of the Danube with connections to the Günz, the northern bank of the Danube to the outdoor pool, the connection along the Günz to Hagenweide, parts of the old town green belt and the Bürgerpark. The participants were also asked to draw up proposals for the exhibition concept for the Landesgartenschau. All in all, a comprehensive and complex task in which six offices from all over Germany ultimately took part. The winning designs have now been announced.

A24 Landschaft Landschaftsarchitektur GmbH and yellow z emerged as the winners of the competition. The jury unanimously selected the landscape architects as the winner of the competition. “The winning design incorporates many elements that the population, with whom we worked intensively from the outset, wanted,” said Lord Mayor Jauernig, explaining the jury’s decision. In their design concept, A24 Landscape were inspired by the course of the water, or rather the river Günz. While this is canalized in the inner-city section, outside the city several branches of the river reach far into the adjacent landscape areas. The newly created riverside promenade in the city center is also oriented towards a linear strictness, while the path concept in the Donau-Au-Park and in the Hagenweide provides for a multitude of moving pathways, through which new spaces and places for leisure use are created.

The Donau-Au-Park is particularly relevant for Günzburg, as it can provide an important impetus for urban development north of the train station. In the future, it will serve as the heart of the new urban quarter being created on the Auweg. A24’s design and pathway concept will frame the park on the one hand and connect it to the surrounding area on the other. A new Danube footbridge will also create a link to the northern bank of the river all the way to the city center. The bridge connects to a square-like prelude with a view over the Danube. The so-called Parkforum, a multifunctional playable pavilion for temporary events, as a meeting point for communal gardening or as a location for gastronomy, is being created here. Furniture and play equipment made of wooden beams are reminiscent of the raftsmen’s guild, who once used the Danube as an important transportation route. Alongside this, A24 is proposing a small bank inlet with a gravel beach. Direct access to the water is possible here, while the other bank zones are developed into structurally rich biotopes and retreat areas that can only be accessed at certain points via stepping stones.

In addition to the Günzpromenade and the Donau-Au-Park, A24 also developed a design for the Altstadtgürtel and the Hagenweide. The landscape architects left the latter almost untouched in sensitive areas, for example, and recommended the development of a near-natural sports and activity park, taking into account the ecologically valuable areas and the biotope. According to the jury’s verdict, this section in particular still requires more in-depth development, but the overall design impressed the jury. Jury member and landscape architect Till Rehwaldt from Dresden had this to say about the further development: “I have every confidence that this will succeed”. The award-winning planners and those responsible for the Günzburg State Garden Show will now work at full speed until 2029 to make a successful state garden show and positive long-term development a reality for Günzburg.

You can read all about next year’s garden shows here.