A total of 700,000 people visited the Überlingen State Garden Show, which opened its doors a year late. You can read all about the landscape planning concept by Relais Landschaftsarchitekten and how things are now progressing on the site here.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the horticultural show in Kamp-Lintfort opened its doors in 2020. The state garden shows in Ingolstadt and Überlingen postponed their openings by a year to 2021, but the time had finally come: the Überlingen State Garden Show welcomed its first visitors on the weekend of May 1, 2021 and closed on October 17, 2021. relais Landschaftsarchitekten were responsible for the landscape planning design. In the meantime, the 120-ton lake stage is already being dismantled again. You can read all about the Überlingen State Garden Show and how things will continue on the site here.

By the way: the first award ceremony for the Baden-Württemberg Landscape Architecture Prize took place in April 2022. relais Landschaftsarchitekten won first prize for their design “Neue Ufer, Überlingen”. We present the project as part of the State Garden Show here.

It was announced on April 22, 2021: The Überlingen State Garden Show was allowed to open despite a 7-day incidence of over 100. The horticultural show was classified as a botanical garden. This meant that the horticultural show planned for 2020 could finally open after more than a year of waiting. The associated restrictions: Until the incidence on site would drop below 100, only people who had tested negative for corona would be allowed on the site. Landesgartenschau Überlingen GmbH said it was “pulling out all the stops” to make the necessary test stations possible. Similar to BUGA Erfurt, visitors to Überlingen had to register online in advance and present a negative Covid-19 test. People who had either tested positive for coronavirus less than a year ago or had already received their second vaccination in the past 14 days also counted as negative. As a result, they did not have to take a test.

Planning of permanent installation/exhibition concept: Relais Landschaftsarchitekten; Berlin
Green network concept: 365° freiraum + umwelt
Area: 11.5 hectares
Framework dates: May 1 to October 17, 2021
Funding: 13 million euros
Income: 8.52 million euros
Visitors: approx. 700,000 people

relais – old garden show hands

The State Garden Show in Überlingen – the first ever on Lake Constance – consisted on the one hand of the six-hectare riverside park in the west of the city area. On the other hand, it was defined by the corresponding projects a few hundred meters away in the town center. This is the waterfront promenade with the landing stage and the Mantelhafen. The Berlin-based firm relais landschaftsarchitekten won the competition held in 2012 for these areas. relais are old garden show hands. The firm worked on four areas at once for the State Garden Show in the town of Burg near Magdeburg.

In April 2013, the citizens of Überlingen voted in a referendum for the implementation of the garden show. The next step: finding a suitable concept for a “green network” of three inner-city areas covering a total of five hectares. The city of Überlingen carried out a multiple commissioning process in 2017. The Überlingen office 365° freiraum + umwelt came out on top.

The current lakeside park is an elongated strip between the railroad tracks and Lake Constance. It measures 800 meters in length. At its widest point, it is 50 meters wide. As an outsider, it is hard to believe: until now, this area in a prime lakeside location was occupied by businesses and parking lots. Bahnhofstrasse ran directly along the riverbank. To create space for the park, it was moved inland to the railroad tracks. The bank wall was demolished along its entire length to create more accessible, near-natural shore areas that were washed over by the lake water: steep banks with a slope ratio of 1:1.5 and flat banks with a ratio of 1:8.5 to 1:20.

As it was not possible under water legislation to create the new shoreline from the previous bank wall into the lake, the new shoreline ran between seven and 40 meters further inland. Construction work in the shore zones was mainly carried out in winter. During the rest of the year, the water levels are too high due to melt water and precipitation.

Überlingen State Garden Show makes reference to concentration camp history

Marianne Mommsen from relais explains that the ground modeling carried out by the landscape architects conceived of the park’s terrain as an artefact that should not appear “natural” or “undisturbed”. The concept thus made reference to the history of the site during the Second World War. A satellite camp of the Dachau concentration camp existed in Überlingen-Aufkirch from September 1944 to April 1945. An average of 700 concentration camp prisoners were involved in the construction of the Goldbach tunnel. Armaments factories from Friedrichshafen were to be relocated to this tunnel.

Swiss Landibank as furniture

The Goldbach tunnel was driven into a local deposit of molasse rock. The workers piled up the spoil from the work on the shores of Lake Constance. Without this spoil, the shore park at the Überlingen State Garden Show would not have existed. With this knowledge in mind, it was important to relais to treat the site with care. Located directly behind the railroad line, the tunnel entrances are clearly visible from the riverside park. A bookmark, molasses stones embedded in the ground, guided visitors to the Überlingen State Garden Show in the direction of the tunnel in memory of the former forced laborers. There was also a memorial there.

Another special feature of the Überlingen State Garden Show was the planting of 220 square meters of beach grass as an autochthonous plant community. This was created in collaboration with the Lake Constance Shore Working Group and the Constance Botanical Gardens. The aim was to allow the beach sedge, coniferous rush, beach lily, Lake Constance forget-me-not, shore buttercup and chives to spread in the east of the shore park. So far, the beach sedge can be found on around 120 square meters on the entire shore of Lake Constance.

relais upgraded the shore park ecologically. The office made it usable as a public park. The Berliners also took care of refreshing the lakeside promenade in the city center. This has consisted of solid concrete structures since the 1960s. There, the focus was on surfaces made of gray granite and reddish rhyolite. The reddish hue was combined with the existing porphyry paving in the city center on the promenade, at the landing stage and at the Mantelhafen. For the furniture, relais chose the Landibank from Switzerland, which is widespread in the Lake Constance region and stands out in a bright red color. New plantings rounded off the upgrading of the correspondence projects.

Jetty construction makes water level and waves tangible

The inner-city “green network” projects connected the city’s gardens and ditches at the Überlingen State Garden Show. The 365° freiraum + umwelt office was responsible for their design. The town opened up areas that were previously partially or completely inaccessible: The Menzing Gardens will remain permanently open after the garden show, as will the redesigned Rosenobel Gardens. However, a complete closure of the connecting path along the ditches could not be realized for reasons of monument preservation. The proposal by relais landschaftsarchitekten to bridge a private property with a steel structure on an old city wall was rejected by the Monuments Office.

Raised beds with Kneipp herbs

The inner-city areas accommodated many of the pavilions and exhibition contributions typical of the garden show. Christian Seng from 365° freiraum + umwelt summed up the year’s garden show by saying that the narrow lakeside park was able to retain the charm of the expanse. This is particularly true of the villa gardens on the lakeshore. Created in the style of an old spa garden, 365° created new views of the lake by removing densely overgrown shoreline vegetation. The landscape architects made a tongue-in-cheek statement in the direction of professional fishermen with the motif of the new playground as a cormorant colony. Hidden behind the Haus des Gastes, an old villa, was the pool of the local Kneipp association. The planners therefore planned raised beds with Kneipp herbs on the sun-facing front of the pool.

A large, newly built glass house, which housed the Baden-Württemberg meeting point during the Überlingen State Garden Show, is now used as a cactus house. The twelve show gardens and the “floating gardens” in front of the Haus des Gastes were temporary. As a passionate rower, Überlingen landscape architect Herbert Dreiseitl also created a semi-circular jetty floating on the water. It allowed visitors to directly experience the waves and the seasonally changing water levels. Docked to the platform were several of the eponymous circular floating gardens, also floating on the water.

Respect for local history

The Menzing Gardens offered a wonderful view over the roofs of the old town to the lake. Various grape varieties, chestnut, almond and apricot trees now grow there, and Überlingen residents will be able to help themselves to their fruit in future. In the lower area, the allotment plots that have existed since the 17th century have also been used as exhibition gardens. The box tree borer has destroyed the historic box hedges in recent years. Instead, yews adorned the Überlingen State Garden Show. At the end of the show, the hedgerow parcels are to be leased out as allotment gardens again.

A new playground with a wooden tower modeled on the gothic style made reference to the fact that the second tower of the cathedral was never completed due to a lack of funds. In the hidden Rosenobel Gardens, visitors to the Überlingen State Garden Show could also enjoy the view from the town’s former fortified tower over the historic moats, bus station and railroad station to the lake. A local sanitary family had used the site for horticultural purposes before the Überlingen State Garden Show, which is why all kinds of obscure “garden installations” with a sanitary background could also be found there. These included, for example, bathtubs and copper kettles. In the end, 365° incorporated some of these into the new design. It served as a reference to this sympathetic history of the place. The many historical bricks that appeared during the work were also a reference.

Landesgartenschau Überlingen – what happens now that it has been completed

The projects of the Überlingen State Garden Show took careful account of the history of the town and enabled not only visitors but also locals to rediscover aspects and gardens of their town. However, when it closed on October 17, the gates to the Überlingen State Garden Show remained closed for the time being. The parts of the site are still fenced off and will remain closed for the time being due to the planned dismantling of the site. In an official press release, Landesgartenschau Überlingen GmbH announced that the dismantling work would begin as soon as possible. Specifically, this includes firstly the dismantling of the temporary exhibition areas, secondly the temporary flower beds, thirdly the stages and fourthly all the furniture. It is also expected that the riverside park will be handed over to the public in December. In addition, the three other gardens should also be open to the public again from the beginning or end of February 2022.

Interested in other state garden shows? Here you can find the article on the Ingolstadt State Garden Show on the one hand and the Kamp-Lintfort State Garden Show on the other.