TEMPELHOFER FELD

Located in Berlin, Germany, Tempelhofer Feld is a military air based reopened to the public as a park. As of 2008 Berlin has been debating on what to do with all 70 hectares of open space located in the art of the city. While the property is currently protected from development, pressures along the edge of the site are begging to demand land. Berlin is developing quickly and with this development comes higher populations to accommodate for, but the success of the site currently is inarguable.

Thousands of people visit the site and use it in whatever means they please. While the site does have some programming, the uniqueness of the site is in the lack there of. The only designed interventions within the park include dog areas, urban gardening, birding sanctuaries, and paths, the rest is up to the public. All together the site provides people with an experience unlike most. It provides a country view in the middle of a city, and although it is highly debating, the lack of design has given birth to new programs that had not been anticipated. For example speed biking, roller blading, skate boarder, but each on is not separated from the next.

I personally viewed the site as a sort of experiment. I had not ever seen such a lack of programming, so for me it was interesting to see what the people would make of it, and I think they love it. The remaking of the site also did not appear to be very costly, unlike most reused sites. The installations on the site are small but in the end they are making a larger impact. This brought me to ask myself if large scale designing and redesigning was always necessary? While some sites require more designing, some spaces can become something entirely different by designing small interventions. It is refreshing to question such things, and I think I would like to keep asking myself this for every site I encounter in the future.

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