mosaic monster at the federal garden show in heilbronn. it was created by niki de saint phalle, a very famous and renowned artist! it's called dragon.
2019 was the year where the federal garden show ( bundesgartenschau, short: BUGA ) visited the city of heilbronn. since heilbronn is only about 2 hours away from wiesbaden, my parents and i decided to take this as motivation for venturing out to the state of baden-württemberg again. the last time we had been in a bigger city in this state, was when we visited stuttgart's zoo and had a small car crash ( i think it was in march 2017? ). so quite some time ago.
we didn't see much of the city of heilbronn either, only a special part of it, an area between an old channel of the river neckar and the neckar canal. in germany, a federal garden show is a big bi-annual happening, a huge garden exhibition that touches upon all kinds of themes, such as environmental changes in garden culture, living solutions under the inclusion of new technologies and natural conditions, decorational suggestions and many more. you can inform yourself about everything garden related, the newest developments, historical tidbits of the sites these federal shows take place on and it is also used to sell things, just like a trade fair, basically.
we like visiting BUGAs, there's always so much to learn and see and gawk at and i like the fact that formerly inactive sites and landscapes ( often industrial sites ) are renewed and improved for the public's use. there are many interesting approaches to garden and park landscaping, and the intergration of already existing and trend-setting architecture is also something that makes it very special. my parents own a big garden, and i can attest that many ideas they have seen on BUGAs or LAGAs have been realized there, too!
there's another thing i love about visiting these garden shows: visiting new places! these shows
are a really great starting point to getting to know a place you haven't either visited before, or renewing your opinions on a city that you already think you knew.
heilbronn is the oldest city in baden-württemberg, though you wouldn't guess it, as the cityscape is mainly consisting of modern era architecture. the inner city was completely destroyed in world war 2 ( heilbronn was always super important as an industrial hub, thus it was a military target for the allies ). we didn't set foot into the inner city, though, but explored the BUGA area, which was formerly an industrial and commercial park standing on the ancient filled wet docks of heilbronn custom harbour ( zollhafen ). which is why water was a big component of the exhibition as well, the river neckar being an important aspect of the conception.
the old neckar channel is a constant companion throughout the BUGA area. the neckarufer park is a very long-stretched part of the exhibition, including old harbour parts in the north and the 'kraneninsel' in the south. before this park was built, you could barely get close to the river, so it surely is a positive change that the planners of the BUGA decided to implement here. it's always nice to be able to go for a walk near a body of water, especially in densely populated areas.
along the neckar river there was a wooden promenade attached. in the back you see the kaiser's tower and part of a bridge ( karl-nägele-brücke ).
hidden in the meadows next to the promenade i found a baby swan! 😘 momma swan was nearby, so don't worry, it was safe. look at all the fluffiness, though!
the brickstone building in the back is a former factory for fiber production. during the BUGA you would find an exhibition on the neckar here.
inside the factory. on the big canvases in the back you can see some barrages that were built by the architect paul bonatz. there are 27 of these in all kinds of variations along the river. since 2019 was officially a 'bauhaus year', the exhibition on the neckar also included these constructions, as they all show the influence of the bauhaus school.
passing under the karl-nägele-brücke ( from 2005 ). the kaiser's tower ( 1939 ) in the back is a memorable building as well. with its new objectivity brickstone facade, it was a storehouse for a coffee roasting firm ( kaiser's, which was also part of a supermarket chain called kaiser's tengelmann ). on top of the tower is a vitreous structure in which a sky bar is situated in that's supposed to have great views over the city.
i kinda liked the concrete curvatures of the bridge, it looked so organic!
looking back towards the zollhafen. the high building behind the brickstone one is the WTZ tower ( wissenschafts- und technologiezentrum ), which was built from 2012 to 2015. it houses conference and meeting rooms mostly, but also several offices.
some very steep hills were raised on the BUGA area, providing lots of gorgeous views over the park. you never forget the industrial history of the place either, as evidenced by several tower silos and other factory buildings.
one of the tower silos, belonging to a concentrated feed producer.
once you climbed one of those hills you also had a view on some train tracks nearby. the slopes were covered in wildflowers, which was super lovely and evened out the harsh industrial feeling.
spotted a rather hackly-looking butterfly, probably didn't make it much longer :(
below the hills they built an artificial lake, the karlssee. it is supplied with rain water basically which is collected through a special system. from here you can also see the new city quarter 'neckarbogen' - all new contemporary buildings explicitly designed for the BUGA exhibition. it's the first time the planners made a foray into the world of architecture, developing a new city quarter with future potentials. the 'neckarbogen' quarter will eventually house 3500 inhabitants and hopefully bring a lot of life into the formerly industrial waste land. on a strip of land between the quarter, the floßhafen lake and karlssee, they erected some temporary pavilions and exhibition spaces. the wooden pavilion for example was inspired by the exoskeleton of a sea urchin. it was designed by jan knippers ingenieure.
better overview of the area. the whole BUGA area is about 40 hectares big, actually a rather small expanse for a BUGA related exhibition ( still big enough to have spent a whole day there without being able to see it all, though 😂 - we didn't see the city jungle on the kraneninsel for instance, and also missed out on entering the new city quarter's buildings ).
close-up on some of the new buildings. loved the facade of the tetris building ( which is supposed to be a hall of residence for students ), but to be perfectly honest, every single on of these new creations had something special going on. the building on the far left is called apollo 19, created by motorlab architekten, is a building that offers small and big living spaces for every age. right next to it the boarding house I3 by KTP architekten has a very special sunshield facade. next to the tetris building is a rather boring-looking building, the J4 by KTH architekten. adjacent to that one you can see a glimpse of the building J3B by steinhoff-haehnel architekten.
the J5 up close. i mean, why wouldn't you call it a tetris building?
here's a closer glance at the wooden pavilion i spoke of earlier. it was used as a stage for concerts and other presentations. in the back you see a few more of the neckarbogen quarter buildings, most prominent are the houses in the middle. at least they were most prominent to me ;) i loved their facades ( especially the speckled brickstone facade of the I5 building by wsa architektenwerkgemeinschaft ). the one with the polaroid windows ( grüne ecke neckarbogen by MRW architekten ) was also pretty cute - it's going to be overgrown with plants the longer it will exist, which is a wonderful concept, i think. to complete the house row, the one on the left ( seemingly a very expressionless building - until you walk around the corner ) is called familienmosaik ( or officially H4 ) and was designed by joa architektur. more on that house later.
close-up of the laced brickstone building. you have no clue how the structure of this satisfies my aesthetic feelings 😂 oh, by the way, these building already were habitable and a lot of the flats were allocated. tell me, can you spot the balcony with the human legs? ;)
let's enjoy another view, this time from the corocord climbing rock. it's a pretty modern climbing facility by kompan, an outdoor fitness and playground business. the facility was really popular with children.
i was more interested in this futuristic container, though i never found out what its function was. looked cool, though. maybe it had something to do with the filter system of the karlssee?
up on the hills were a few art sculptures, such as this one, the walking woman by sean henry.
or the very swirly metal piece 'hoop-la' by alice aycock.
completely loved this ❤
what would a garden show be without plants? there were various planting ribbons on the ground and meadow waves, which were planted with various flowers.
we've seen lots and lots of roses ( i can never deny their beauty, even though they are such cliched little beings 😂 ).
even a grasshopper said hi and modeled for me 😘
it's amazing how many varieties there are of roses.
heilbronn is famous for a special literary figure: käthchen von heilbronn. it is a novel by the german writer heinrich von kleist, about a young peasant woman that turns out to be of noble heritage. it's a drama that was inspired by many legends and accounts, though it is debated whether kleist really concocted this story out of a true incident.
the statue here depicts this girl amongst many roses, who all bear the same name. the sculpture is a copy of a statue designed in 1965 by sculptor dieter läpple.
the STIHL pavilion surprised with good camouflage abilities! it was designed by art department nordlite.
in one of the old warehouse sheds where you could find flowers and plants galore, we discovered the mascot of the BUGA, the garden gnome karl. here he was made entirely out of flowers.
this little garden piece was inspired by the fallow lands that were found on the grounds before the BUGA area was installed - the lands had been left to nature, after most of the industry left. nature reclaimed this opening up for itself of course and after a few years a little jungle had started to grow, with room for lots of herbs, insects and little animals. it turned into a little biotope of all kinds of plants and critters.
the creator of this garden saw this and was so charmed that she deliberately kept her parcel of land wild and savaged. she wanted to recreate the situation she found before the planners turned the place into a neatly designed surrealistic garden. too often gardens are kept almost clinically and don't leave a lot of room for important weeds and herbs that attract insects and other tiny animals. my dad keeps his garden in a similar way, he always leaves one part of his garden a little untamed, for exactly the same reasons. and i can guarantee that doing this will ensure that pollinators, birds, and other small critters will feel super comfortable in your garden, contributing to a healthy environment and therefore more growth and diversity.
i really loved this little wild garden, i would totally do something similar if i had my own. leaving nature to do its own thing is something that's super important to me, especially because it creates these unique habitats where otherwise there would be a sad wasteland.
i mean, these lizards speak a very clear language! they loved the broken brickstones, that offer a place in the sun to warm up. a little bit of rubble goes a long way, sometimes!
the surplus value garden suggested ways on how to re-use and re-purpose recyable materials like steel, glass and ceramics or other mineral materials. the pavilion was made out of old steel pipes from an inoperative coal-fired power station, and the facade consisted of various types of re-purposed glass ( foam glass & devitrified glass ). the grounds were covered with broken pieces of porcelain, which came from production wastage and the tiles were all made from concrete and brickstone rubble. i loved this concept! we definitely throw away too much stuff that could easily be re-used, i mean, if you have a garden and want to install a terrace or a garden path, why not think about using some old construction materials ( in case you have some lying around, that is ). i remember my dad keeping all kinds of construction materials from various projects to re-use them for new ones throughout my childhood - in GDR times they were tought to not waste anything because building material was rare to get, i guess that was the reason why he always held on to this stuff - he would always find a purpose. while my ideal garden wouldn't be as sealed as the surplus value garden was, i think i would consider laying out re-purposed brickstones as a garden path or take some old steel parts and create a tomato growing support frame or something.
the pavilion had such a great industrial, almost steampunk-y feeling!
what i would definitely consider putting up in my garden would be a fence or screen like this made out of big logs and also brushwood! so damn cool, and a perfect place for insects ( or even birds! ) to nest in.
found a little hedgehog nearby, padding around the premise 😘
a different alternative would be this colourful log fence! it was situated in a birch tree forest, and it was a perfect place to get our feet rested and have a small brunch.
after relaxing a bit we continued to explore and came upon the mascot karl again! this time he was greeting us in neon-orange and in a cubistic kind of way. this is the official way the mascot was designed in, even though pink is the original colour. i loved these and even purchased a small plastic one for myself!
the salt garden boasted a big salt ashlar which, under the influence of weather and wind, would change its appearance over time. a web of salt cystals developed under these conditions, creating a wonderful structure, almost marble-like! the ashlar was quarried in the salinas of heilbronn and is about 20.000 tons heavy.
eventually we would return to the floßhafen lake and enjoy the water games.
the meadow waves were a really interesting landscape on the BUGA area. it reminded me of a golf course. as you can see, the weather also changed a bit over the day, slowly turning a little bit thundery. it was actually a very humid and muggy day, so it was not surprising.
having a closer look at some of the buildings. this facade belonged to the boring-looking familienmosaik house by joa i talked about earlier. not so boring after all, eh? turned out to be rather colourful when you turned around the corner.
this building reminded me so much of GDR plattenbau architecture, just with a modern twist. the architects were finkh architekten and they list the surface texture of trees as one of their main inspirations for the raw and coarse facade design - trying to strike a link to nature.
right next to it was a wood panelled building with a public use purpose - the kinderhaus der zukunft ( children's house of the future ). the municipal kindergarten was also designed by finkh architekten.
jaume plensa designed this super interesting sculpture in front of the DJH hostel. it's called 'WE'.
on the neckar side of the housing complex. from left to right: the red building is the hostel again by baumschlager/hutter architects. the high white one is by kaden+lager and made entirely out of wood. the narrow futuristic one is by frank ludwig gmbh. the grey vario was constructed by schreiner architekten, the black and wooden one again by baumschlager/hutter partners and the grey shingled one in the front by fink+jocher.
we also visited a grave site exhibition that showcased some ideas on how to design and organize burial plots, and this is what i liked the most, a grave dedicated to bauhaus architect walter gropius. i loved the two heads and how they were so distinctively milled, but i also liked the way the colourful squares on the white travertine represented the colour scheme of the bauhaus concept. on the glass part stood - in a bauhaus font:
death is an impossibility that suddenly turns to reality.
which runs deep, i think, because we are never prepared for it, and always think it's not going to happen to us ( especially in earlier years ).
these interesting flowers i discovered while we made our way back to the starting point of our exploration. they look so unreal, like paper flowers, but these are actually real and alive organisms! they are called strawflowers and are originally from australia. but of course they got cultivated and are now found in lots of gardens all over the world. it's so cool how their petals start out covering the discs and then open up little by little, revealing them!
we passed by an empty stage on our way back and the building of an old shipping company, now a restaurant. the view from here was also really lovely, especially with the karl-nägele-brücke in the back. i think the BUGA heilbronn showcased wonderfully how industrial design and nature can go hand in hand and can be turned into an environment that is worth living in.
these water staircases were perfect for a little cooling-off - for all ages.
karl-nägele-brücke again - i have to admit, i had a slight infatuation with this bridge ^^; this is also a good picture to say good-bye to heilbronn for now ( maybe i will return someday, who knows? ). i am certainly interested in re-visiting this place outside of BUGA settings, to see what remained of all the landscapes and gimmicks you could find on the grounds.
but until then, i guess we have to stay curious, right?
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