Client: Hansestadt Stralsund
Design team:Lysann Schmidt (landscape architects) + Fabulism (architekts) + Takwe Kaenders (artist) + Hadan und Schmidt (traffic planners)
Location: Stralsund, Germany
Date: 2019-20
Surface: 24.200 m²
Budget: 5,05 Mio€ incl. VAT
In the current layout of the market square, many historical structures can no longer be read and the connection between Marienkirche and the market square is disturbed by a soviet war memorial, that was inserted here after WWII. The analysis of historical maps and the aspirations expressed by stakeholders in the participation process for a green space led us to the following design principles:
1. Concentration of the memorial area around the newly designed obelisk.
2. Creation of a usable public green belt around the Marienkirche, which also includes the area of the memorial, which is integrated in the park and does not feel like a cemetery anymore
3. The open space is divided into a separate market area that corresponds to the historic market of 1938 and a tree grove with play equipment that takes up the volume of the historic New Town Hall west of the market square.
In collaboration with the artist Takwe Kaenders, the obelisk was redesigned as part of the memorial but its location, height and ground surface has been preserved. The material and accessibility of the obelisk has been revised in order to present it in a more welcoming way. Two blocks of Russian marble replace the obelisk’s base and brass profiles inserted into these blocks replace the obelisk’s head, so that these two volumes dialogue with each other. The visitors cannot only walk in and around the obelisk but can also find information about the battles and the soviet soldiers that the memorial has been constructed for.