OKRA LANDSCHAPSARCHITECTEN: OKRA won the competition to design a public space between office buildings in the Gruenewald area of the Luxemburg city borough of Kirchberg. OKRA thought of how to give the fragmented neighbourhood a consistent identity of its own. As the area lacked a clear programme, OKRA chose to come up with their personal programme for an ‘urban orchard’. By planting apple and pear trees, OKRA has attempted to create cohesion between the scattered spaces and buildings. Thus the theme of the ‘edible city’ gives this public space its coherence. The urban orchard consists of many little orchards, each with its own atmosphere – but everywhere passers-by are invited to pick the fruit.

The orchard stands in a fragmented layout of squares and passages organized in a grid system together with buildings and private parcels. The jury awarded the strong identity that the project introduces for this part of the Plateau of Kirchberg and also the gesture towards the rigid atmosphere of the buildings. A gradual change in the types and the densities of plantation creates a high quality link between the higher part of the district, more business and urban a-like, and the southern part, more natural, leading towards the Klosengroendchen park. Different atmospheres of orchard are created to provide a specific sense of place to each areas of the new district. A network of lines bind the different pieces of public space in order to create a narrative and spatial link between each of the existing public spaces fragments.

Landscape Architecture: OKRA LANDSCHAPSARCHITECTEN
Location: Kirchberg, Luxembourg
Area: 2.8 Ha
Building costs public space: 150 Euro /m2
Design: 2008
Implementation first phase starting in January 2009
Client: Fonds d’urbanisation et d’aménagement du Plateau de Kirchberg
Text & photos: OKRA