Oberhausen city centre is undergoing a transformation. With the help of the Socially Integrative City funding programme, over the past few years numerous measures have already been successfully implemented for integrated urban development. The planning and realisation of the youth recreation area represents another building block.

In close cooperation with young people locally and the youth parliament, the youth recreation area “Open Space” has been created as a place where young people in Oberhausen can meet up in a relaxed atmosphere. The young people who use the space were actively involved in the choice of location and the design of their “Open Space” recreation area, and helped plan it in a process that was supported by DTO. 

The Open Space consists of two offerings at different sites in the city. The unobtrusive redesign of the Südmarkt is primarily aimed at improving the quality of time spent there, with new seating and climbing facilities set within a modelled lawn, inviting people to linger. Meanwhile, the playfully high-intensity site at the Willi-Jürissen-Halle not only offers an artificial turf pitch, which was suggested by the young people, but also a digital pitch with four goals, which represents an entirely new offering for Oberhausen and is seeing intensive use.

A troughed asphalt surface with play equipment and markings serves to absorb rainwater during heavy rainfall and is also a play area at the same time. Newly planted trees function as a filter against the adjacent street and give the site a spatial boundary.

Design: Planungsbüro DTP Landschaftsarchitekten GmbH

Client: City Oberhausen

Project location: Germany, Oberhausen

Planning and realisation: 2016-2019

Photos: Nikolai Benner