Tengbom was commissioned by the municipality of Norrköping in 2015 to draw a park on an area between S:t Persgatan and Kvarngatan in central Norrköping. The area borders the old Industrial Landscape and has newly built residential areas on both sides.

The part of the city is dense, with a lot of housing. Access to parks and recreational areas was poor, with long distances to play and green areas. The expectations and demands on the Home Guard’s park were high. The task was to create a meeting place for people of all ages, with space for play and relaxation in a green environment. An important requirement was that the park should be accessible to everyone.

Accessibility became a significant challenge, as the terrain slopes 7 m between S:t Persgatan in the south and Kvarngatan in the north. The park is thus located on a northern slope.

The big difference in levels was turned from being a problem to becoming the backbone of the park’s design. By building the park as a serpentine or a slalom course, a path is created that winds down the slope without getting steeper than allowed. With retaining walls, plateaus are created as the road winds around. These plateaus form different rooms with different contents. In this way, the park has an entrance “room” with a fountain, a “prairie” with tall grass, perennials and boulders, a larger lawn, and two play areas with different contents.

Trees and vegetation frame the park, but taller trees have been avoided in the middle of the park in order to maintain the views towards the Industrial Landscape. There are seats at regular intervals along the winding serpentine, facing in different directions, allowing different views.

A scrawled transformer station was located on-site. It would be too expensive to move it. But the old saddle roof could be replaced with a flatter roof, and on top of that, a terrace has been created, and from it a gangway with a slide down to the ground level. That way, one can run around, up to the terrace and then down through the slide. The transformer became an asset rather than a problem!

Data

Landscape Architecture: Tengbom