Grugapark, horticultural showcase and popular park

The present Grugapark was preceded by a Botanical Garden that was built by some 500 unemployed men as a form of relief work in 1927. An existing quarry was landscaped with the aim of introducing the residents of the industrial Ruhr Area to botany and a greater understanding of nature. Instructional panels were included, as was a geological exhibit showing a cross section of the area around Essen.

In 1928 the site was selected to host the Grosse Ruhrländische Gartenbau-Ausstellung (GRUGA). This Horticultural Exhibition took place in 1929 and comprised the area adjacent to the botanical garden. This botanical garden was included in the Exhibition. Afterwards the park was reopened to the public as a People's Park (Volkspark). On part of the terrain a convention centre (Messe Essen) was created. in 1938 the Grugapark was the site of the Reichsgartenschau. After WW2 an indoor arena (Gruga Halle) and swimming pool (Gruga Bad) were built and the park was enlarged for the second GRUGA exhibition of 1952. The present 65 hectare park stretches across most of the hill between Margaretenhöhe and Rüttenscheid. In 1965 the site was re-landscaped for the Bundesgartenschau (BUGA) of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Since the 1990s new exhibition gardens have been added.

As a former horticultural exhibition, the Grugapark hosts a number of small and medium size exhibition gardens. Some are relatively recent, others have been in situ since the 1960s.

The Swamp Cypress (Taxodium) will grow in standing water. A group of these deciduous conifers has been planted in a large pool (left). Dahlias are taking centre stage in the central flower arena. This Ronald McDonald House -unmistakably designed by Hundertwasser- stands at the edge of the park near the botanical garden and replaces a small deer park.

The glasshouses of the botanical garden of the University of Duisburg are still a major attraction within the Grugapark. Each glasshouse houses a different biome ranging from tropical forest (left) Australian cloud forest (middle) to American dessert (right).The complex is a working research facility that was completely revamped in 2010.

An essential ingredient of a BUGA garden -so it seems- is a narrow gage train, tram or monorail. The Grugapark is no exception, so a narrow gage train "Gruga Bahn" runs through the entire park on a loop. The track crosses the valley between the botanical garden and the exhibition park with a viaduct. The tracks can be seen on many locations cutting through the planting. The halts are simple platforms.

A view across the artificial lake from the waterfall culminates in the Gruga Tower at the other side of the Liegewiese. The Gruga Tower, a radio and viewing tower from 1928, was designed by architect Paul Poortten in the style of “Neues Bauen” and is an important landmark within the park. The flower arena with dahlias, asters and other flowers is situates halfway between the Gruga Tower and the artificial waterfall. The park is also the setting for many works of art.

Window box 5: the subtle touch of the gentle soul

I personally like bright colours and stark contrasts, but I also have a soft spot for subtlety. That doesn't mean I appreciate pastel colours, but rather inventive combinations of cooler colours like for instance blue, mauve, purple, violet and white. I don't know if there is any research regarding personality and the colour choice in planting up window boxes, but I associate subtle combination with gentler souls, who have no need for making an outward statement.

Pure white flowers combined make for subtle floral displays. On the rights white petunias gleam against an off-white rendered wall. On the left a window box is filled with Solanum jasminoides 'Album', a scandent bush making long trails. On another balcony (middle) Felicia in soft blue is combined with yellow Bidens and pots of pink pelargoniums.

The combination of white and purple is cool, but very distinguished. Here a window box filled with two colours of Verbena (left). The humble Aster also makes a nice pot plant. These mauve asters (middle) have been treated to reduce growth to make for compact plants. The Fuchsia comes in many shades, all variations of white, pink, salmon, purple-red and violet. Here a subdued variety (right) with blooms in a combination of white and deep purple.

Siedlung Altenhof I and II: Heimatstil versus vernacular architecture

The Invalidenkolonie around the Gussmannplatz still stands. It was designed in the so-called Heimatstil, a German contemporary of arts and crafts with similar goals of reintroducing skill into construction whilst referencing an eclectic mix of historic styles and techniques. The result is a deliberate picturesque effect as clearly visible here, in what is basically a large number of small terraced dwellings under one roof.

The housing for the infirm wraps around a central garden square with two statues, one of a furnace worker (shown here on the left) and a steel caster opposite. By using protruding sections within the block, often with a gable end or high hip end the illusion is created of this housing complex consisting of a number of separate buildings. Here the planking and carded  woodwork is clearly visible.

The block on the opposite side of the garden square is more symmetrical, but still owes its shape and treatment to barns and similar farm buildings. These low sloping dormers are typical of mountainous areas with heavy snowfall.

Altenhof II was started in 1907 and continues the spatial ideas found in Altenhof I that has all but disappeared now. The streetscape dominated by short terraces and semidetached family housing are basically picturesque and show little influence from Unwinesque urban design as advocated by Muthesius. The houses follow Das Englische Haus more closely with variation in outward appearance combined with reoccurring floor plans.

A typical streetscape in the first building phase. The Unwinesque termination of the sightline along the street with a high gable end is from the second building phase of the 1920s.The housing is placed equidistant along the curved street.

The use of roughcast (Grobputz in German) and colourful window shutters with contrasting field in the same light colour as the window frames were adapted from English examples. The covered entrances with a variable outline (squared left, arched right) also draw on those references.

In contrast to the Unwinesque approach, where long lines of sight along streets are avoided the streets of the first phase run more or less parallel along the slope with a slight curve. The street plan is very basic and practical.

The facades and outward appearance is very variable. All tricks are used to veil the limited number of actual housing types by the addition of Gabled dormers (left), bell gables over the entrances. The covered entrance is the same in both with a short wall creating an inner space beyond the arch. Roofline, floor plan windows and shutters are all very similar.

The most striking addition of 1927 is this cubist block of flats with off-white panted rendered walls and protruding stairwells indicating the entrances. The main building has a pitched roof, creating a contrast with the flat-roofed "entrance towers".

The thoroughly modern apartment buildings stands across from these two very large detached villa's. In fact these are semidetached houses disguised as a grander building. Still, the contrasting effect is remarkable.

The last building phase of the late 1930s was built in a time when the Stuttgarter Schule was the only officially supported style of building. As in Gartenstadt Rüppurr these simple vernacular buildings tie in well with the English inspired vernacular architecture of the preceding decades.

The buildings in the third phase have more prominent door frames and shutters with a single field. Also the windows are simple set in the rendered wall without any carvings on the window frame.

Unwinesque treatment of the corners is replicated in the last building phase of the 1930s, with a section of a terrace set back to open up a corner. The terrace further along the street is also set back to create  a separate street space, thus braking the perceived length of the street.

Siedlung Altenhof, Essen: the shift from factory housing to social housing

In the borough of Rüttenscheid south of the old city and located on the edge of the Stadtwald Friedrich Krupp AG acquired arable fields with the aim of building a number of houses for retired or invalid former employees of the Krupp company. Friedrich Krupp founded the first phase of what was to become Siedlung Altenhof in 1893 as the Invalidenkolonie Altenhof. Such social provision and attention for former factory workers was a revolutionary move as the idea was to provide rent free housing for the invalid and widowed. This colony for the infirm consisted of two C-shaped terraces of small houses on either side of a garden square.

The subsequent Siedlung Altenhof was built as a way of thanks for the statue of Alfred Krupp (1892 by Alois Mayer) commissioned by the factory workers. On the plinth Alfred's motto is engraved: the purpose of work must be the benefit of the community. His son Friedrich Krupp commissions the Krupp Housing Division with the development of  607 dwellings for retired former employees to be housed here rent free.

Robert Schmohl designed the buildings in an eclectic Heimatstil that is also known as Cottage style. Depending on the social status terraced, semidetached and detached houses were provided along parallel curved streets that made the most of the triangular site. The first building phase was completed between 1893 and 1896, the second -beyond the mine railway of Zeche Langenbrahm- was built between 1899 and 1907. This factory housing, however similar in appearance to garden villages should not by typified as such, as it pre-dates Ebenezer Howards book of 1898. The Altenhof is rather one of those examples of social labourers housing that has inspired later developments.

The Siedlungen Altenhof I and II are situated on either side of the Woodland Park (WP), with a half open landscape garden (LG) behind the Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria Erholungshaus (KAV) Next to this leisure centre and convalescence home, the Frauenerholungshaus (F), Prebendary for widows (P) and Wöchnerinnenklinik (WK), a post natal clinic once stood. On the edge of this hospital site the chapel (C) was -and still is- located. On the edge of the first building phase the GP-Surgery (S) was located. The invalid colony (IC) is located further west and links this housing estate with pre-existing urban fabric. Beyond Altenhof II a football stadium (FS) was built in 1927 on the Uhlenkrug. Altenhof II only has housing and no other provisions or amenities.

A church, shops, women's clinic and a hospital were part of the housing estate Along the eastern edge of the Siedlung Altenhof an extensive recreational area was created out of the existing wood as the Kruppsche Waldpark (Krupp Woodland Park). It was thought important for the inhabitants to have access to healthcare after retirement and also keep active and spend time outdoors in nature.

After the sudden death of Friedrich Krupp in 1902 the work on the Siedlung Altenhof was completed. Along the lines of his ideas around 1907 plans were drawn up to create a second social housing estate as part of a belt of garden village satellites. This Siedlung Altenhof II was begun beyond the Waldpark on the edge of the Stadtwald. The site chosen known as Verreshöhe has a marked slope so the usual Unwinesque layout was difficult to realise, instead curving streets follow the slope and steep stairs and streets connect these residential streets.

The construction of this garden village, again designed by Robert Schmohl, started in 1907 and was interrupted by WW1. So in 1914 only the northern half of the present garden village had been completed. Some more housing was erected in 1926-27. The garden village would be completed in 1937. This southern section is also known as Altenhof-Heide. It is this last section that has some Unwinesque features. Most of Altenhof II is comparable to Altenhof I and best typified as a semi-rural housing estate with factory housing.

The two estates of the Altenhof were built in several phases in 1893 (phase 0), between 1893-1896 (1), between 1899 and 1907 (2), between 1907 and 19154 (3), between 1926 and 1927 (4), in 1927 (4*) and between 1935 and 1937 (5).

As a result of the building of a new motorway most of the Waldpark was destroyed. This changed the spatial configuration of the old and housing estate and the garden village, effectively separating them. A new trunk road was also built along the edge of Altenhof II. Thus this garden village became isolated between infrastructure. Most of Altenhof I was demolished in the 1977 to make room for the new Alfried Krupp Hospital, only the invalid colony around the Gussmannplatz, the chapel, some widows houses and 4 detached houses remain. Other parts that lay derelict for years have recently been developed for new housing. The quality of what remains shows what a misguided decision it was to sacrifice the Siedlung Altenhof I for enormous parking places around a good example of bad 1970s architecture. The houses in Altenhof II, that still survives almost intact, have been privatised and are now occupied by people with no direct links to the Thyssen-Krupp company.

The Siedlung Altenhof I has been demolished apart from some fragments and has been replaced by the new hospital (H). Al the present buildings are shown in orange. Another mayor impact has been the building of a motorway (M52) and a trunk road (K3). The railways have been decommissioned. The northern track has been cleared for a long distance cycling route (a true cycle super highway!).The first two building phases of Altenhof II were built around the old farmstead (F) on the Verreshöhe.