Liesenbrücken and the Web of the Third Landscape

An abandoned bridge, that once carried freight trains above the carriage-traffic of 19th-century Berlin, has turned into a rusty skeleton of its former self. Before the Berlin Wall cut it off completely from rail traffic, it provided shelter for the homeless and sick. Today it provides shelter for a few trees that grow from its foundational plinth into the bridge. 

The web of the third landscape is an attempt to deal with this historical monument. It results from intensive observations, on-site experiments, and an engagement with the existing political interests. The web forms a "bridge within a bridge" and allegorizes the fragility of the rusted monument through a flexible, walkable net corridor. On an urban level it connects the park at the "Nordbahnhof" with the pioneer forest that grew on the northern train tracks and later with the Humboldthain biotope. 

The membrane stretched above the net is directly assigned to an ecological function. Rainwater is transported by it into cisterns that lie under wicking beds replacing the former track bed. The urban substrate placed on top allows the spontaneous growth of settling plant species. This artificial groundwater system offers a real possibility of bridging the increasingly long periods of drought lasting several weeks in Berlin's summers.

The main cables are anchored in the bridge and, in a structurally elementary moment, meet the designed 5-way swivel, which transfers the forces to 4 thinner steel cables. These cables frame the nets, which are individually replaceable, like most parts of the construction. Through multidirectional tensile forces, the nets are stabilized into many hyperbolic paraboloids.

The visitor walks through the net as if through a kind of aviary. With ease and yet always aware of their own weight within this newly emerging ecosystem. The bridge becomes a hommage to a persisting in-betweenness, a monument of the third landscape, that exists outside of human intentions. Its apparent demise symbolizes a haven for future possibilities.

What started as an investigation into the artist studio as a typology, became a complex process of actually building a studio for visiting artists in Bergen. In a collaboration between BAS (architecture school) and KMD (Art Academy) mappings were created, drawings were made and discussions were held weekly to reflect on the work. These Meetings happened simultaneously to construction work, which led to finding solutions not beforehand, but while building the studio. Responsibility was given fully to the students and led to a communal feeling in this integral process. The studio is currently exhibited and will be used seasonally for artists to work in.