Germany
Design development
The collaboration between German and French land-
scape architects was a special feature of the reali-
sation and construction of the park. Gilles Vexlard
sees historic connections: the design of the English
Garden in Munich by Sckell was a result of the
French Revolution. Vexlard feels almost closer to the
city of Munich than to some French cities such as
Toulouse and Marseille.^12 Certainly the cross-border
collaboration was not always easy. The construction
plans created in the Paris office had to meet the
German norms and technical specifications. The dif-
ferences between the two planning cultures were
often very visible.^13 A closer look at the park shows
that the international cooperation has led to a novel
design and professionally interesting result.
Design of the terrain
In order to be accountable to the human scale,
despite the almost geographical dimensions of the
park, the landscape architect undertook several deci-
sive changes in topography. These are hardly recog-
nisable today. He evened out the existing slope of
the site northwards to the city. This slope was
minimal, but across such lengthy distances it would
have led to uncomfortable sightlines for the people
in the park areas closest to the city. A terrace was
created to form a frame for the city’s silhouette. Two
parallel pathways lie on the slightly southward slop-
ing terrace, a large and a small terraced pathway,
which combine to form a promenade which allows
for extensive views into the park.
The wall which is necessary to accommodate the
changes in grade, the so-called terrace wall, marks
the boundary between city and park landscape. The
top of the wall runs horizontally for long distances.
City, park and landscape form a true ensemble.
Gilles Vexlard goes back to a classic device in land-
scape architecture in his handling of the topography,
an effect that was used during the Renaissance: the
paths adjacent to the ground planes are elevated.^14
Planting design
The most important building materials in the
Landscape Park Riem are the plants. The overall
plan of the park and garden exhibition requires
about 30,000 newly planted trees. As previously
described, the green structures in Vexlard’s park
hierarchy are secondary to the topography, but lie
above the pathway systems.
The park is structured using woody plants and
shrubs of differing sizes, as well as incorporating
grassy meadow areas. The contrast between the
spatially effective volumes and the open limit-
less surfaces heightens the relationship between
the dense large city and the openness of the
countryside. The volumes of woodland orientate
themselves towards the directions found in the
