Germany
German unification in 1989 initiated numerous
impulses and new fields of activity for the whole
building industry, including landscape architecture.
The re-united city of Berlin was made the capital
of Germany again. With three million inhabitants,
Berlin is the largest German city. As a result of the
relocation of the German government from Bonn
to Berlin, a lot of new facilities have been built, and
a multitude of remarkable landscape architecture
projects have also been generated.
Many projects realised in Berlin or neighbouring
Potsdam could have been used as examples of
‘best practice’ in landscape architecture. However,
two projects in the city of Munich have been cho-
sen for the following case studies. The first example
is the ‘Landschaftspark Riem’, or the Landscape
Park in Riem, located in an eastern city quarter of
Munich, which is not completely finished at the
moment of writing. The second example is the new
cemetery in Riem, which is a part of the park, but
is not as well known, although it is a noteworthy
project in its own right. Both projects are judged
to have exemplary content. Our assessment of
‘best practice’ is not confined to consideration of
a single remarkable object, based on a persuasive
design concept and realised in high technical qual-
ity; we also evaluate ’best practice’ on the basis of a
holistic, interdisciplinary planning strategy in which
landscape architecture plays a decisive role.
