Comment: stones instead of green: a lot of Augsburg’s squares are cobblestone desert

The square is empty in the midday heat, four young trees bravely struggling against the adverse climate. Nobody sits on the benches that seem to have been randomly placed on the square. Why should one do this environment voluntarily? Nothing but hot sun, still air, gray pavement. The view is located on a desolate noise-protection wall, which is supposed to block the noise of the train. This sadness, noted by our readers, is not a legacy from the past eras of urban development. No, worse: the Platz is new and located on the site of the former loading yards near the main train station in Augsburg. Apartments, offices and a bus stop will be built here. The city’s website still says loading yards are being renovated into “high-quality urban neighborhoods.” Only: There’s a little lively here yet. It could have been so beautiful. Once there were ideas to create a large mass of water along the railway line. A kind of “city beach” with a green boardwalk connecting the train station and Siebentischwald.

It will be a dream in times of more and more hot days. The stone desert behind the main train station is just one example of the many Augsburg squares far from adapting to a futuristic climate. You will have to plan completely differently in the future and have the courage to tear up the pavement, even if it was laid only a few years ago. Anyone who knows the beautiful green plan drawings for the loading yards and has seen what has happened to them so far, understands the critics who are currently speaking against the main station’s front yard plans. This box will also be redesigned after the station’s renovation. First of all, all the trees that have existed until now must be cut down and form wonderful oases. Then new trees will be planted. But these must grow first – and in times Climate change It may also have been painstakingly nurtured.

In the front yard of the station, the demand for rescheduling is increasing

The Augsburg-Pomalians Association is therefore very important. And criticism is now having an effect. The Greens see a need to speak up, and CSU member of the Bundestag, Volker Ulrich, wants to put plans to the test again. The problem in this case is that the architects who won the design competition for the square had the right to carry out their plans as is. However, these plans are also outdated. Perhaps the planners themselves realize that the signs of the times have changed rapidly. Do you really want to pave large parts of the square? Or shouldn’t there also be room for grass and beds if you’re serious about more greenery in the city? After all, who wants travelers to get heat stroke when they’re indoors Augsburg Reaches?

There is no doubt that we will need as much green as possible in the city. A recent jointly commissioned city study showed just how warm the densely populated areas can be. “We have to rebuild our cities so that we can live with climate change,” Dirk Meissner, head of the Federal Environment Agency, said recently when nearly 40 degrees Celsius was measured in parts of Germany. “We will have to open up areas like parking lots, streets and paved plazas and make room for cool greens.”

Do you still turn Elias Hall Platz, which was only repaved a few years ago, into a rocky desert today? On warm days, people sit there in the shade under the trees on the edge of the square – and in the middle, on the other hand, there is often an emptiness. How would it look? Just look back: there was a beautiful little garden here a hundred years ago. Greener than today.

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Should Augsburg’s Maximilianstraße get greener?

The list of desolate places can be extended. Seeing the red floor blocking the plaza in front of the new city library, one is reminded of the sweaty sports hours on a hot ash track. Grand Mile Maximilianstras Historically without green. However, it remains to be seen if this can be maintained in the future.

Theodor-Heuss-Platz near IHK shows that things can be different in Augsburg. A somewhat deserted place that has been converted into a green living room. The large, shady trees remained standing. The yard has been made greener through the redevelopment, and there are beautiful perennial beds and water features that kids especially love. Dare to get more plants instead of plaster – a major task for Stephen Kercher, who has just been elected building official to city council.