RAINWATER TOUR AT LANDSBERGER ALLEE 52
We say, following Karl Valentin: ‘I am happy when it rains, because if I am not happy, it rains anyway.’ Rain is a natural phenomenon that plays a central role in many areas of our lives. However, in view of climate change, it is no longer enough to simply appreciate it. Its targeted use is becoming an everyday necessity. What used to be an option is now becoming an obligation: consciously protecting, storing and using water.
CONFERENCE ON CLIMATE ADAPTATION
At the symposium on climate adaptation with a focus on heat and drought organised by the Potsdam district association of the AWO (Workers’ Welfare Association) on 30 September 2025, Izabela Malachowska-Coqui presented our two climate adaptation concepts for the AWO in Wittstock/Dosse and Prenzlau in a keynote speech on climate-sensitive planning for vulnerable groups. In the second part of the symposium, which dealt with participation processes, she also conducted a workshop. In this workshop, participants worked together on the question of how problems relating to heat and heat protection in facilities can be identified and named.
CLIMATE ADAPTATION WEEK
As part of the nationwide Climate Adaptation Week and the BuGG Action Week on Green Buildings, Joerg Th. Coqui led a fully booked tour last week with 40 participants through the courtyards and along the green facades of the Institute of Physics at Humboldt University in Berlin. The lively interest once again demonstrates the continuing relevance of this project, which was completed in 2003 and awarded the German Landscape Architecture Prize in the category ‘maturity examination’ in 2025.
PARTICIPATION IN PRENZLAU
As in Wittstock, we also held four participation days for our second climate adaptation project with the AWO in Prenzlau, during which residents and employees were able to actively contribute. Participation was a central component of the planning process: it enabled the needs, wishes and everyday knowledge of the users to be incorporated at an early stage and measures to be developed in a realistic manner. Together, we managed to develop 80 smaller and larger measures for climate adaptation. At the closing event, some of the measures were already marked out in the garden. We had a lot of fun and are now looking forward to further implementation!
PARTICIPATION DAYS FOR AWO IN WITTSTOCK
As part of the development of the climate adaptation concept for the AWO residential home ‘Haus unter den Linden’ in Wittstock/Dosse, we held four participation days over a period of twelve months. Residents and staff were actively involved from the outset in an open workshop format with input presentations, surveys and small group work. The current planning status was regularly presented and further developed jointly. This allowed a wide range of perspectives to be incorporated and concrete ecological and social measures to be developed. After twelve months, the climate concept is now complete and implementation is about to begin.
BEAUTIFUL TRANSFORMATION – AESTHETICS AND DESIGN OF CLIMATE-FRIENDLY BUILDING CULTURE
On 16 May 2025, Joerg Th. Coqui gave a lecture on new aesthetics in landscape architecture at the Grassi Museum of Applied Arts in Leipzig. In Forum 1, entitled ‘Beautiful Green and Blue – On the Aesthetics of Climate-Resilient Urban Landscapes,’ he spoke about the interplay between aesthetics and climate protection, using the example of our project of the Humboldt University of Berlin’s Institute of Physics, which got awarded at this year’s German Landscape Architecture Prize.
VISITING BERLIN
The delegation of the Poznan City Conservator’s Office, together with the head of the Poznan City Architectural Office, council members and employees of the Office involved in the development of the E. Szyc Stadium in Poznan as a competition jury, went on an excursion to Berlin. Various recreational and sports areas in Berlin were visited under the guidance of Izabela Malchowska-Coqui. These included Gleisdreieck Park, the Südpark area, as well as intensive and extensive natural parks within the city. They also visited Möckernkiez, located at Gleisdreieck, with architect Christoph Roedig. This excursion gave the participants the opportunity to visit various recreational and green areas and gather inspiration for the development of the city of Poznan.
FILM ABOUT THE GERMAN-POLISH GARDENS
The film, which we co-produced, sheds light on the background and history of the German-Polish Gardens, features interviews with those involved and presents the project. The initiative for the gardens in Skaryszewski Park in Warsaw was launched on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the German-Polish Neighbourhood Treaty.
GRAD
After more than two years of work on the development of pilot strategies for the promotion of green roofs, a summary and presentation of the project results was conducted. This project has contributed to the development of documents that combine in an innovative way the objectives of sustainable urban development with climate policy objectives, such as adaptation to climate change and climate change action. On December 11, 2020, the final conference of the GRAD project was held: Green Roofs as a Tool for Climate Change Adaptation in Urban Areas gathered a number of people interested in a holistic approach to the development of green roofs in cities.
GRAD
The “GRAD” project aimed to adapt the experience of the City of Hamburg in developing green roof strategies since 2014 to an exemplary strategy structure to Polish conditions. In cooperation with the City of Hamburg and eight Polish pilot cities (Bielsko-Biała, Bydgoszcz, Gdynia, Kalisz, Kraków, Lublin, Warszawa and Wrocław), the Stowarzyszenie Gmin Polska Sieć “Energie Cités” implemented the project from 2018 to 2020. The conference covered topics such as water retention, green roofs, strategy and stormwater management. The aim of the project was to promote green roofs and facades as a means of climate adaptation in urban areas, using the experience of Hamburg. Individual strategies for the mentioned Polish cities were developed to support the promotion and implementation of green roof projects. The publication provides details on various aspects such as types, benefits and costs of green roofs, as well as on the development of individual targets and measures to promote and support green roof projects in Polish cities.