Green space, urban space, I have said the word "space" too many times

I keep noticing, as with the Luisenstädtischer Kanal Park, green spaces that used to be something different--something far less green. Like Luisenstädtischer Kanal Park, the green space on the north bank of the Spree where the East Side Gallery is used to be the death strip. Görlitzer Park used to be a train station. It is in these places that I see the ideal of urban-rural space come alive. Some city planners may have been somewhat grateful to the bombing of World War II for clearing the room necessary to recreate a verdant, natural city, but there is a certain amount of cognitive dissonance in that--violent destruction creating space for beautiful nature. The East Side Gallery and the Luisenstädtischer Kanal Park, on the other hand, involved the removal of a violent space to create a green one. What was once a death strip and a no-man's-land is now a public park--an every-man's-land.

Görlitzer Park began in 1865 as Görlitzer Bahnhof, running trains to Cottbuss and Görlitz and to Vienna and various Polish cities. It was bombed in World War II and closed in 1951 because it was a West German train station that sent trains East. Most of the train station buildings were demolished, and in 1989 the space was used by an anarchist art commune. It became Görlitzer Park in the 1990s. Though the park is a green space that brings some nature into the city, it is still a very urban sort of green space. A couple of old station buildings are still there, housing a cafe, and there is something very urban about people's use of the park, grilling food, drinking beer, and hanging out.

To me, spaces like this that have taken concrete, urban, destructive spaces and made them green, stand in contrast with "nature band-aids", where thoroughly landscaped bits of greenery are installed in the design and planning process of new buildings, or artificially inserted on the street. Something about the history and evolution of spaces like the Luisenstädtischer Kanal Park and Görlitzer Park make them a more real part of urban space, while still being a part of nature. They are a more true remedy to the concrete of urban life than new, planned green spaces are.