Park am Gleisdreieck, Berlin, Germany, August 2017
Roughly translated the sign reads: "Eco Ballast. The fallow railway tracks, and their appropriation by nature, account for the special charm and character of large areas of the Park am Gleisdreieck. The framed field of greywacke stones, a typical track bed material, though in a grit that is larger and less accessible, illustrates this process [of appropriation]. In the next few years, the area will change as plants and animals settle down.”
Not only an aesthetic nod to the infrastructural past of the area, these ecological ballasts were designed to encourage the proliferation of other-than-human bodies in the park. In particular, those who earlier had settled there on their own accord, those whose skills at adapting to an urban, human-made environment made them thrive here.
Park am Gleisdreieck, Berlin, Germany, August 2017
Roughly translated the sign reads: "Eco Ballast. The fallow railway tracks, and their appropriation by nature, account for the special charm and character of large areas of the Park am Gleisdreieck. The framed field of greywacke stones, a typical track bed material, though in a grit that is larger and less accessible, illustrates this process [of appropriation]. In the next few years, the area will change as plants and animals settle down.”
Not only an aesthetic nod to the infrastructural past of the area, these ecological ballasts were designed to encourage the proliferation of other-than-human bodies in the park. In particular, those who earlier had settled there on their own accord, those whose skills at adapting to an urban, human-made environment made them thrive here.