Stadtpark Atzgersdorf in Vienna

The park’s starting point was the former Campingplatz Wien Süd. Instead of allowing the site to become another private development, Vienna converted it into public green space.

Resident participation shaped the brief. The City recorded roughly 750 ideas during a 2020 involvement process, showing substantial local interest in what should replace the campsite.

The 2022 construction phase prioritised play, sport, shade and ecological planting. By 2023 the park had become one of the newest large green spaces in Liesing.

This reuse is especially significant in an outer district experiencing housing growth. Public recreation was added without requiring untouched agricultural land, and mature campsite trees became part of the new climate infrastructure.

The conversion also illustrates a shift in land-use priorities. A campsite served a defined group of overnight visitors, while the public park is available without admission to anyone in the surrounding district. The same mature trees and open ground now support a much broader social role, from children’s play to exercise, casual sitting and outdoor work.

The participation process mattered because the replacement use had many possible directions. Residents asked for recreation, greenery and practical amenities rather than one large formal attraction. The final design reflects that distributed programme: several smaller facilities sit within a landscape where lawns and old trees remain dominant.

For urban-planning visitors, this is a useful example of adaptive reuse without preserving the former function. The campsite itself is gone, but its established vegetation became an asset. The project therefore preserved ecological value while completely changing who the land serves.

The campsite conversion also changed the social mix of users. Tourists once occupied pitches temporarily; now the site serves nearby residents daily while remaining open to anyone crossing the district. That shift from paid accommodation land to free civic landscape is one of the clearest reasons the project matters in public-space history.

Around 300 mature trees were integrated into the design, while twenty-six new trees were planted. Retaining that canopy gave the park immediate shade and preserved habitat continuity.

Perennial islands, wild shrubs and lilacs add lower planting layers. Meadows are managed differently depending on whether they are intended for intensive recreation or more naturalistic use.

A periodically wet infiltration swale helps manage rain locally and creates habitat. Around 2,000 square metres of sealed surface were removed during the project.

These elements make the park an instructive climate-adaptation site: shade, biodiversity and water retention work together rather than being treated as separate decorative features.

The perennial planting is especially useful around the edges of heavily used recreation space. Bellflowers, willowherbs and other flowering plants create seasonal colour while providing more ecological value than a uniformly mown lawn. Wild shrubs and lilacs add structure and habitat at the park boundary.

The infiltration swale demonstrates a different approach to stormwater. Instead of treating rainfall as something to remove immediately through underground pipes, the park allows water to collect temporarily, infiltrate and support vegetation. During dry weather the feature may look like an ordinary planted depression, so understanding its function requires some prior context.

De-sealing roughly 2,000 square metres also reduces heat storage in hard surfaces. This is particularly significant in Liesing, where road and development pressure can create large paved areas around new housing and commercial sites.

The preserved canopy also makes the park unusually mature for a recent project. Many new parks begin with small trees and sparse shade, but Atzgersdorf inherited decades of growth from the camping era. Visitors can therefore experience a new park with the spatial comfort of an older green site, which is rare in large contemporary developments.

The water playground is the strongest family feature, particularly during hot weather. Separate toddler and children’s areas allow different age groups to use the park at the same time.

Sport facilities include calisthenics, motor-skills equipment, volleyball, table tennis and other movement opportunities. The mix prevents the park from functioning only as a children’s playground.

The Park-Working station adds free Wi-Fi and device charging to shaded outdoor furniture. Photovoltaic generation and battery storage support the station even when direct sun is limited.

This combination is unusually broad for a district park: play, sport, quiet work and ecological landscape all share one 27,000-square-metre site.

The water playground gives the park a clear seasonal peak. On hot days it can become the main destination for families, while the same area plays a smaller role during cooler periods. Visitors should therefore expect the balance between quiet landscape and active play to change strongly with weather.

Calisthenics and motor-skills equipment make the park useful beyond children’s recreation. The design encourages bodyweight exercise and coordination rather than requiring membership in a sports facility. Volleyball and table tennis add social sports that work well in a free neighborhood park.

The Park-Working station extends the idea of public amenity into weekday working life. Free Wi-Fi and charging allow students or remote workers to remain outdoors for longer periods, while photovoltaic power reinforces the climate-oriented identity of the whole project.

The range of facilities also distributes pressure across the park. Families can remain near water play, teenagers can use calisthenics or volleyball, and people seeking quieter use can move toward meadow and shade. That zoning helps a new urban park serve many users without letting one activity dominate the entire landscape.

The park is on Breitenfurter Straße in Atzgersdorf, with open mapping listing Breitenfurter Straße 269 and older City project material using Gerbergasse 1 as an entrance reference.

Use WienMobil for current public transport along Breitenfurter Straße. The park is also close to the Liesingbach walking and cycling corridor.

There is no admission fee and no fixed gate schedule. Water play and some facilities are seasonal or weather-dependent.

Open mapping marks wheelchair access, but visitors who require a guaranteed route to a specific playground or sports station should verify the best entrance.

Allow one to two hours for a general visit and longer with children. The Park-Working station can also make the site useful for students or remote workers spending part of the day outdoors.

The park’s relationship with the Liesingbach is worth using in trip planning. A visitor can combine modern park design with the older creek corridor, turning a single stop into a longer green walk through Atzgersdorf.

The former campsite entrance references can be confusing because current mapping and older City construction material use different street points. Treat Breitenfurter Straße as the main geographic reference and use current mapping for the most convenient entrance to your chosen facility.

Families should plan extra time in summer, while architecture or planning visitors can understand the project in about an hour. The strongest route crosses several zones rather than staying near the first playground: mature tree areas, meadow planting, water management and Park-Working together explain why the site is more than a conventional recreation ground.

A useful first circuit should include the water-play zone, one of the more natural meadow areas, the infiltration swale and the Park-Working station. Seeing all four makes the design logic clear: recreation, biodiversity, water management and digital infrastructure were planned as parts of one neighborhood park rather than separate projects.

For planning-focused travellers, the mature trees are worth observing at the start and end of the walk because they show what the design chose to preserve rather than only what it added.

The park is therefore valuable both as recreation and as a readable example of climate-conscious land reuse in contemporary Vienna.

Its strongest lesson is that mature trees, recreation and water-sensitive design can be combined successfully in a newly created municipal park.

That combination gives the park durable value beyond ordinary neighborhood recreation.

It also shows how recent parks can inherit mature landscape character from an earlier land use.