Polytan: Wide Range at Revierpark Vonderort, Oberhausen

Transforming the Landscape

The Revierpark Vonderort in Oberhausen is designed as a family-friendly recreational attraction: Set amidst an expansive park landscape, it offers visitors and guests diverse experiences with sports, swimming, and wellness facilities for a full sensory leisure experience – from sports and play to relaxation, action, cultural encounters, and enjoying nature – there's something for everyone. Under the concept "Park in Motion," activity and nature experiences take equal precedence. As part of the renovation and revitalization of the so-called "motion hill," a concept for a "multisport area" was developed. It provides a variety of sports activities, including pump tracks for children and adults, a parcours and calisthenics area, a circular track, and a sprint lane. A small sports field and various team sport fields invite visitors to try out fun and trending sports together. The overall project, with a total cost of approximately 1.33 million euros, aimed to encourage as many target groups as possible to engage in more physical activity by creating new, freely accessible recreational sports facilities in addition to the existing but mostly mono-structured sports venues in Oberhausen. Alongside standardized traditional sports areas, there was also a strong emphasis on accommodating popular trend sports. On several of these modern and innovative sports facilities, we have installed the appropriate surfaces. The sprint lane, the circular track, and one of the two small sports fields, set up for basketball and volleyball, feature our "classic" Rekortan M in brick red color. This poured coating is suitable for athletics stadiums, competition tracks, and school sports facilities alike, impressing both professionals and hobby athletes – primarily due to its exceptional shock absorption, providing excellent joint protection. Ideal for running disciplines, it is spike-compatible and extremely fast. The second small sports field, designed for soccer and hockey, as well as the multipurpose arena, are fitted with Poligras with CoolPlus functionality. This unfilled synthetic turf system has been developed to meet the demands of professional hockey surfaces. Its outstanding features include high wear resistance, excellent water retention, and a lasting crimp. Poligras stands out for its exceptional volume and durability – yet, despite this robustness, the surface remains particularly soft, giving players a comfortable feel against their skin. The special Polytan CoolPlus function ensures that, even under intense sunlight, the surface does not heat up too quickly or excessively. This reduces water usage and contributes to environmentally friendly operations. The multipurpose field is planned to be used as a Yalp Arena, promising to captivate even the youngest athletes. The term "Yalp" is a reverse of the word "Play," reflecting the integration of technology into outdoor games, sports, and education. In the compact interactive arena, children and young people enjoy constant ball contact. As the game takes place in a confined space, each player is almost always involved in the action. The slanted corners and four goals on each side of the sports arena keep the game – and every player – in continuous motion. For the fitness area with the calisthenics facility, we have secured it with our impact protection surface PolyPlay FS GT, which provides maximum injury protection under sports and gymnastics equipment thanks to its cushioning effect. The sky-blue surface installed on the "motion hill" is pour-coated, water-permeable, and particularly easy to maintain. Its optimal weather and rot resistance form the basis for its long service life at minimal maintenance costs. Compared to sand pits, impact protection surfaces are also known to be significantly more hygienic, easy to maintain, and, above all, safer. With the renovation of the "motion hill," the project managers of the Regionalverband Ruhr (RVR) have created versatile sports and exercise opportunities for young and old alike, while also addressing the general change in sports behavior that has become increasingly evident in recent years. Many sports clubs and municipalities observe a growing retreat from traditional organized sports club activities and an ever-increasing interest in self-organized sports opportunities in public spaces. The facility at Revierpark Vonderort was completed in the summer of 2022 and has since been available free of charge to sports enthusiasts of all ages. 📐 Dipl.-Ing. Wolfgang R. Mueller (Landscape Architects BDLA); Dipl.-Ing Norbert Seeger (Seeger Landscape Architecture)