Wetterpark Offenbach

Offenbach is the city where "the weather is made", and with the German Meteorological Office (DWD) and the first Weather Park, it can lay claim to being the "weather capital" of Germany.

On 20,000 square meters of former wasteland, we conceived and designed a permanent public exhibition on the subject of weather for the city of Offenbach, the Rhine-Main planning association and the DWD.

The combination of information and product design, architecture and landscape planning has produced a unique space for experiences and recreation, where visitors can gain insight into the complex relationships between types of weather, as well as the scientific background, in a way that is easy to understand.

Visitors are invited to observe actively or to interact, to encourage them to open up their senses to the many types of weather that can occur and how they affect people. This makes for an enthralling visit not only for those who already have an interest in the subject, but also for families with children and school groups, for whom interacting with the objects in the park can be a source of fascinating food for thought.

In 2015, the park gained another attraction in the form of the visitor center designed by Meixner Schlüter Wendt Architekten and unit-design, which resembles a research station thanks to its zinc-plate cladding.

Covering an area of 20,000 square meters is a public park themed around the weather. A gravel path meanders through the park to the individual exhibition sites. A common design element of the exhibit stations is a wooden walkway that extends out from the path into the surroundings and leads to the exhibits with explanations in the form of images and text. A series of exhibits and explanatory graphics give visitors insight into the complex relationships between types of weather, as well as the scientific background, in a way that is easy to understand.

For example the lookout tower called „View“. In this case, "visibility" refers not only to the beautiful view looking towards the Feldberg in the Taunus mountain range, but also to the meteorological measurement of viewing distance. Visibility depends on adequate light, clear air and the observer's eye level. An observation tower is therefore the ideal exhibit for explaining and bringing to life the subjects of atmospheric opacity and weather conditions at the Offenbach Weather Park.

unit-design