Dreiseitl, Herbert

Herbert Dreiseitl was born in Ulm, Germany. He studied at the Freie Waldorf Schule and the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm, the Alanus Hochschule für Kunst und Gesellschaft in Bonn-Alfter, the Staatliche Berufsfachschule für Holzbildhauer in Oberammergau and at the John Wilkes Virbella Flowform Insitute in England. He became a sculptor, in wood, and an art therapist in a drug rehabilitation centre. This gave him interests in the social role of art and in water. He founded the firm Atelier Dreiseitl in 1980, working as a landscape architect designing water sculptures and urban space. The firm places a special importance on the management of rainwater (surface water runoff) in a sustainable manner. As much as possible of the water which falls on roofs and on the ground is collected and biologically purified by storing it in a pond with a diverse flora and flora. The structures which duct and contain the water are modeled in the studio at a 1:1 scale before being cut in stone. The technique is innovative, for a landscape design office, and profoundly creative. Dreiseitl's best-known project, but not necessarily his best project, was for Berlin's Potsdammer Platz. It uses rainwater for flushing toilets, irrigation, floodwater protection and temperature moderation. The reed-planted embankment forms part of a biological and chemical water-purifying system.He has also worked on the Prisma in Nuremberg and and on Solar City in Linz. His book, Waterscapes: Planning, Building and Designing with Water was published by Birkhauser Verlag AG in 2001 - and should be on the shelf of every landscape architect concerned with urban design projects. New Waterscapes: Planning, Building and Designing with Water  was published in 2005 and  Recent Waterscapes was published in 2009, containing details of a wide portfolio of international projects. His work includes:
Tanner Springs Park, Portland USA
Green roof for Chicago City Hall, USA
Kallang River Bishan Park, Singapore
Town hall square, Hattersheim, Germany