Okuma Europe GmbH
Overview
The Japanese Garden in Krefeld is located on the grounds of Okuma Europe GmbH in the Europark Fichtenhain business park. It is not part of Krefeld Zoo or the municipal botanical garden. Okuma’s own material confirms that the company has long been based in Krefeld-Fichtenhain, and a 2019 Japanese-German business event was hosted at the Okuma Europe premises at Europark Fichtenhain A 20.
History
Okuma, the Japanese machine-tool manufacturer, was one of the early Japanese companies to establish itself in Krefeld; Okuma Europe stated in 2019 that it had been in Krefeld for about 30 years. The garden appears to belong to this corporate-cultural landscape around Okuma’s European headquarters, rather than to a municipal park programme or a sister-city garden.
The most concrete design source I found is the project page of Schwarze und Partner Landschaftsarchitekten, which presents the Krefeld Japanese Garden as a redesign of a Japanese company site. Their description emphasises the deliberate contrast between the garden’s curved, organic forms and the adjacent corporate architecture. The page does not provide a date, but it clearly identifies the project as a Japanese-style corporate garden in Krefeld.
Design features
The garden is centred on a richly planted pond landscape, with curved forms, boulders in and around the water, stepping stones, planted banks and selected stylised Japanese design elements. Schwarze und Partner describe it as a sheltered oasis for work breaks, visually separated from its surroundings by an embankment and designed around natural rather than strongly architectural Japanese motifs.
Garden elements
Bridges
Buildings
Waters and islands
Stones
Current status
Extant Japanese-style company garden on the Okuma Europe premises in Krefeld-Fichtenhain. It is described as freely accessible in local visitor accounts, but it belongs to a corporate campus rather than a municipal park.