State Horticultural Show Bayreuth 2016
Overview
The Japanese Garden at the Bayreuth State Horticultural Show was a temporary exhibition garden created for the 2016 Bavarian Landesgartenschau in Bayreuth. Designed by Jethro Machacek and Naturform Japangärten & Koiteichbau, it combined Japanese-inspired stone placement, clipped planting, gravel, a koi pond and contemporary structures within a compact demonstration landscape. The garden presented Japanese garden principles in connection with modern garden technology rather than reproducing a single historical garden form.
History
The Bayreuth State Horticultural Show was held in the newly created Wilhelminenaue from 22 April to 9 October 2016 under the theme Musik für die Augen. The event transformed approximately 45 hectares along the River Roter Main and attracted more than 900,000 visitors.
Naturform announced the Japanese garden project in 2015 and constructed it as one of the specialist exhibitor gardens for the show. The company was founded and directed by garden designer Jethro Machacek, who specialises in Japanese-inspired gardens, koi ponds and water landscapes. The official retrospective publication for the horticultural show lists Naturform Japangärten & Koiteichbau GmbH among the participating companies.
The garden was conceived specifically for the six-month exhibition and was not part of the permanent landscape framework of the Wilhelminenaue. Available post-show descriptions of the public park do not list the Japanese garden among the retained features, indicating that it was dismantled after the horticultural show closed.
Design features
The composition combined a koi pond, carefully arranged rocks, gravel surfaces, shaped evergreen planting and restrained ornamental vegetation. These elements created a compact Japanese-inspired waterside landscape intended to demonstrate the designer’s approach to stone setting, water construction and controlled planting.
A notable contemporary element was the integration of a solar carport beside the garden. The project therefore linked Japanese landscape aesthetics with renewable-energy and modern residential-garden technology. The contrast between the naturalistic pond landscape and the engineered structure made it an exhibition garden rather than a historically defined tea, dry or strolling garden.
The garden was primarily designed to be viewed by visitors moving through the horticultural show.
Garden elements
Enclosures
Stones
Other elements
Current status
The garden was a temporary installation open only during the 2016 State Horticultural Show. It is not identified as a surviving feature of the present-day Wilhelminenaue park and should be treated as dismantled following the event. The former show grounds have been freely accessible as a public recreational park since April 2017.