Restructuring an Old Industrial District
Emscher Park
Ruhr District, Germany

In Germany’s “rust-belt” — the Ruhr Dis­trict — they adapted the European tradi­tion of the “building exhibition” as a frame­work for weaving together themes of ecology, economy, culture and commu­nity for the regeneration of a dying coal-mining and steel-making region.

Impulses for Restructuring

In 1989 the state of North Rhine-Westphalia joined together with the cities of Dort­mund, Essen and 15 other municipalities to create the International Building Exhi­bition (IBA, sub-titled “Workshop on the Future of Old Industrial Areas”) as a means to provide “impulses” for the re­structuring of the region of about two million people.

The Ruhr District was in very bad shape in the 1980s. As coal mines, steel mills and factories shut down they left aban­doned industrial facilities, a legacy of environmental destruction, and unemployment in excess of 25 percent.

Slag heaps and tailings were a prominent part of the landscape. The Emscher River, which runs through the region, was not just understood as “an open sewer.” It had been re-designed, channelized, and lined with concrete specifically to perform the function of draining industrial pollution.

During the ten year term of the IBA, which expired in 2000, state and local gov­ernment, business and labor, environ­mentalists, planners, architects and citizens worked at projects to expand and connect regional green spaces; regener­ate the Emscher River; promote economic development; preserve the physical land­marks from the region’s heavy industrial age; build and renovate housing; and promote job training and grass roots development.

So far, about dm 5 billion have been in­vested (about $2.5 billion US by current exchange rates), and roughly two thirds of that has come from public sources. These investments have made possible:

· Expansion and connection of green spaces in the region. The exhibition built on the 1920s-era German concept of green corridors, adding a number of new “landscape parks” and forming a continuous network of parks and trails, including 167 miles of bicycle paths and 80 miles of walking trails. Some new parks were de­veloped on old industrial spoils or inte­grated with new office parks.

(back to the top)