Emscher Park:
International Building Exhibition (IBA)
Emscher Park:
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| Country: | a) Western Europe | ,b) Germany |
| Language: | |
| Type: | Project, 1 |
| Area: | Region, > 1 million |
| Actors: | Local government, Regional government, Publ.-priv. partnership |
| Funding: | Local government, Regional government, National government, European Union, Economic Sector, NGO, Publ.-priv. partnership, Other |
| Topics: | Architecture and construction |
| Business and industry | |
| Employment | |
| Housing (and new settlements) | |
| Land use and -planning | |
| Nature and open space | |
| Urban renewal / Urban rehabilitation | |
| Water | |
| Objectives: | Improve intersectoral cooperation |
| Increase bio-diversity | |
| Increase green areas | |
| Increase public awareness | |
| Instruments: | Demonstration and pilot project |
The ten-year project "International Building Exhibition (IBA) Emscher Park" was based on a structural programme of 1988 with the objective of giving a strong impulse to the derelict Emscher area and with the main goal of urban development and ecological renewal in the highly contaminated former industrial and coal mining area. The programme was begun in 1989 and successfully completed in 1999. The entire Emscher Park project contains a wealth of important elements appropriate for inclusion:
The Northern Ruhr district (Emscher Zone) is a densely-populated, dilapidated industrial region. The area with a population of 2 million inhabitants and 802 km 2 was deteriorating more and more with ongoing social and economic development. Consequently, the federal state of North-Rhine-Westphalia planned the International Building Exhibition (IBA) as a programme that was carried out in two steps. In 1999 the entire process was completed.
The IBA Emscher Park is a ”building exhibition”, and thus is aimed towards regional possibilities related to architectural structures. The IBA is therefore only one aspect of regional structural policy, but one of the most successful. The IBA Emscher Park’s task is the ecological and economic renewal of an old industrial region. Thus the IBA is more concerned with accelerating modernisation than with slowing down structural change.
The Emscher region has been entirely shaped by industrialisation. Now it is being shaped in a ”post-industrial” manner. In contrast, many other significant cultural regions of Europe have an essentially pre-industrial basis. In the IBA project, the memory of the past is being preserved while new experiments for the future are being promoted. At the end of the past century industrial society was given a monument in the form of the IBA Emscher Park. This monument is at the same time conserving and experimental. This reflects the dynamic principle of industrial society in comparison to the largely static societies of the pre-industrial era.
In close co-operation with the 17 cities of the Emscher region, the IBA has implemented projects in five working fields, to give a boost to socio-economic and environmental recovery. The most significant goals of these projects have been:
Approximately 120 projects were implemented to achieve these main objectives.
For the purpose of developing the plan and presenting the results, a planning structure was set up in 1989, called the ”IBA Emscher Park Planning Company Ltd”. It has supported the translation of good ideas into practicable and feasible plans. It has organised architectural and urban planning contests and the exchange of experience on a national and international scale. The implementation of plans has been the task of the steering committee, in which local authorities co-operate. Construction and development companies and other firms operating in that area also participate in the steering committee.
Public participation is a point of permanent interest. Thus one of the principles behind the IBA Emscher Park has been ”festivalisation”, which is a useful method of attracting public attention. If its motivating effects are to be fully utilised, new forms of celebration and presentation must be invented. The IBA Emscher Park offers a successful example of this by the way it extended the ”building exhibition festival” over a ten-year period and organised a decentralised concert of projects and project presentations.
Three of the main projects of IBA are
1. Environmental recovery of water-resources
Before industrialisation, the Emscher and its tributaries were a meandering system on a slight slope. As a result of industrialisation the amount of hard surface increased and a growing amount of effluent had to be drained away artificially. Since industrialisation and urbanisation, waste water has been pumped into the river and the original landscape has been ruined. For economic and spatial reasons, such as the location and depth of the derelict coal mines, subterranean drainage has not been possible. At the beginning of the project, the Emscher system was a regulated man-made open sewer, canalised with concrete quays, dams and dykes. One of the starting points for recovery was the cleaning of the heavily-polluted river. An integrated plan was developed to clean the water-systems by means of a gradual separation of different flows. Several sewage plants have been built in the area towards which sewage water will be directed. Since the available space is limited, a project group is investigating how more water can be retained in the area. Where possible, water is discharged to open surfaces, rain barrels and basins and if possible the soil. Residents too are paying for clean water but they are also paying for discharging water to the sewage system. The tariff is calculated on the basis of the hard surface of their property, determined from aerial photographs.
2. Recovery of the landscape
The Emscher Landscape Park was aimed at achieving a green corridor in the densely-populated industrial area from Dortmund to Duisburg, using the existing water courses. A network was created with East-West connections and a part of the Emscher was changed back from straight canals to meandering streams. The Emscher Landscape Park project has provided improvements such as a network of bicycle paths and hiking trails, recreational areas and public gardens, as well as natural reserves. A period of 30 years has been estimated for the full development of these reserves. The recovery of the water system forms the core of the entire environmental design.
3. Preservation and re-use of the historical heritage
With the decline of the canal mining base, the nineteenth and twentieth century architectural and technological monuments and buildings were at risk of being lost. In the preceding decades, virtually no capital had been invested in the Emscher region. This disadvantage was transformed into an advantage. Because of the on-going restructuring, it has been possible to create an autonomous and entirely new type of cultural landscape in the Emscher zone. This landscape is determined by the vestiges of industrial culture and industrial nature. A policy has been implemented to rehabilitate the old industrial buildings and to increase public awareness of their significance for the identity of the region. Some of the buildings are now industrial monuments that form characteristic points of reference in the area. Planners, architects and artists are seeking new approaches to harmonise the industrial elements from the past with the entire environment. Moreover, new economically viable uses for the buildings have been sought and found. An old wall in the yard of a derelict coal mine that has been turned into a training site for mountaineers is one example of many successful initiatives in this field.
In an attempt to evaluate the achievements of the IBA several aspects stand out:
Heidemji Advies BV: Urban environment and sustainable development - Success stories, Arnheim 1994
Internationale Bauaustellung Emscher Park, (ed): 1999, Die Erfahrungen der IBA Emscher Park: Programmbausteine für die Zukunft.
Internationale Bauaustellung Emscher Park, (ed): 1999, Katalog der Projekte 1999
Internationale Bauaustellung Emscher Park, (ed): 1999, Kurzinfo
Manfred Sack: Siebzig Kilometer Hoffnung. Die IBA Emscher Park, Stuttgart 1999
Karl Ganser: Liebe auf den zweiten Blick. Internationale Bauausstellung Emscher Park, Dortmund 1999
http://www.iba.nrw.de
http://www.iclei.org/egpis/egpc-039.html
| Name | : | Kolkau |
| Firstname | : | Anette |
| Telefon | : | 0209/ 17 03 -131/ -136 |
| Telefax | : | 0209/ 17 03 -298 |
| Address | : | IBA Emscher Perk |
| Ms Anette Kolkau | ||
| Leithestr. 35 | ||
| 45886 Gelsenkirchen |
Project was added at 01.06.1995
Project was changed at 21.08.2001