Landscape – Great Idea! X-LArch III - Department für Raum ...

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Designing the post-industrial cultural landscape
The region around Bitterfeld became highly industrialised
at the turn of the 20th century and was the world’s leading
developer of man-made fibres and films during the
1920s. However, the serious side effects of the chemical
industry made Bitterfeld a popular symbol of industrial
contamination around 1990. This image and the need
for clean air and water formed the framework for the
discussion on landscape models that initially took place
around the Dessau Bauhaus. The “Industrial Garden
Realm” project, which includes Ganser’s remarks, had
already been developed there before the fall of the wall.
Out of numerous pit visits [Fig. 2] and workshops arose
the basic idea of linking the region’s two dominant landscape
strata, both of which are part of UNESCO’s World
Cultural Heritage today: firstly, the Wörlitzer Garden
Realm with its famous 18th century landscape garden
that stands for the progressive ideal of marrying usefulness
with beauty and appears to form an strong contrast
to the industrial landscape; secondly, the idea is to draw
upon the programmatic vision of the Bauhaus school,
which permits a reference to industrial modernity beyond
its rejections through its key role in the debate on urban
planning models during the interwar period (Stiftung Bauhaus
Dessau 1996/1999).
During the preparation of the EXPO 2000 correspondence
region in the mid-1990s, an important debate
took place on the design of the large post-mining area
near Bitterfeld. Numerous experts from the fields of cultural
studies, fine art, landscape architecture and mining,
not to mention politicians and locals, all participated in
the discussion and implementation of landscape models.
They reached a consensus that instead of obliterating the
vestiges of the area’s mining history, it would be a part of
a new cultural landscape. [4] Siegfried Knoll’s drafts for
the “Landschaftspark Goitzsche” from 1995 were to serve
as the basis for the design. Several works of land(scape)
art, which can be regarded as reminiscences of mining in
terms of the design and the materials used, emerged on
the new Pouch peninsula [Fig. 4]. An urban embankment
complete with docks and a promenade was built close to
the centre of Bitterfeld based on an art competition and
an attractive housing estate was to be developed in the
surrounding area. A pier that rises with water and a walkin
water gauge tower was constructed in the northern
section as Goitzsche’s new architectural landmark [Fig.
3]. A contract with the adjacent municipalities ensures
that the embankment remains accessible to the public to
avoid making the same mistake as many other places,
namely selling sections of the embankment as parcels
of land for a short-term income. Whilst there is no longer
any large open-mine equipment available in Goitzsche,
five of these monumental relicts have survived in “Ferropolis”,
another EXPO project, and been made into a sensational
arena where concerts are held for audiences of
up to 25,000 people (Kegler 2005) [Fig. 2, background].
Conclusions
The outlined projects for planning novel cultural landscapes
had great appeal beyond the region. Their concepts
have a model character and were initially opposed
to tourism. The new fundamental idea is the integration
of industrial vestiges and relics as valued landscape
aspects. This approach stands in clear contrast to the
traditional concepts of recultivation which predominated
before 1990 in and outside of the GDR and which promoted
simply removing the traces of mining. Derived from
early post-industrial areas in Britain and the Ruhr Valley
in western Germany, the new idea has been developed
into special approaches for open pit mining landscapes.
With the end of the EXPO 2000, however, in many cases
the debates on the further development of the landscape
began to die down. Nevertheless, the discussion
Fig. 2-4: Front covers of books on post-mining landscapes (cf. References)