New architectural map of the Ruhr Area has appeared, GA network partners Rhein-Ruhr and Berlin cooperate on the occasion of the European Capital of Culture 2010, our architectural map of the Ruhr Area was published in January. It is the fifth map in the series, continuing the previous success of maps
from Berlin, Munich, Cologne and Hamburg. All the maps are created by members of the Guiding Architects Network.
This is the first map publication ever to cover the entire Ruhr area and list buildings from all of its regions, which counts 53 cities and towns. The set of four maps plus booklet contains 2300 projects from the rich industrial history of the area, including civil structures, contemporary architecture, parks and gardens as well as urban projects. Five of the best projects from eight historical periods are presented with short texts and fotos.
The authors are architects Detlev Bruckhoff and Thomas M. Krüger, supported by designer Marnie Schaefer. All three of them have profound knowledge of the area, as it’s where they grew up. The map is published and financed by the Marketing Company RVR (Regionalverband Ruhr).
A composition for highway A40 – the most important east-west traffic connection in the Ruhr area, which cuts across the urban space, connecting people in one sweeping motion. It’s one of the highways with the highest traffic volumes in Germany.
The duration of “Symphony A40″ corresponds to the time it takes to ride along A40 at a constant speed of 90 km/h. Mongkok was inspired by a journey from Dortmund in the east of the Ruhr area to Duisburg in the western part of the region.
“Symphonie A40″ is published and presented by FAR, the Rhein-Ruhr member of guiding-architects.net.
The CD is available in German, Austrian and Swiss bookstores (ISBN 978-3-00-027017-8). For orders in other countries, please send an email to FAR: mail@far.la . FAR delivers the CD worldwide. Also available from Amazon.
From 20 until 22 February, the annual guiding architects network meeting took place, this time in the Ruhr area. We made a little film during the meeting, which gives a nice impression of our members and what we do during the meetings. This time, we held our usual presentations about the past year, talked a lot about the new website and the blog, but also about organizational issues and marketing ideas, we ate some typical Ruhr-area pea soup and finally did a guided tour to local architecture, led by local member Detlev Bruckhoff.
Some weeks ago the work for the extension of the “Deutsches Bergbau Museum” (German Mining Museum) started in Bochum/Ruhr area. The building is the result of a Europe-wide competition, won by Dutch office Benthem Crouwel in collaboration with German landscape architects Greenbox.
The concept of the new building, which will be finished in 2010 - the year of the “Capital of Culture” in the Ruhr area - distances itself from the symmetrical main building from 1940. The project, called “Black Diamond”, deals with the themes of coal layers and ramps and symbolizes an underground coal mine model at a 1:1-scale. The black façade covered with glittering stones is an hommage to coal, which secured the wealth of the Ruhr area for more than 150 years.
With the German Mining Museum, Benthem Crouwel realise their first project in the Ruhr area, but they are not the first internationally known Dutch architects who give their creative input to the region. Not only did Rem Koolhaas redesign the former Coal Wash on Zollverein together with “local heroes” Heinrich Böll and Hans Krabel in 2006, but already in the 1960s Van den Broek and Bakema built the City Hall of Marl .
The image presents a view from the top of the pit frame, which is located above the main building. This was built by architects Fritz Schupp and Wilhelm Holzapfel, who formed a unique collaboration for this job. Usually Fritz Schupp worked together with Martin Kremmer; together they built “Zollverein Shaft 12″ in 1932, which is a Unesco World Heritage site today.
Instead of relating to the old building, Benthem Crouwel decided to create a contrasting museum extension. Maybe that’s an old-school concept, but in this case it emphasizes the symmetry of the original building and made it possible to preserve its existing façade.
The Ruhr area is famous for its series of landmarks, created by international artists on top of former mining dumps and in converted industrial buildings. One of the most important artworks is the Tetraeder (Bottrop/Ruhr area), realised by Wolfgang Christ and Jürgen LIT Fischer in the 1990s, during the period of “Strukturwandel” in the Ruhr area. Now the Tetraeder is the focus of attention again, due to an artwork that triggered a huge public discussion in the Ruhr area. The question is: who is allowed to define the public space?
Tetraeder in Bottrop by Wolfgang Christ and Fred F.’s aliens at the foot of the sculpture.
52-year-old Fred F. from Bottrop has created some images of aliens on the platform on top of the mining dump which serves as the base of the Tetraeder. He made them from old stones, which he collected on top of the hill and sorted according to colour (light grey to dark grey). Then he re-decorated the hilltop.
When the Regionalverband Ruhr rebuilt the platform and brought it back to its original state, it caused a landslide of public indignation: Many people in the area are convinced that Fred F.’s aliens were artworks as well.
The Centre for International Light Art in Unna/Ruhr area is the only museum worldwide which focusses exclusively on artworks from the field of lighting and illumination.
Soon a new artwork by James Turrell will be opened to the public. There’s a short movie about this work and the underground museum on the website of Der Westen – unfortunately only with commentary in German, but the images should speak for themselves.
A composition for highway A40 – the most important east-west traffic connection in the Ruhr area, which cuts across the urban space, connecting people in one sweeping motion. It’s one of the highways with the highest traffic volumes in Germany.
The concept of the new building, which will be finished in 2010 - the year of the “Capital of Culture” in the Ruhr area - distances itself from the symmetrical main building from 1940. The project, called “Black Diamond”, deals with the themes of coal layers and ramps and symbolizes an underground coal mine model at a 1:1-scale. The black façade covered with glittering stones is an hommage to coal, which secured the wealth of the Ruhr area for more than 150 years.
