Hen­rik Håkans­son cre­a­ted a vision for the eco­lo­gi­cal future in the Emscher Val­ley. His two cube-like buil­dings at the Emscher­quell­hof offer accom­mo­da­tion for wild bees and a mea­dow of flo­wers as nutri­tion.

Ope­ning times: The Emscher­quell­hof and the café are open on Satur­days and Sun­days from 12 mid­day till 6 pm.

For the resi­dents of the Emscher Val­ley Lucy and Jorge Orta jointly cre­a­ted the two sculp­tu­res stan­ding by the Phoe­nix Lake: »Vogel­frau (Bird­wo­man)« and »Totem mit Els­ter (Totem with Mag­pie)« con­vey the spi­rit and the his­tory of the pla­ces for which they were made.

The shop sign is not see­king to attract custo­mers nor pro­mo­ting mer­chan­dise. Nothing has been remo­ved, only scru­pu­lously amen­ded: through a dis­crete inter­ven­tion Samuel Treindl fil­led gaps and by play­ing with let­ters cre­a­ted a new mea­ning.

All that glit­ters is not gold. The sphe­ri­cal hol­low space inside the amor­phous, walk-through con­crete sculp­ture by the Ber­lin-based office for artists and archi­tects none­t­he­less offers a spe­cial acou­stic expe­ri­ence.

The white square basin has a stran­gely alien appea­rance in the midst of the swee­ping lands­cape. Lea­ning over its high sur­roun­ding edge one dis­co­vers a cir­cu­lar black pool of water at the basin’s cen­tre. This abs­tract work of art which makes refe­rence to Supre­ma­tism also ser­ves as a fire pool for the Hof Emscher­tal.

The lands­cape archi­tec­ture office ate­lier le balto trans­for­med an over­grown hazel­nut grove close to a motor­way slip road in Dort­mund into an invi­ting place: tra­ver­sing woo­den walk­ways visi­tors reach the heart of the grove, a calm spot to lin­ger for a while.

Tada­shi Kawa­mata built an obser­va­tion tower on rai­sed ground which is acces­si­ble via a woo­den walk­way. Zig­zag­ging upwards, the walk­way offers vary­ing per­spec­ti­ves across the coun­try­side. The pan­ora­mic view from the tower shows a lands­cape that is still chan­ging as a result of the Emscher rive­r’s con­ver­sion.

In the middle of Her­ner Meer a three-part assem­bly of figu­res juts out of the water at the end of a jetty. Bogo­mir Ecker has sta­cked cylin­dri­cal hol­low bodies made of yel­low-coa­ted steel per­fo­ra­ted with holes that catch the wind. Twenty-three metres high, the tower is flan­ked by a smal­ler com­pa­n­ion made of cast alu­mi­nium and a street lamp 16 metres high.

A dige­s­tion tank in the decom­mis­si­o­ned sewage tre­at­ment plant has been tur­ned into a monu­ment dedi­ca­ted to the his­tory of coal mining. On the outer shell Silke Wag­ner desi­g­ned a giant mural that shows major his­to­ri­cal sce­nes ran­ging from the first mass strike by miners in 1889 to the poli­ti­cal deci­sion to end state sub­si­dies to the coal indus­try in 2007.


Watch the docu­men­ta­tion of the event »On site« with Silke Wag­ner on July 12, 2020 → YOUTUBE.

A true-to-life repro­duc­tion of a moun­tain in the Jos­hua Tree Nati­o­nal Park sud­denly appea­red on the Wilde Insel (Wild Island) bet­ween the Emscher river and the Rhine-Herne Canal. Quiet music can be heard coming from the moun­tain, “Sym­phony from ano­ther world” com­po­sed by Mog­wai.

Stan­ding at an unspec­ta­cu­lar cross­roads north of the Emscher river is an obe­lisk almost 14 metres high. Its black car­bon sur­face gle­ams in the sun. Made of car­bon fibre the objec­t’s mate­rial points to the future – the hi-tech sub­stance is extre­mely light and shock-resi­stant.

An old gas tank has been tur­ned into a study: refe­rence books, orni­tho­lo­gist arte­facts and an assort­ment of curi­o­si­ties encou­rage visi­tors to take up natu­ral stu­dies. Visi­tors can also use the teles­co­pes and the obser­va­tion plat­form on top of the tank to watch local bird­life.

A hotel room inside a sewage pipe: on the grounds of the Ber­ne­Park das­park­ho­tel offers inex­pen­sive accom­mo­da­tion. Strauss first deve­lo­ped this “hos­pi­ta­lity device”, as he calls his hotel, in Aus­tria, before exten­ding the con­cept to the Ruhr region. The five “sleep pipes” can be boo­ked bet­ween April and Octo­ber.

→ DAS­PARK­HO­TEL.NET

One of the two for­mer cla­rify­ing tanks has been tur­ned into a „the­a­tre of plants“.With arran­ge­ments of over 21,000 shrubs and flo­wers, inters­per­sed with ben­ches, the cir­cu­lar gar­den inside the tank is an invi­ta­tion to stroll and while away time. The second cla­rify­ing tank is fil­led with water: at its cen­tre is a woo­den plat­form that can be rea­ched by bridge. A sewage tre­at­ment plant as a lei­sure spot!

A revol­ving circle of gla­ring light edges each of the two cla­rify­ing tanks when the day turns to dusk. Moun­ted on the roof of a for­mer main­te­nance hut is a kind of publi­city panel proclai­ming CATCH AS CATCH CAN. The illu­mi­na­ted let­te­ring spi­ri­tedly echoes the cir­cu­lar move­ment of the light as a com­men­tary on the whole site.

The light instal­la­tion is currently not in ope­ra­tion.

Who’s that dan­cing out of line? Though based on the form of a typi­cal elec­tri­city pylon, this 35-metre high, cur­ving steel sculp­ture made by the Ber­lin artists’ col­lec­tive Inges Idee (Inge’s Idea) is remi­niscent more of the spi­rit in Goe­the’s poem “Der Zau­ber­lehr­ling” sum­mo­ned by the sor­ce­rer’s diso­be­dient app­ren­tice.

With 496 alu­mi­nium coils, the bridge spi­rals loo­sely across the Rhine-Herne Canal in Ober­hau­sen. Not only child­ren are sti­mu­la­ted by the chan­ging colour fields of the bridge’s floor to hop over to the other side – where the Kai­ser­gar­ten park lies in store!

With a team made up of wbp Land­schafts­a­r­chi­tek­ten, Banz + Riecks Archi­tek­ten and Elger Blitz (Carve, Ams­ter­dam), and the col­la­bo­ra­tive par­ti­ci­pa­tion of local resi­dents, Apo­lo­nija Šušteršič desi­g­ned the new buil­ding and an out­door play­ground. A youth club has become PLAY_LAND.