Beauty Redeemed by Birkhäuser

www.birkhauser.com www.ikarospress.dk

Beauty Redeemed RECYCLING POST-INDUSTRIAL L ANDSCAPES

ELLEN BRAAE

Beauty Redeemed offers a systematic framework for the consideration and use of post-industrial sites. The author, Professor of Landscape Design at Copenhagen University, places these ‘leftovers’ in their broad historical and aesthetic context, proceeding from the 19th-century Romantic fascination with ruins through present-day industrial decline as exemplified by Detroit to a renaissance of the transformed landscape. Transformation, understood as designing with the ‘as found’, forms the basis of this design theory; it explores design work informed by a sensibility for redeemed beauty and various concepts of relating past, present and future.

Beauty Redeemed

Coping with post-industrial sites is a pressing issue throughout Europe and North America. One point of departure for their general rediscovery was the revitalisation by Latz + Partner in the early 1990s of an abandoned steelworks as Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord; industrial relics were not demolished but seen as integral parts of the overall concept and imbued with new meanings and uses. Many more projects with a similar approach have since been executed and this book presents a selection of the most seminal, such as Chemetoff’s Île de Nantes, Parc del Clot in Barcelona, Hargreaves/PROAP’s Parque do Tejo e Trancão in Lisbon and Michel Desvigne’s Parc aux Angéliques in Bordeaux.

ELLEN BRAAE

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Contents

01 Map of case studies

From industrial to post-industrial urban landscape

Interventions! Learning from Duisburg-Nord

A new kind of sustainability 10 Industrial areas as new cultural heritage 12 An epistemological breakthrough in design 13 Structure and messages 14

Industrial landscapes as an element of post-industrial urbanisation 20 Waves of industrialisation 21 Factories and infrastructure 22 Motorisation and mass production 22 Globalisation and de-industrialisation 23

Detroit, the 20th-century capital 27 Phases of Fordism 28 Standardised work routines on the assembly line 30 The factory as a city machine 30 Decentralised production 30

The impact of Fordism on architecture and urban planning 30 Post-Fordism – Toyotism 33

De-industrialisation

The collapse of Detroit 38 Stalking Detroit 39

The Ruhr District, a 21st-century capital New urban development patterns 42 Growth and decline 44 Drosscape or terrain vague? 47

IBA Emscher Park, Germany 50 Potteries Thinkbelt, England 56 Fürst-Pückler-Land, Germany 60

The post-industrial landscape – a new kind of cultural heritage 67

Landscape aesthetics and atmospheres

The leavings of the past and site-specific aspects

From the breakdown of norms to an action-oriented interdisciplinary approach

Industrial culture as a new field for preservation? 70

New departures and new formulations in the design professions 126 Between art and science 130

Urban mutability and the role of the landscape as a mediator 79 The city as a single vast ecosystem 83

The city of intermediate spaces

Open spaces as inverted ‘objects’ 92 Dynamic enclaves and heterotopias 93 The role of post-industrial landscapes 95 The challenges and potentials of the new cultural heritage landscape 98

An eye for landscape

134

Background of the concept of landscape 134 Ritter’s landscape 137 Seel’s critique of Ritter 138 A modern-day ‘landscape’ 140

The return of natural beauty

142

The Beautiful, the Sublime and the Picturesque 143 The aesthetic experience 144 Seel’s aesthetic forms of experience 145 Atmosphere 147

Convergence between goodness and beauty? 150 Beauty in the perspective of sustainability 151

124

Profession and concept 125

‘New Heritage’ 75

Urbs fluxus

121

GR 2013, France 100 Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, Germany 106 Terra Nova, Germany 114

Parc del Clot, Spain 154 Brikettfabrik Witznitz, Germany 160 Bremerhaven Old Harbour, Germany

166

The fascination with ruins and ruinous industrial landscapes as sites of memory 173

Industrial landscapes between preservation, restoration and re-use 227

The ruin as a monument

Industrial areas between preservation and re-use 228

176

From waste to monument and the cult of ruins 176

Interpretation as an artistic practice 230 Post-production 230

The inherent values of ruins – looking for essence 180

Use of spolia

Distinguishing values 180 A balance of forces 182

Building a future out of ruins

Spolia in 20th-century urban theory 234 Use of spolia in post-Antiquity 236

184

The potential uses of spolia in transformation strategy 237

Fragments and processing them 184 Reverse ruin 187

Ideologies and practices of restoration

Ruinosity and present day ruins 188

The nature of memory

234

John Ruskin – the ethicist of decay 240

192

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc – optimising structural logic 242

Input from the theory of memory 193 The social structure of memory 194

Carlo Scarpa one present – one past 245

The spatial anchorage of memory 195 Places of memory and topoi 197

The Exners – processes ‘as found’ 247

Experience and perception 199

Chipperfield and Harrap – remodelling architectural intentions 251

Ruinous industrial landscapes as places of memory 200 Monuments and memorial structures 200

Approaches to transformation

254

A matrix for preservation 202 The city as collective memory 203 The mutability of the ‘monument’ 204 Dynamic anchors of memory 205

Parque do Tejo e Trancão, Portugal Frederiksværk, Denmark 212 Île de Nantes, France 218

206

Halden Zollverein, Germany Westpark Bochum, Germany Parc aux Angéliques, France

256 262 268

240

Design as intervention: outline for a transformation theory

07 Beauty redeemed – taking aesthetics seriously 307

275

The experience of beauty 308 Mind and body 309 The spatial and cultural implications of industry 310

Transformation as design practice and theory 278 From theories of restoration and re-use to transformation theory 278

Design as transformation – changing by and through what already exists 312

Design versus transformation 281

Design versus transformation 312 Building up knowledge and a new form of creativity 313 Transformation as narrative 314 Conceptualising time in design 315

Design – starting from a sheet of paper 282 Transformation – of, on, with and from the site 284 ‘Projection’ and ‘production’ 284 Intervention 285

Constituting a ‘transformation area’ and the ‘object for transformation’ 285 The transformation area as a monument 285 The object of transformation as context 286

Constituting codices 287 Edification 287 Détourage 287

Notes

Bibliography

324

Illustration credits and sources

The open formulation of the objectives of transformation 289

Production in time – four paradigms of transformation

318

290

Data – materials, processes and immaterial aspects 290 Data: materials 291 Data: processes 291 Data: immaterial aspects 291 Data summation 292

Protocol – four transformation paradigms 292 Difference transformation 294 Continuity transformation 297 Cultivation transformation 300 Optimisation transformation 303 Transformation of ruinous industrial landscapes in time 304

334

the first wave of industrialisation, which derived its energy from water power and later coal, was driven by three main industrial factors: one was textile production, with a series of technical advances, and plenty of wool and manpower. The second was steam, and the possibility of extracting coal in far greater quantities, the establishment of semi-automated factories that were independent of water power, and finally in transport, with the appearance of steamships and steam locomotives. The third crucial factor was iron casting, which, like the later invention of reinforced concrete, was to bring about a breakthrough in the building industry. The overall impact of these radical changes on the landscape can hardly be overstated. A consequence of this first wave was also demographical restructuring, with migration from the country to the towns and the resultant explosive urban expansion. Among the most visible marks on the countryside left by this first wave of industrialisation was the first waterways infrastructure in the W. Williams: View

rians have p Â reviously associated industrialisation

form of extensive canal systems followed by an

of the iron works at

with technical advances, and especially with steam

even more extensive railway network.

Coalbrookdale (1777), an example of isolated

engines and electricity. However, the latest 30 yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

industrial production

research has increasingly included other underly-

Motorisation and mass production

ing conditions and the interaction of such factors

The second wave of industrialisation began just

as ecology, forms of government, culture, religion,

before the mid-19th century and marked the tran-

faith and purchasing power.

sition to industrial mass production. Here electrifi-

units during the first wave of industrialisation.

cation played a central role as the precondition for

Factories and infrastructure

a vast number of related industries: steel, chem-

Traditionally, the first industrial wave is consid-

icals, oil refining, and the automotive industry in

ered to have occurred between the end of the 18th

the twentieth century, to which we will be return-

century and around 1830-1850. Definitions of this

ing. The patterns established in the first wave were

period vary considerably, however, depending on

scaled up in the second wave of industrialisation,

the national point of view. A central position is

and the rationale of mass production and mass

occupied by the development of processing units,

consumption became more pronounced. Motorisa-

either in homes or in the form of actual factories,

tion, at first based on coal but later on oil, severed

comprising the first break with the links to how the

all bonds with the underlying landscape. Factory

landscape was organised around units determined

units were now more often positioned in relation to

by cultivation of the soil, animal husbandry or for-

urban development and vice versa. The emergence

estry. It meant the breakup of what can be called

of motor traffic alone brought wholesale changes

co-existence units in which the economy and or-

to the physical environment in the form of exten-

ganisation were adapted to the framework provided

sive road and parking installations, subsequently

by the natural environment. The Âdevelopment of

contributing to urban spread.

Globalisation and de-industrialisation

elements in a common pattern, and were later

Industrialisation was the

The third wave of industrialisation was of a dif-

perceived to be linked to a number of greater and

driver of an urbanisation

ferent nature. Whereas the first two waves accel-

in fact global issues.

unknown scale,

process on a hitherto reconfiguring European

erated industrialisation everywhere, together with

The causes were to be found in the structural

the consequent urbanisation, the third wave is

changes that have characterised the Western world

seen as a retreat or de-industrialisation that at

since the late 1960s12 and which manifested them-

boulevards with surface

the same time exposes the environmental crisis,

selves in the economy as stagnating growth or

trams and underground

primarily caused by the unsustainable use of re-

regression. The transition from industrial society

sources in industry. At the time when a number

to what came to be called post-industrial society

of famous factory areas closed down almost si-

meant, among other things, that the numbers of

multaneously – Lingotto and Bagnoli, quay facili-

jobs in the primary sector fell and it was not pos-

ties in the London Docklands, Liverpool, Antwerp,

sible to transfer all workplaces from the industrial

Rotterdam and Boston, followed by the paralysis of

to the service sector. The economic growth rate

entire communities like the Ruhr District, the Pol-

dropped towards zero, while social affluence ap-

cevera valley and the Bitterfeld-Wittenberg-Des-

parently continued to increase although private

sau region – it became clear that one could no

investments were now redirected to countries with

longer talk of ‘isolated cases’; these events were

cheaper raw materials and lower labour costs. At

metropolises: sixstorey buildings along

sewer systems.

first it was the primary industries from the first

Industrial mass

and second waves of industrialisation – coal, iron

production was located

and steel production, the textile industry and shipbuilding – that were affected by local economic slowdown.

near waterways or railways: interior of the Citroën factory, France, 1934.

Secondary industries were affected later, and the problems gradually began to be apparent in civil society. Decay in residential areas, social structures, the retail trade and other areas were simply the outward signs of the socio-economic and socio-psychological effects of change.13 The third industrial revolution had created new conditions in production, communications and transport, and together they left distinct scars – social, physical, cultural and economic, and not least physical – on former industrial societies. The underlying causes are globalised production and trade, which rely on a global logistics network that makes it possible to locate production in parts of the world where the costs of both raw materials and labour are lower. Once a heavy cost burden, transport is today a less important factor. The focus has shifted from rail and sea transport to the road network, exacerbating the recession in both docks and rail freight. Shipping is centred on a few major hubs, at which 20-foot containers are transferred to lorries. For passenger transport this has meant a transition to high-speed trains and the establishment of ‘through-routing’ stations, which in towns are often constructed underground so that the need for rail tracks on the land is reduced or eliminated.14 When the Iron Curtain fell in 1989 and the Cold War thus finally ended, to the already extensive list of disused areas were added a large number of military installations and railway areas. We have not yet seen all the consequences of these processes, neither in the primary industries, nor the secondary sector, nor in the functions associated with them. De-industrialisation is in other words a ‘local’ phenomenon. The third wave of industrialisation is global, and by no means an indication that industrialisation is being discontinued.

Phases of Fordism A key person in building up American industrialist Henry Ford’s empire was the German-born American architect Albert Kahn (1869-1942). His was the normative industrial architecture – also for European avant-garde architecture and urbanism. The earliest of Kahn’s factories built for Henry Ford, Highland Park in 1910, was the largest factory building in existence at the time and became an icon. The assembly works that the Ford Motor Company later set up all over the Western world were all modelled on Highland Park in both their construction and architectural expression. In these building complexes Kahn made use of reinforced concrete, four to six storeys high, to create wide

At the Ford Motor Company’s River Rouge

expanses in the factory sheds, while at the same

Plant, Mexican artist Diego Rivera executed

time introducing large glazed areas in the façades and ventilation dampers to let in light and air. The architecture of the buildings followed a rational modular system that could be extended at will. Attached to the Highland Park factory was the Ford sociological department. Henry Ford (18631947) was not only interested in greater production efficiency but also in his workers’ lives outside the factory. English classes were provided for the many immigrants and poor black workers from the southern states who came in thousands looking for work at Ford factories. Improved residential areas were built around the factory complex, and the teetotal Ford was concerned by the fact that there were four times as many bars as churches in Detroit and energetically sought to reduce their number. It should be noted that Prohibition in the USA was intended to ensure a stable workforce (and also stable purchasing power) – although this attempt to discipline the working class produced unforeseen and unpleasant side effects and had to be abandoned. Highland Park was where Ford’s assembly line methods were first introduced on a large scale. The conveyor belt carried components and vehicles through a standardised production sequence following an adaptation of Taylor’s ‘scientific

seven fresco panels called The Detroit

Industry Murals in 1932-1933. This panel depict workers in the factory.

The old City Hall in Detroitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s heyday as the capital of the 20th century.

Aerial photo of the vast harbour area at the Ford factory, River Rouge, Detroit, USA.

De-industrialisation

Detroit was the iconic world capital of the 20th

city as motifs from which to register the changes.

century, and the flat landscape of Michigan the

Vergara has an eye for abandoned, unwanted, un-

ideal setting for the rapid expansion of the city.

cared-for buildings, and his photographs capture

The second wave of industrialisation was also cru-

their special atmosphere. His motifs may be build-

cial to the development of the Ruhr District. Unlike

ings transformed to small forts with boarded-up

in Detroit, however, this development took place

windows or ruin-like façades that only vaguely

within the framework of both the first wave of in-

reveal their original function. The motif may also

dustrialisation and in an area with a long cultural

be the remains of the city council’s helpless and

history that had left correspondingly numerous

unsuccessful projects that attempted to give a

traces. The absence of historic depth in the history

lift to a quarter but left empty building sites that

of Detroit’s development, together with the way

nobody will claim, and so on. In 1995, Vergara

the de-industrialisation of Detroit was handled,

suggested that in Detroit twelve inner-city blocks

is a contributing factor to the particular ruinous

should be selected and designated as a ‘park of

industrial landscape the city has degenerated into.

ruined skyscrapers’ or ‘American Acropolis’ as a project to preserve and study the decay in empty

The collapse of Detroit

skyscrapers. ‘We could transform the nearly 100 troubled buildings into a grand national historic

A paradox in the de-industrialisation process in

park of play and wonder, an urban Monument Val-

Detroit is that, as the old and now largely super-

ley…Midwestern prairie would be allowed to in-

fluous city centre decays and gradually loses its

vade from the north. Trees, vines and wildflowers

function, the extensive suburbs are flourishing;

would grow on roofs and out of windows. Goats

smaller local centres are forming, primarily con-

and wild animals – squirrels, possum, bats, owls,

sisting of shopping areas. While ‘Suburbia’ here

ravens, snakes and insects – would live in the

resembles all the other more or less anonymous

empty behemoths, adding their calls, hoots and

suburbs, the decay of Detroit’s city centre becomes

screeches to the smell of rotten leaves and animal

more interesting and original all the time, at least

droppings.’23

for cultural historians. New York-based photo-

However, the City Council in Detroit regarded

graphic journalist and urban sociologist Camilo

the city’s problems from a less romantic perspec-

José Vergara (b. 1944), has documented the decay

tive and had other plans. In 1993 a ‘Federal Em-

of Detroit City by choosing particular points in the

powerment Zone’ was established in the centre of

Detroit, covering 13% of the city’s total area. More than 100,000 people still live in this area, which is

The decay of Detroit is thoroughly documented by writer

characterised by high unemployment (29%), pov-

and photographer Camilo José Vergara. In 1995, he came up

erty and a high proportion of black people compared to the city’s overall demographic (76%). The

with the controversial proposal to declare 12 square blocks of downtown Detroit ’skyscraper ruin park’ and turn them into study objects of decay and deterioration.

development of this Zone has become an object lesson in how formerly powerful, economically potent cities can decay and collapse, and in Detroit the process is being allowed to run to the bitter end: The city has been declared bankrupt, and, fully in line with the market economy thinking which also shaped the development of industry, its resources have now been handed over to a company that will try to make the best of the situation.24

Stalking Detroit Here, even the concept of a zone carries different connotations from those assigned to it by Modernism in town planning. It was once was considered progressive town planning theory to hold that the chaotic historic town should be rationally divided up into zones reserved for production, consumption, circulation and recreation – according to principles launched in CIAM’s 1933 Athens Charter. However, in the inner city zones of Detroit, where the city functions are no longer intact but have given way to anarchy, crime and poverty, there is none of the clear rationality of the CIAM programme or provision of security for the citizens. They are empty building sites where civilisation has burned out. It comes as no surprise that a film like Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979) captured the attention of urban sociologists. ‘Stalker’ describes a dream-like universe in which an inquisitive journalist and a sober natural scientist team up with a deserted veteran from the zone as their guide, and penetrate an

area (or ‘zone’), which apparently conceals a secret,

trial areas as a setting for tales set in a declining

possibly radioactive, threat. Only the h ypersensitive

civilisation. At the same time, Tarkovsky introduces

guide is able to read and interpret the signals and

a sense of mystery in the search which extends

signs whispering in the wind, in hidden demarca-

beyond the fascination of the graveyard-like atmos-

tion lines, ruins or sudden, cleansing rainstorms.

phere of abandoned industrial areas. So in a clear

The target of the expedition into the sealed and

allusion to Tarkovsky’s film epic – stalking Detroit

forbidden zone is a place called ‘The Room’, where

– as an architect Daskalakis explores industrial-ur-

the truth about the zone will be revealed. Tarkovsky

ban decay and collapse.25 In the same anthology,

elaborates further on what was already a common

Spanish photographers Bernado and Rosello follow

interest at the time, in exploring abandoned, pos-

in Vergaras’ footsteps on a photographic odyssey

sibly polluted and in any case dangerous indus-

through the ruined landscape of the once great city.

The intense life which the deserted industrial

of French serial novelist Eugène Sue in the 1840s, in

areas once accommodated remains as shadows in

numerous novels and films. What seems new after

the huge buildings, with vague echoes of a van-

the crises of the 1970s is that the attraction lies

ished but recent past. At times the fascination with

in the characteristic ruin and decay of a formerly

deserted, empty industrial sites is reminiscent of

imposing industrial culture. There is a fondness

the 18th-century cult of ruins and graveyards with

for scenes in areas of great modern cities on the

hooting owls etc. that were so popular in Gothic

edge of chaos and collapse. This is where one can

Tales. The modern eeriness is of a different nature.

seek a peculiar estrangement and creep up on a

The fascination with the deserted sites differs also

culturally suppressed ‘otherness’ – so brilliantly

from the tired cliché of the big city as a ‘jungle’, or a

captured by Tarkovsky.

In the Tarkovsky film

Stalker a small group enters the ‘zone’ of a collapsed civilisation with a local guide.

threatening wilderness – in use right from the time

The Ruhr District, a 21st-century capital

The management of de-industrialisation has been

decentralising forces is a contributing reason why

completely different in the quintessential Euro-

we can no longer speak of a dense town with outer

pean industrial region, the Ruhr District. Admit-

limits. This development pattern has been char-

tedly, there are installations in Europe which, like

acterised by a centrifugal movement, distributing

Ford’s factories, have unfolded their inherent logic

new shopping centres and residential, service and

and principles unhindered, but the majority of in-

administrative units at the edge of existing conur-

dustrial areas have been incorporated into various

bations or in the transitional areas between town

types of urban contexts, which previously formed

and country. At one and the same time it is hierar-

and especially now form the framework for their

chically organised in its distribution of function and

appearance and possibilities for future develop-

significance in a sort of network, but unsystematic

ment. Relations to place as a duality: the embod-

in its specific localisation. The movement is ad-

iment of universal production logic in a specific

mittedly asymmetrical, and new additions to the

locality, and the actual relations of which a place

town are attached to its periphery but, considered

forms a part, are both central aspects to be taken

on a large scale, urban growth appears as spatially

into consideration in rethinking the industrial

open conurbations spread over large areas. This

leavings we are facing. At the end of the 1980s the

also applies to the Ruhr District.

Ruhr District nominated itself as Europe’s labo-

European cities have traditionally developed in

ratory for revitalising abandoned industrial areas

a bipolar frame of understanding, in which green-

when it hosted the International Building Exhibi-

field projects at the edge of the city have added

tion Emscher Park 1988-1998. As an agglomeration

themselves to a constantly expanding urban core.

the Ruhr region is particularly interesting, since the

In a few cities this logic was already disrupted

scattered conurbation without centre or periphery,

by bombing during World War II. In the post-war

as it occurs here, resembles the present town.

years, de-industrialisation broke up the logic of urban development, bringing with it a new pattern

New urban development patterns

of local implosions – in a pattern where ‘white patches’ and sequences appear on the town map.

The development of post-war towns from the

As industry retreated, opportunities arose for new

middle of the 20th century onwards has taken up

uses within the already urbanised areas. The logic

enormous areas of land, and together with other

of development shifted from being centrifugally

oriented to a scattered, random and centripetal

With the internal spatiality in the present town,

movement. This movement flows toward internal

industrial areas are for the second time playing a

spaces. On town maps, industrial areas are often

central role in urban development. Industry was

represented as grey patches, indicating that from

previously the great engine of urban development,

the urban point of view they are completely unin-

and as so many inactive industrial areas are re-

teresting. That line of thinking may have difficulty

leased for other purposes the spaces used by indus-

in seeing the transition, as former production

try are once again the cradle of urban development.

areas are in principle becoming new cards that can

However, it will follow a dramatically changed pat-

be played in urban development. The real situation

tern. These areas, which were originally on the per足

beneficial use without

is very different. Precisely because this character-

iphery of old towns, are now being folded back into

treatment.

istic has always been the point of departure in the

the urban context. The internalisation or folding-in

Ruhr District due to the dense agglomerations of

of the periphery is an inward-looking or centripetal

older urban units and new production sites and

movement. However, it is not universal and thus

areas the region is ideal as a laboratory for urban

has not replaced centrifugal urban development.

development.

On the contrary, the two movements exist side by

Wastelands constitute a heterogeneous group consisting, among other types, of derelict land in the sense of neglected and abandoned. In scientific terms it is defined by being so damaged by industrial or other development that it is unsuitable for

side, so that the two-way logic of urbanisation is

and the Ruhr to Veneto in Northern Italy. This area

beginning to dismantle the old contrast between

is in fact identical with the older great industrial

town and country, urban and rural, and is shifting

regions, which not only appear here, but function

towards a hybrid ‘rural environment or a kind of

as a transnational network.

constructed naturalness.’26 It weakens the relation-

This blue banana is part of a process of po-

ship between the centre and the periphery, which

larisation, with both population and economic

was formerly the basic structure of the bipolar ur-

growth in the area (stagnating population figures

ban model. The characteristics we find in an ur-

for Europe as a whole mean that other areas are

ban agglomerate also seem relevant, therefore, to

in recession).28 This process of growth and de-

conurbations that previously had a well-defined

cline, which also encompasses the phenomenon

centre. Today the historical city centre is no longer

of ‘shrinking cities’ is going on at many levels and

the natural centre, but simply one centre of polar-

to various degrees, and often growth and recession

isation in a multi-polar system linked in physical

are happening side by side.29 Even growth areas

and virtual networks.

with new high-tech companies can quite possi-

With already scattered and centrifugally ori-

bly adjoin industrial wasteland.30 The question of

ented urban growth and the ruralisation of in-

whether an inactive industrial area is situated in

active industrial areas, the relationship between

a current growth area is absolutely critical, not

urbanised and non-urbanised is changing. It is a

only for its re-integration, but also for the way in

figure-ground relationship that is reversed. Where

which re-integration, and thereby transformation,

the town was formerly the well-defined object,

will take place. In an area with high growth the

in a landscape context the opposite is true: ‘The

impulses for urban compression will be strong,

relation between the wide-open countryside and

and the remnants of industry will often be con-

developed area is often reversed: the countryside is

sidered a barrier, while the consequence of weaker

no longer the surrounding ground, but has become

pressure toward urbanisation will be a slower

a delimited figure.’27 Focus is now directed on the

decision-making process, and therefore greater

open space; this is also the strategy underpinning

likelihood that building will be an extension of

revitalisation of the Ruhr District.

whatever is already on the site. The centrifugal movement of urban devel-

Growth and decline

opment is driven by a philosophy of continued growth, while centripetal development, taking the

The third wave of industrialisation has introduced

form of restructuring and re-use of the internal

new global contexts, which contribute not only to

spaces of the town, must economise within a given

a faster dissolution of the bipolar conurbations

framework. Today these forces are fundamentally

(country/town), but also to changes in the mutual

different. The first is well-known, and character-

interaction of towns. Regional and transnational

ises practically the entire history of town plan-

hierarchies are established where the concentration

ning, from the Greek city-states through the ‘ideal’

of globally related activities is not simply shifted,

cities of the Renaissance to Le Corbusier’s master

but appears to be concentrated in actual centres of

plans. Everything is first laid out on the drawing

growth. Thus the Ruhr District is part of a trans-

board, and must simply be realised on a given site:

national network of growth centres with a high

a ‘greenfield’ development. In Plan Voisin, which

concentration of people and capital, known as the

was never realised but based on Le Corbusier’s Ville

‘Blue Banana’. The name refers to a shape that can

Contemporaine and intended to revitalise Paris, all

be seen on photographs taken from space, extend-

existing buildings were to be cleared away, creat-

ing from Liverpool and London via the Netherlands

ing synthetic greenfield. This was not in the sense

that historically and factually nothing had been

challenges calls for different planning methods

there earlier, but the area was to be treated as ‘fric-

from those associated with centrifugal, urban

tionless’: without history, emptied of meaning. Re-

growth-oriented practice. One of the most im-

structuring a town’s interior spaces, in this case its

portant aspects is that the planning ideal of cre-

old industrial spaces, is of a different nature from

ating order in the traditional sense is no longer

greenfield-based urban development. Rebuilding

considered either possible or desirable.31 Another

what is already there – transformation – calls for

is that planning is conducted through projects,

different approaches. First and foremost, methods

one expression of which is this book’s collection

are required to read and draft within what exists,

of examples.32 Thirdly, the release of large areas,

in a way that can be unfolded over time and by

often close to the town, opens up opportunities

many agents.

for considerations related to the scale of the town

The transformation of ruinous industrial ar-

or local district. In the Ruhr, a regional scale was

eas shows that the nature and complexity of the

established as the guideline for local measures.

Solà-Morales describes

terrain vague as vast and ill-defined areas with fragile and ephemeral aesthetic qualities.

Danish sculptor Willy Ă&#x2DC;rskov experimented with the lower level of human intervention, the identification of the most primitive level in any production of meaning.

This dialogue across different scales may provide

meanings. In an agricultural context it is positive,

a unique chance to restore an entire urban area in

as a piece of land is not cultivated for a growing

a way that supports development of identity, ac-

season or longer, allowing it to regain its fertility.

cessibility and sustainable measures in new ways.

Thus land lying fallow was an investment in future

Fourthly, the landscape is given a more prominent

yields. In an industrial context it can refer to two

role than before, both in setting the agenda and cre-

types of economies or ideologies.36 One is the ag-

ating order, which will be described in more detail

ricultural growth economy, related to a yield year

in the following chapter.

by year, in which fallow land, as mentioned, represents an investment. The other is the industrially

Drosscape or terrain vague?

based economy, whose aim is linear, financially maximised profits. When this is no longer possible,

Inactive industrial areas are closely bound up, for

the business is closed down and abandoned: the

better or worse, with urban development and, natu-

end of production, or laying waste.

rally, with industrialisation. The many designations

If these meanings are applied to ruinous in-

to be found in the literature – brownfields, leftovers,

dustrial areas, then their inactive period can be

derelict land, waste land, fallow land, friches in-

regarded either as an investment for future use – or

dustrielles, ruinas industriales, waste, Brachland,

as an expression for an area that is worthless. Thus

drosscape and terrain vague – indicate the numer-

the ‘resting period’ becomes a kind of interval for

ous meanings associated with the phenomenon.

mental readjustment, a transitional phase allowing

Although dilapidated industrial areas are closely

a withdrawal from the earlier use, while preparing

associated with urban development and industri-

for new use.

alisation, they are at the same time inextricably

The expressions drosscape and terrain vague

entwined with culturally determined ideas. The

are particularly interesting, since they characterise

underlying interpretations and values vary, as in-

two frames of understanding which can be associ-

dicated by etymological analyses of the various

ated respectively with an American and a European

names. Altogether, they can be distilled to a trio:

approach to superfluous industrial areas.

waste, Brachland and terrain vague.

Drosscape links up with the waste concept. It

Waste was highlighted by the poet T.S. Eliot

is also the title of a book by the American land-

in The Waste Land (1921),33 which includes stark

scape architect Alan Berger, subtitled Wasting

scenes from World War I battlefields as mental-ge-

Land in Urban America (2006). Here, ‘drosscape’ is

ographical descriptions of the war as the total col-

the expression for a view of urban development in

lapse of values. This series of poems became the

which currently inactive, former urbanised areas

symbol of inner estrangement, or an exposure of

are regarded as indicators, or indeed integrated

the human condition, in a situation where the sub-

parts of a healthy urban development process,

ject was forced to create his own world-view while

driven by global trends like de-industrialisation,

surrounded by ruin and destruction. While ‘waste’

post-Fordism and technological development. It is

can mean leaving something for later use, as de-

an attempt – in an American context – to speak

scribed by American urban planner Kevin Lynch

up against the market economy conditions that

(1918-1984) in his waste-interpretations of mate-

control urban development. Designers are given

rial processes in ‘Wasting Away’, like the double

a special role, since there is not necessarily an

meaning of something still left – left over, or left

entrepreneur with an agenda. They must develop

behind, ‘waste’ to most people is negatively con-

their own framework of understanding and be

notated. Brachland is German, originally meaning

the agent for the areas whose re-integration they

only land allowed to lie fallow, and also has several

want to clarify. The term ‘dross’ refers to the way

Fürst-PücklerLand IBA See 2010

Name: Fürst-Pückler-Land, IBA See 2010 Location: Lower Lusatia, Germany Coordinator of the project: IBA Association supported by four rural districts in Brandenburg as well as the City of Cottbus and supported by the Land Brandenburg Project dates: 2000‑2010 Scope: Regional

Based on the experiences from the Ruhr District with restructuring a whole region within the framework of the German rooted exhibition institution, IBA, the Lusatia Region formed the impetus for IBA See 2010. Where the Ruhr District is characterised by raw materials for its coal and steel production are dug from pits, Lusatia is shaped by extensive open-cast mining, where millions of cubic metres of soil have been moved in connection with the lignite extraction. The area used to form the German Democratic Republic’s energy supply centre. It lies in the southern part of the federal state of Brandenburg and in the northern part of Saxony, and today the area is the object of Europe’s biggest landscape reconstruction project. IBA See took place between 2000 and 2010, and to some extent still forms the basis for the development in the area. Landscape is the keyword for IBA See 2010, which is emphasised by the exhibition name; Fürst-Pückler-Land. Hermann Fürst von Pückler-Muskau’s two parks in Bad Muskau and Branitz of almost regional extent are the source of inspiration for rethinking of large landscape connections. At regional level, the main concept consists of introducing nine ‘landscape islands’. They each have a theme of their own; industrial culture, landscape art, transitional open-cast landscape, lakeland waterworld, a new lake next to Cottbus, etc. All 30 IBA See sub-projects are connected by the Fürst-Pückler-Path and located within these nine islands. Not all themes seem equally consistent, for an example, it is difficult to see the synergy of the theme for the ninth island: Guben-Gubin, Island of Europe. Here, an attempt is made to bring together the role of the town as a home of wool

The regional main theme of F체rst-P체cklerLand is to designate a number of landscape lakes that are thematically and geographically connected. The island and lake themes interact nicely and emphasise the impression of the area as a cluster of destinations.

In time, the significant excavation holes will be flooded to create a lake landscape, the biggest of its kind in Europe. The

The IBA centre establishes a new, strategic crossing

lakes will form the basis

between the Grossr채schen part of town and the Meuro

for tourism and urban

excavation area. The flooding began in 2007, and in

development.

2017 the bridge is expected to stand in Lake Ilse.

Several excavation areas are connected into a unified system, Lusatian Lake Land, consisting of 30 lakes. At the

centre stands the ‘Lusatian

All the green ‘islands’ and the 30

Lake Land Landmark’ pointing

IBA sub-projects are connected by

into the future and making

the over 500-kilometre-long Fürst-

it possible to follow the

Pückler-Path. The pontoon bridge

changes of the landscape.

was created as a part of the path.

The F60 excavation machinery is called the lying Eiffel tower, and used as a ‘visitors’ mine’.

The leavings of the past and site-specific aspects The preservation movement emerged at the begin-

they have stimulated direct action to preserve

ning of the 20th century in the aftermath of the

them. People want to retain what is about to dis-

extensive urbanisation process resulting from the

appear. However, this has proved difficult, as the

second wave of industrialisation. During the 1930s

following example of Völklingen steelworks clearly

practical preservation policies were formulated in

shows. For one thing, decay is rapid and inexorable,

a large number of western countries.4 In Denmark,

and for another it is doubtful whether it is at all

the landscape of the Golden Age painters became

possible to retain a structure’s expression and func-

identical with the landscape of ‘before’, and the as-

tion dictated by the preservationist imperative. At

sociated motifs formed to a large extent the basis for

the same time, the process of decay is interesting

Danish landscape preservation. For instance, burial

in itself and should perhaps be protected as well.

mounds were given special consideration as objects

Speculations of precisely this nature, with con-

worthy of protection. This duality of progress and

siderations of how we can understand industry

development, preservation and consciousness of

in the perspective of cultural history, have led to

the past was in fact formally institutionalised in

a change in our ideas of what ‘cultural heritage’

Scandinavian countries in connection with the

and the closely associated notion of ‘preservation’

development of the welfare state and the overall

actually mean.

modernisation process. In a similar way, de-indus6

trialisation has given rise to considerable changes and the emergence of a new form of society, and also to awareness of those things that were gradu-

Industrial culture as a new field for preservation?

ally disappearing. At first it was seen as liberating

In 1994 the huge iron- and steelworks in Völklin-

when noisy, dirty industry was dismantled, but then

gen, southern Germany, became the first industrial

its disappearance as a driving force of the national

plant to be placed on the UNESCO World Heritage

economy was a cause for concern as workplaces

List (WHL), setting them on a par with such mon-

were lost along with a sense of identity. Thirdly, a

uments as the Taj Mahal, Charlemagne’s cathedral

certain veneration develops for the present when it

in Aachen, the Pyramids in Giza and Hamlet’s castle

begins to show signs of becoming the past.

at Kronborg. The addition of an industrial monu-

Among the idle industrial areas there are large,

ment to the WHL was a breakthrough in several

striking structures with such strong character that

ways, and in the field of preservation and cultural

Most Danish heathland was taken into cultivation in the latter part of the 19th century. The remaining and preserved heath areas are comprehensively maintained to preserve their original state.

A particular kind of burial mound is an object of preservation, probably due to their extensive representation by Danish Royal Academy â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Golden Ageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; painters (ca. 1820s-1840s).

These pipes used to be shiny metal sheeting as heating them to more than 1,000°C stopped them from rusting in the

heritage the event can even be claimed to mark

assigning symbolic significance to the monument.

the culmination of one era and the beginning of

Restoration offers an interpretation of the past for

another.

the present generation and for posterity. It will

The justification for including Völklingen on the

therefore reflect how the closure of the ironworks

WHL was that ‘even though production has only

was perceived: as the sad end of an enterprising

recently been discontinued, it is the only example

and far-sighted era providing work and identity

in the whole of Western Europe and North America

for all? Or as a thankful farewell to a machine that

Cables and switches

of an integrated steelworks, built and equipped in

consumed resources and caused pollution and had

are an integral part of

the 19th and 20th centuries, which has remained in-

worn out one human generation after another?

the infrastructure, and

tact.’ That is to say: it was selected as a cultural and

The fact that this particular monument is from

work as these elements

historic monument. Its inclusion was by no means

one point of view ugly and redolent of unpleasant

are often stolen for the

an unproblematic decision. Indeed, it raises a mul-

history will affect the choices and options involved

titude of questions. The citation could also be ex-

in any restoration project. At the same time, howev-

tended to mention that the structure reveals 1) the

er, another challenge appears for conservationists

inventive spirit of the Gründerzeit, 2) the division

since, as a monument type, industrial manufactur-

of labour and ways of working that were practised a

ing plants consist of highly ephemeral materials

generation ago, 3) a war machine, and additionally,

and structures. Signs and instructions written in

it serves as 4) a landmark at the point where the

chalk to guide daily routines at the factory will be

river Saar makes a characteristic bend. Regardless

the first layer to change, and human activity has

of which aspects one wishes to emphasise, this

barely ceased before mosses, algae and similar pi-

nomination calls for preservation measures. It is

oneer vegetation find their way into the facilities.

self-evident that this is not a neutral process but the

Only a few years after the closure of Völklingen –

result of considerations that finally reflect both cul-

noticing that tree roots might damage pipes – it

tural taste and more, and less, explicit intentions of

was necessary to begin weeding and clearing away

rain. The day after the plant closed down they started to turn red.

the plant can no longer

copper they contain. >>

Vegetation, ranging from

plant growth. The pipes, which formerly had shone

part of its fabric. It is this very twofold process of

like silver as a result of being heated to above 1,000

change in which nature breaks through cracks and

°C, had also turned rusty red.9 Considering the ac-

crevices while at the same time what is man-made

and algae, is another

celerating decay, it becomes more unrealistic with

disintegrates which is its distinct characteristic. Is

dynamic layer becoming

every day that passes to imagine that it would be

it meaningful, then, to speak of preservation, and

possible at any time to press the start button and

if not, how can one relate to such a heterogeneous

see the gigantic machines begin to steam and puff.

and dynamic complex as this?

This breakdown is complemented by the very same

The Völklingen example illuminates the central

natural processes of succession, and at Völklingen

challenges for a preservation-oriented approach.

the two processes of breakdown and succession are

It also highlights some problems of classification

so closely interwoven that they practically merge.

on the nature – culture dichotomy. Finally, it fore-

Preservation in time and place and the indirect ob-

grounds qualities of a completely different nature

jectives of its designation as a whole are tested to

which do not easily fit into a traditional concept of

the utmost.

cultural heritage.

But is the justification for listing the Völklin-

Völklingen was designated for preservation

gen steelworks adequate? Is the unique feature

within a notion of cultural heritage whose purpose

of this plant not, rather, the way both nature and

is retaining what is there; the object or monument

culture have placed it in a field of interest both as

is the centre of attention. It was designated by

a building and from the natural point of view? Is

experts who are able to identify qualities worthy

its distinctively dynamic character not an absolute

of preservation for posterity. Here the purpose was

value in itself? The factory complex consists not

clearly to preserve Völklingen for posterity as a

only of interesting buildings in an architectural

record of the past. In this case it was a monument

sense but also of an entire production facility that

of world importance, but it could equally well have

has attached itself to a specific locality and become

been a national designation, which was obviously

rare metal resistant pioneer plants to moss

visible after the closedown.

World War II concentration camps are truly ‘inconvenient’ heritage. We preserve them in order not to forget this part of our common history.

Most post-war social housing areas are currently crossing the 50-year age threshold, which legislatively puts them within the scope of heritage surveys. Bellahøj, Copenhagen’s first high-rise development, from the early 1950s, was put on a tentative preservation list in 2013. The decision is currently postponed.

the instrumentalisation of preservation measures

Dangerous and polluted areas constitute

that predominated in the 20th century to specific,

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;inconvenient heritageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. This abandoned

site-related challenges that are not self-contained projects in the form of preserved objects, but ongoing, locally rooted processes, in which the agents

excavation machinery, first celebrated in 1900 at the world exhibition in Paris, now constitutes Ferropolis, Germany, at the edge of a mining crater.

and driving forces no longer have to be a public or supranational body. Suddenly, the focus is on our capacity for accepting the individual places as our own, and on the appropriation and transformation we manage to perform.

an ecocentric understanding, in which the system of nature took precedence, and an ecocentric agenda, in which our experience, use and thus our understanding of the landscape are vital without compromising either aspect. Projects of this type, in which natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own dynamics are allowed to unfold in dialogue with anthropomorphic parameters, do not strive for a final ideal state. They are based on certain â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;rules of the gameâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, which define the framework for mutual relations between processes, and can be followed just as long as it is meaningful. The new departure at the end of the 20th century was partially induced by the changes in the urban landscape brought about by de-industrialisation. As industry is dismantled it makes way for rethinking the natural cycles in an urban context. Because the surplus areas are so extensive they cannot be recycled in the urban context by rebuilding. Finally, the previously mentioned landscaping projects have helped to develop a new concept of landscape, while at the same time being formed by it. It involves an acceptance of what is available, and new ideas of where and how the point of exchange between humans and our perception of the world and the external world makes its appearance.

132

In the High Line project (concept 2003, opened 2009), James

In the High Line project Corner found a series of ‘microclimates’

Corner converted a former elevated goods transport railway line

on the site, determined by the spatial conditions, light, water,

in New York into a public park. It was a refined demonstration

wind and weather. From these he extracted a series of life-form

of the underlying logic, based on his ‘principle of the life-form’;18

principles on which he based the further development of the

it includes processes that run over time which may be physical,

project. It did not mean that the plants or materials found but the

involving materials, usage or significance. Corner emphasises

life-form principles resulting from them were included as part of

the close interrelation between form and process, which is why

the new project. The insights into the interaction of climatic and

‘life forms’ naturally belong in the domain of architecture. They

topographical factors, soil and hydrological conditions and the

‘perform’ as their processes are played out over time, and the

flora and fauna of the place formed the basis for a kind of ‘artificial

architect endeavours to maximise the material, ideological and

biomimicry’. Corner considers the actual proposal for the project

experiential dimensions of their effects.

as a life form in its own right, or a performing process. In order to maximise the performing quality of this life form and get the project started, the competition project included a campaign to draw attention to the project and appeal to potential investors.

133

An eye for landscape

Background of the concept of landscape

representation, and not to the section of land it referred to. Landscape in the aesthetic sense was more concerned with the view of the land than

From etymological studies it can be shown that

with the countryside being viewed. Obviously, this

the original meaning carried in the concept of

view was not formed by the painters’ representa-

landscape did not refer to anything aesthetic but

tion alone. The preconditions, before the painters’

meant the delimitation of a politico-legal territory.

representation of the countryside as landscape

The concept once denoted roughly the same as

could be identified as a crystallisation of a par-

the Latin terms provincia, regio etc. – a province,

ticular view of nature, were fundamental cultural

district, parish or county. The meaning was later

changes which took place at the same time as the

extended to include the population in a particular

development of landscape painting as a special

area as well. In painting, however, the term was

genre, with corresponding descriptions of nature

already in use in the late Middle Ages for a depic-

in poetry. The depiction of natural surroundings

tion of a section of the countryside. From the 16th

from an aesthetic viewpoint was conditional on

and 17th centuries on the word for ‘landscape’ in

a new synthesis between individuals and societal

most European languages on the one hand denotes

aspects, which in turn amounted to a new notion

a legal-geographical area, and on the other hand

and treatment of nature.19

is a visual arts term, although it was not until the

Nature, when regarded as a wealth of scenery

18th century that the landscape took on a specifi-

that can be depicted in perspective on a canvas

cally aesthetic dimension meaning ‘a view of an at-

and taken in at a glance, is the origin of modern

tractive natural area’. This meaning appeared first

landscape imagery. Depicting something in per-

in literary usage, and gradually became the most

spective is in itself an expression of an active way

common one. The original meaning of landscape

of looking at the depicted objects – but it is also a

as regio is still found, for instance in geographical

way of seeing which is essentially contemplative.

descriptions.

This is how art historian Erwin Panofsky expresses

The aesthetic dimension of the concept is thus

the ambivalence in his analysis of perspective:

a relatively late addition. Next, it is worth not-

134

ing that ‘landscape’ in that sense, i.e. as a beau-

Thus the history of perspective may be under-

tiful stretch of countryside, originally referred

stood with equal justice as a triumph of the dis-

to the actual depiction in the painting, or to the

tancing and objectifying sense of the real, and

Parc del Clot

Name: Parc del Clot Location: Carrer Escultors Claperós/Carrer del Municipi, Barcelona, Spain Design: Daniel Freixa and Vicente Miranda Artist: Bryan Hunt Project dates: 1982‑1986 Size: 4 ha

Parc del Clot is a transformation of a workshop attached to the Sagrera railway. The project only uses existing structures in the form of walls, terrain walls, window openings and vaults, and the focal fixed point, the old chimney. They have been modelled into a new design, which explores the interplay between the soft and planted, convex earth form on the one hand, and the concave, covered and rectangular part on the other hand. The first is programmed for contemplative activities, while the hard surface is suitable for for ball games, skating, and similar activities. The project has been developed in a traditional way with a clear division between projection and production. There are no references to the previous use of the area, meanings or atmospheres; on the contrary, the building stock is used as physical material for building up a new ruinous atmosphere. All woodwork etc. has been removed, and the remaining walls are all roughly shaped and clad with ivy. They all have a uniform expression and thus appear to have developed more patina after the transformation than before it. They present a static picture of decay, which endows the entire facility with a special weight, in contrast with the surrounding area’s rapidly erected precast structures, railway lines, and motorway layouts. The ruins inside the park are contrasted with contemporary and clear-cut elements, where the tall triangular steel lamps are the most significant. The design of Parc del Clot makes use of contrasts: between hard and soft, between the pastoral and the urban, and between new and old. The old is in the soft, pastoral and decomposing elements and overgrown masonry, while the urban, clear-cut pathways with the steel frames, the

154

Parc del Clot belongs to the first generation of transformations of urban spaces in Barcelona, intended to bring about a much-needed urban renewal after the end of the dictatorship. The park is now included in the large-scale project – Parc lineal La Sagrera – a green diagonal companion to the city plan created by Cerdá. Industrial structures are re-worked – motorways and railway lines going northeast are laid below ground level – allowing space for a large-scale green structure that links the coast with the hinterland.

The contrast between the old, in the form of the walls of the workshop complex, and the new in the form of lamp posts in unmistakably contemporary design.

The main theme of the park design plays on the contrast between the hard, covered, geometrically shaped surface and the softly articulated and planted terrain forms. Diagonal lines keep the plan together and link the area with its surroundings.

Everything except for the raw masonry has been removed, and its ruinous character is emphasised by the wild-growing ivy. Here, the remains of the former RENFE workshops form a spatial frame of a Bryan Hunt sculpture.

155

Outside the perimeter walls of Parc del Clot the planted and the built structures are clearly distinct from one another.

156

The diagonal paths link the two contrasting parts of the park.

157

The ruin as a monument

The aesthetic and historical aspects of ruins them-

the transformation of the former industrial areas,

selves are becoming more and more prominent as

weaving relationships between past and present,

the industrial past recedes. Ruins have been a ma-

myth, meaning and the narrative of the ruins in

jor theme in garden art and landscape architecture

the new design.

over the centuries, and the interest in ruins has

Since the ruin as a category gained cultural his-

deep cultural implications. The acknowledgement

torical significance, our valuation of it has changed

of ruins as ruins rests on the fact that we are cul-

radically. About the year 1900 a renewed interest

turally conditioned to historical awareness and that

in the past arose at the same time as the genesis

we are particularly attentive to time, temporality,

of the fragment as an aesthetic category. Contem-

and the duality of permanence and impermanence.

porary awareness can be seen as an interest in the

Otherwise we would probably be unable to find any

aesthetics of decay, critically reflected in the motifs

ruin attractive. Ruins like Stonehenge, the Roman

and thinking of the Baroque (re)instalment of the

Forum and the Acropolis incarnate entire cultures

ruin as a central notion. The Baroque use of the

for us, and some cultures only exist in ruined form,

ruin as a motif and the contemporary preoccupa-

like those of the Egyptians, Mayans and Aztecs and

tion with ruins in the more general and conceptual

the Roman Empire. And in painting and particularly

sense differs profoundly, however, from today’s use

landscape painting the ruin constitutes a discrete

of industrial ruins. They are enjoyed both for their

category. Ruins have been deeply embedded in

particular qualities and for cultural reasons. They

Western culture ever since the Renaissance.3

have played a part far back into cultural history,

Ruins are appealing in various ways. Indus-

and special attention is paid to the dynamics of the

trial ruins such as wastelands make a particularly

ruins, as suggested by introducing the concept of

strong claim for our attention due to their sheer

ruinosity. Today, industrial ruins are open to mul-

size, materials and former functions. With the

tiple readings – and hence multiple ‘editings’.

growing temporal distance from 20th-century industrialism, we are able to experience ruins as a culture, expressed through physical remains. These ruins are associated with the myth of industrialism

176

From waste to monument and the cult of ruins

and the power of industry, and open up phenom-

What for some people looks like junk is for others

enological, aesthetic and also political perception

precious testimony to a bygone past. This ambi-

and meanings. All these aspects are embedded in

guity applies to a large extent to industrialism’s

The numerous ruins forced upon us by the deindustrialisation process question our approach to ruins.

‘leftovers’, which due to their overwhelming dimensions have forced the recent interest in ruins upon us. This interest is clearly expressed in contemporary landscape architecture, as also shown by the examples in this book. However, the ‘politics of perception’ often tend to be negative in the case of industrial ruins, while economic decline, dereliction, social decline and waste may cast shadows over the ‘aesthetics of perception’ and the history of ruins. Only a minority of monuments are erected for the purpose of commemorating a person or an event. The remaining monuments around us are

unintentional, i.e. initially created for other purposes and only later assigned monument status.4 This cultural process of adding value is capable of elevating something from the status of waste to the status of monument, and it explains why ruins are debris for some people and treasures for others. It is not a matter of what ruins are, but what values we associate with them. Today’s ruin cult or interest in ruins is partly forced upon us by the overwhelming amount of leftovers from industrialism. This interest pays special attention to the aesthetics of decay, which we find expressed in the way that in the Baroque the ruin was used as a motif both directly and figuratively. The Baroque use and the contemporary preoccupation with ruins in the more general and conceptual sense, however, are very similar. Yet there is coherence between the Enlightenment and the ruin as suggested by German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk (b. 1947) in his interpretations of the German double notion of ‘zugrundegehen’. ‘Zu Grunde gehen’ is to seek a main principle, an essence, while ‘zugrunde gehen’ denotes a transition from a whole to parts, from something to nothing, of which the ruin can be said to be part.5 The ruin and the ruinous, the process of change and decay, can be regarded as a modern aesthetic issue originating in its inherent dialectics of dissolution. German sociologist Georg Simmel’s (18581918) essay ‘Die Ruine’ (1911) and Walter Benjamin’s (see page 184) Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels

178

Pile of rubble after the 1902 collapse of the Campanile of San Marco, Venice. Ten years later it was reconstructed in its 1514 form.

The Abbey in the Oakwood, 1808-1810 painting by C.D. Friedrich, shows the conflict between Rieglâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Age Value and Use Value.

179

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