Coal Lake City
Strategy for the evolution and transformation of the city of Bottrop in the Ruhr region
The Ruhr region has for the last two centuries been one of the most important centres for coal mining in North West Europe. Its history has left it with a dramatic heritage. Today it is one of the environmentally most devastated regions in Europe: rubble hills of polluted coal waste shape the topography of the landscape, the ground holds reservoirs of toxic waters and the land on top of the hollowed out mining shafts is collapsing in an unpredictable way. The instability of the landscape threatens all underlying natural and vital systems.
Coal Lake City demonstrates how the Ruhr region can make use of its environmental deficit to shape its future. We imagine that the unstable land on top of the collapsing mining shafts sinks - strategically - to form a city of lakes, inducing new possibilities to generate energy, to close water cycles, to strengthen the social and economic structure, to create zones of retreat for nature and island of condensed urban activities. In doing so the project intends to contribute to a political dialogue on sustainability.
Team
Eva Pfannes, Sylvain Hartenberg, Shilesh Hariharan
