Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park, Duisburg

The Ruhr area is a sprawled urban landscape with motorways, train lines and waterways that had huge open spaces after the closure of many industrial plants. The Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park project is an outstanding example of a new type of industrial park. It shows how landscape, working and living space can be reclaimed from wasteland with a high recreational value.

The Duisburg-Meiderich ironworks, which was shut down in 1985 and has been completely preserved since, covers an area of over 200 hectares and is located between two districts of Duisburg. When the plant was closed after 82 years, the owner and the city of Duisburg did not believe that new businesses were very likely to move to the location. Repurposing an industrial wasteland as a landscape park stimulated a development that still remains unique today, and paved the way for many other projects with old industrial plants.

The planning took the heritage of industrial history into consideration, preserving the ironworks as an industrial monument. A mixture of consciously designed and wild areas was realised so that vegetation could spread spontaneously. Today, a number of associations have acquired the various parts of the park: The metre-thick concrete walls of the former ore bunker are used as a climbing park. The gasometer has been filled with 20,000 cubic metres of water and is now used as a diving centre. And where the blast furnace used to be tapped, theatre, opera and film events are held today. This made the park a contribution to a new form of European garden art.