Dear fellow Ruhr-researcher,

Unfortunately most (better all) of our publications are in German. To give you an idea, of what we are doing and what we are interested in, just a few words on three projects:

B1_21st. Die Schoenheit der grossen Strasse. (The Beauty of the Large Highway)

»B1_21st« is an exhibition project for the Cultural Capital Program 2010 of the Ruhr region. »B1_21st« is being developed along The B1, the main regional east-west link, which is central for the Ruhr area. Along the 75 km between Dortmund and Duisburg on the B1 highway, the decentralized metropolis Ruhr becomes reality in all its facets. The Ruhr area becomes a prototype of a worldwide developing, decentralized and mobile regional city.

»B1_21st« is an urban art project. Together with artists, urban planners and cultural scientists the characteristics, languages and extravagant expression forms of the B1 are being investigated. The urban space of B1 serves as urban laboratory, in which the relationship between periphery, mobility and public space under the conditions of the 21st century is exemplarily defined.

The project »B1_21st« presents the highway and its urban space as a showroom/exhibition space. Mobility as one of the substantial components of the everyday culture of the Ruhr area is the constituent element of the exhibition – a travel by car or by rapid-transit railway or a walk lead inevitably into the exhibition space. By interventions, by events and by performance projects places have been discovered again, unexpected neighbourhoods became accessible and the beauty of the large highway has been made visible. The presentation forms of the exhibition develop themselves from the heterogeneity of space: from drive-in cinema on the parking deck to the literature express at the gas station; from radio station as exhibition guide to the freeway as acoustic space, being experienced during the drive. Mobility and periphery, in a way that they are exemplary on exhibition in the urban space B1, are the substantial characteristics not only of the Ruhr district, but also of the future European city.

City of Speed

»City of speed« was a conference/exhibition for urban planners and traffic planners; we organized last year, dealing with the question, how urban highways can be integrated into the urban fabric. The following text is the English summary from the publication.

Its highway network characterizes the spatial structure of the Ruhr-Area. An agglomeration of 5,3 million in-habitants 2 spreads over 4400 km. Its highway network is about 250 miles long and one of the densest in Europe, cutting through city centers, running along peripheries, creating a 50 mile long diverse urban structure.

The recent discussion on the urban integration of these highways started in 2001 with an experiment and the provocative question: May the B1 be able to become something like the Champs Elysées of the Ruhr-Area? The autumn academy »Cityscape B1« came up with various urban design visions that had but little in common with the traditional appearance of the Champs Elysées still answered the question in a positive way. On the background of the modern structural change the historic significance and the symbolic strength of the so-called Ruhrschnellweg can be translated into modern urban qualities of a metropolis of 5 million. The autumn academy developed urban design schemes that demonstrate how the structural change of the Ruhr-Area can become a driving force for its urban development.

The 2003 Rotterdam architecture biennale »1ab« where the Ruhr-Area took part with a contribution on the A42 presented a world wide comparison of regions like L.A., the Ruhr area, Mexico City and Beijing and the different characteristics of their urban highways. At the biennale at the latest, the topic of urban integration of highways showed having left the experimental phase, being on its way becoming a world wide phenomenon of urban development. Designing urban visions does also demand looking out for new ways in organizing planning processes and practical realizations. The conference »City of Speed« tried to find answers to these questions. Especially the participation of StrassenNRW, state enterprise for road construction and maintenance, was an important element for the interdisciplinary debate on how the different disciplines -urban and traffic planning- understand the »urban integration«. The international exchange of experiences including speakers from Austria and Switzerland expanded the horizon of understanding. The conference made clear that today new solutions in regard to the urban integration of highways mainly depend on the planning cultures of cities and the individuals in charge. The available scope can only be utilized, if planning processes are coordinated with professional and political will at a very early stage of the process. As the institutional frameworks of urban and traffic planning are not compatible in terms of »language«, timetables and financing structures, the co-ordination is rarely successful. A debate on what is meant by »urban integration«, which implications do arise from this and how these effects planning processes are still missing. To be able to design a new kind of »City of Speed« as a spatial and social unity, innovative planning procedures and design schemes need to be developed. The lively discussion showed that the urban integration of highways has turned into an independent task of planning. The conference was a first impulse on the way to an inter-disciplinary process. The real work regarding procedures, content and instruments and considering the existing legal and administrative framework will have to be individual handwork specially cut and knit for the specific situation.

Land for Free

Land for Free is another project we are doing for the Cultural Capital Program 2010 of the Ruhr area. It deals with vacant land on the »Zweistromland« between Emscher and Rhein Herne Kanal that will be given to local and international settlers for free, if they will use it in an entrepreneurial way.

Land for Free is a utopia of a new city in and between the cities of the Ruhr area. It is not a usual city (with planned streets, sewage networks, building authorities) but the city developed as the implementation of individual dreams of a lifetime, making it possible by acquisition of fallow land in the Ruhr area. It is the utopia of an unintended city that is build from thousand of new homelands in the Ruhr area.

Land for Free presents the Ruhr area as a pioneer region. It appeals to the entrepreneurial spirit and initiative. It connects economic, cultural and utopian potentials of a new city with self-willed history and with urbanistic and scenic characteristics of the Ruhr area.

Land for Free doesn't show not a culture in the city but a culture of the »becoming city«. A new city, equipped with the strength of the informal whose social climate is determined by the cultural Ur-act of establishing.

Land for Free is a singular cultural and urbanic experiment in the context of the Cultural Capital of Europe 2010. It’s an experiment for the time thereafter. It’s an invitation to come and a seduction to stay.

To sum it up: We are looking for the characteristics of modern urban landscapes and contemporary urban life. As professional urban planners, we work with artists like Marcus and Andrea from stadtraum.org as well as with planning departments and traffic planners to create a connection between our theoretical work and the real life.

Best regards
Stefanie Bremer and Henrik Sander

PS: Thanks to Darija for the translation. As I checked the text, I am responsible for all errors in translation.

www.orangeedge.de