Pithead shadow Zollverein Essen Germany

Zollverein is acknowledged to be the most attractive coal mine in the Ruhrgebiet. Not least because it has been awarded the title of a “World... more

by David Davies

Title

Pithead shadow Zollverein Essen Germany

Artist

David Davies

Medium

Photograph - Digital

Description

Zollverein is acknowledged to be the most attractive coal mine in the Ruhrgebiet. Not least because it has been awarded the title of a “World Cultural Heritage Site” by UNESCO. Its architects Fritz Schupp und Martin Kremmer were inspired by the Bauhaus style to build this harmonic industrial complex along two axes following the principles of symmetry and geometry. The result is Zollverein Pit XII, a very model of a major modern coal mine. In 1989 the North-Rhine Westphalian State Development Company (LEG) and the city of Essen set up a project business entitled "Bauhütte Zeche Zollverein Pit XII" to carefully restore the site as befitting its status as a monument. This has paved the way to new uses. The former boiler house, now the seat of the North-Rhine Westphalia Design Centre was redesigned in the 1990s by the top architect Lord Norman Foster. One of the aims of the Emscher Park International Building Exhibition (IBA) was to restructure disused industrial land, improve the living conditions in the area ecologically and give fresh, forward-looking impulses to social and cultural establishments. This aim has been realised at Zollverein in exemplary fashion. The site was the most important project of the IBA and now stands as a beacon for the successful structural transformation in the Ruhrgebiet.

Uploaded

February 20th, 2013