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"Henrichshütte"

Henrichshütte

Revitalization of an industrial brownfield
Project, 2004 - 2005, Hattingen an der Ruhr, Germany


I worked on the project: 2004 - 2005
My responsibilities: I developed the project by myself, during the time at Bauhaus-University in Weimar, Germany

The area of the former Thyssen-Henrichshütte smeltery lies directly in the north of the city center of Hattingen on the shore of the Ruhr. Founded in 1854, it was one of the most prestigious smelteries of the Rhur region. Here, ore and coal were produced in addition to coke, iron and steel which were also cast, rolled, forged and processed – all under one roof. Over 10,000 people worked on those grounds, a whole new city of workers colonies thus grew around the plant.
Against the grim resistance of the staff and the whole region, all furnaces were put out of service in 1987. Other companies followed suit. The facilities were dismantled and largely sold to China. The only remaining furnace was integrated in 1989 into the Westfalian Museum of Industry. Some other halls remained, recycling companies settled, and most other areas have been cleared – a state in which they remained until this day.

“Spielraum”

What to do with an area of such dimensions in the center of a city of about the same size, in a region with very few potential for growth? The concept of the “Spielraum” (German word meaning both scope and playground) makes evident that the people in Hattingen are confronted with an area that can give a lot and offers many possibilities once you learn to understand it.
“Spielraum” in the direct meaning of playground pertains to a vast space in which one can do any number of a possibility of things – albeit with a free space with a special character.
In the second meaning, scope denotes that there still lies potential for the area – that the site as it is does not necessarily stand for an end but for a new beginning.

Acquisition

Small interventions (some lasting, and some temporary) are carried out at different places.
The project is about a new approach to the site sometimes incomprehensible to visitors, and about an acquisition and appropriation of this giant area in the heart of the city. The propositions see themselves as architectures of acquisition that make the people move around the area.

Platform

Observing the landscape of halls. Time-related intervention with vegetation.

Old shells

A new house in the halls. Taking lodgings inside the old shells.

Power station

A symbiotic relation towards the old power station which reuses and respects the existing structure.

Tower

Connecting tower to the old center of Hattingen, stair / elevator tower and landmark combined in one.

Visitors’ center

Visitors’ and discovery center under the contaminated earth, playing with the free surface and the subterrestrial cellar system.

Barrack

The former porter house becomes a place for the new; the blind house does not communicate and lives in the inside. Wooden shutters as architectural element.

Greenhouse

Nature reconquers its space. A greenhouse in the clouds.

Light

A mark in the arm of the river. The Ruhr as an area of nature.