Workshop in cooperation with the TU Berlin, the TU Kaiserslautern and the Bauhaus University Weimar published by Bauhaus University Weimar (European Urban Studies).
Workshop & Publication Industrial Succession Landscapes @ Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany, 17 February 2006
Industrial
Succession
Landscapes
From
linearity
to
complexity
Ulrich Borsdorf, Director of the Ruhrland Museum, used this metaphor when we presented him with a concept for a “big urban game” on the subject of the development of the Ruhr region. He pointed out the linearity of the Ruhr’s industrial landscape and used the pre-cybernetic machine as an explanatory model for the development of the Ruhr’s urban landscape (Prof. Dr. Ulrich Borsdorf in conversation on June 8, 2005 at the Ruhrlandmuseum, Essen). In contrast to the digital game of the cybernetic age, which is characterized by non-linearity, in which new ramifications constantly give rise to options and alternative scenarios and whose plot is constantly reinvented through interaction, the industrially shaped Ruhr landscape, according to Ulrich Borsdorf, resembles pre-cybernetic machinery.
This pre-cybernetic transmission did not allow for feedback; bottlenecks and problems in the system, such as delivery delays and failures, had to be absorbed by redundancy and mass. As a linear system, such a pre-cybernetic machine was susceptible to disruptions as it could not react flexibly. The massiveness did not make reprogramming any easier either.
We were confronted with the linearity of the pre-cybernetic machine and its problems at the Warndt colliery in Saarland, where we met in November 2006 for a workshop on the development of future scenarios for the disused open-cast mine. An entire wall in the control room was occupied by a flow chart of the colliery’s linear production process (see photo). In front of this beautiful graphic pattern stood a few monitors as witnesses to the next layer of time, the cybernetic time, the time of networking and thus globalization, i.e. the time of the processes that led to the closure of the mine.
The question of “what is to become of the Warndt when coal mining comes to an end with the closure of the mining site in 2005” was central to the invitation to the workshop. Coming from different geographical and professional backgrounds, we met at the opencast site. For a short time, we came together as a smart mob for intensive interaction on the site, to work together with local actors and networks, to leave again and to meet again on another occasion at a different location as a modified and expanded network. This documentation is a snapshot in time of this process.
This network model of cooperation, in which multiple actors interact with each other in constantly changing constellations – which certainly also represents the working model of the era of flexibilization with all its problems – was also reflected in the results of our work.
The projects and proposals developed in the workshop did not set out ready-made solutions. Instead, flexible, process-oriented strategies were developed to promote the appropriation and valorization of the site. The projects were not about grand designs – but about proposals for opening up the Warndt site to processes of appropriation by people and nature: proposals for access and development, scenarios for interim uses and synergies of use, projects for succession and temporary occupation. An attempt was made to take into account the complexity of multiple processes interspersed with feedback effects.
Rather than relying on one (planning) authority to initiate and direct restructuring, scenarios of interaction were developed for the complex interplay of a multiplicity of actors. As no major investor was initially expected, it was hoped that a large number of partly informal uses could possibly provide impetus for a development and transformation process.
This process-oriented approach reflects the dynamic situation of the changing post-industrial landscape. Complex processes have been designed for the post-industrial landscape. We, the smart mob that briefly descended on the site, are also one of the interacting actors. And perhaps the workshop was not just a one-off time slice of a network, but – as a seasonal event that takes place every year – one of the impulse-giving actions in the complex process.
related PROJECTS
