Duisburg - Essen
Duisburg – Essen is not a destination for romantic people looking for old world charm. Dortmund, Essen, Bochum, Oberhausen and Duisburg are the main cities in the German Ruhr Area. The cities are close, in fact it is a big conurbation. Duisburg and Essen are at the heart of the Ruhrgebiet – the former steel and coal centre of Germany. The cities in the Ruhrgebiet were heavily bombed during WWII, and rebuilt in a modern style. In the 1960’s and later, mines closed and the steel industry went through a difficult period. And other industries were restructured. Now Ruhrgebiet is famous for its ‘industriekultur’, the industrial culture. Industrial heritage such as mines, factories, and warehouses, but also slag heaps and gasometers, has been transformed for public, residential and commercial purposes. A synopsis can be found here.
And there is also new architecture. Many new elements have been added to the heritage transformations. Duisburg's main visitor attraction is Landschaftpark Nord, a former steel plant which has been preserved, and turned into a cultural landscape. It is definitely worth a visit. We show modern elements of even bigger Essen's Zeche Zollverein, a UNESCO listed 100 hectare former coal mine and plant.
We selected three places with modern architecture in Duisburg and another three in Essen. In Duisburg the first is the Lehmbruck Museum. The second is the Tiger & Turtle – Magic Mountain, a special art installation in the Southern part of Duisburg. The third is the area of Innenhafen, the inner harbour with new architecture. By bike. from Duisburg Innenhafen to the Magic Mountain is 9 km. In Essen we go to Zeche Zollverein, to the modern Folkwang museum and we look at the headquarters of Thyssen-Krupp, the industrial engineering and steel production multinational.
Duisburg Lehmbruck Museum
Lehmbruck museum is located in the Immanuel Kant park, a not so big park with sculptures, a children’s playground, a good coffee house / restaurant, and Cubus Kunsthalle, with small exhibitions and art activities (http://www.cubus-kunsthalle.de/). Wilhelm Lehmbruck was sculptor and lived from 1881-1919. His son became architect of the museum, that has two parts. The oldest part was opened in 1964 and contains the Lehmbruck wing with work from Lehmbruck, and a second hall shows the remainder of the permanent collection. In 1987 the extension was opened that hosts temporary exhibitions.
From the outside the museum is far from spectacular but it fits well in the environment. The architecture experience inside the museum is very nice. The Lehmbruck wing is extraordinary. The architecture blends exterior and interior, by creating a small courtyard in the building, separated by a glass wall. This wing gives a special sensation of light and space, the art is like decoration. The building materials match the architecture design very well.
In the exhibition hall this experience is less profound than in the Lehmbruck wing. It is a very nice place, but more conventional, and attention goes quicker to the sculptures exhibited. The extension building of the museum is a multilevel structure. It gives a spacious feeing too, but is already getting close to other museum experiences where art – and not architecture – is prominent.
Link: lehmbruckmuseum.de/museum/
Click to enlarge
Duisburg Tiger & Turtle Magic Mountain
This installation, a walkable sculpture it is called, was opened in 2011, when Duisburg Since opening in November 2011. The landmark is on top of a hill, the site of a former slag heap, and can be seen from a distance. That gives good views of the environment when you walk the Magic Mountain installation.
Our visit happened to be on May 1st, and we did not realise beforehand that May 1st is Labour day, a public holiday in Germany. The weather was nice, and quite a number of people walked the installation, had a coffee on the grass, children played on the slopes of the hill, people were taking pictures. Everybody happy with this installation on this beautiful day. The installation feels like a wobbly bridge (it moves a bit, think of a small pedestrian bridge) and that makes some children a bit scared, while other love it.
Link: www.duisburg.de/microsites/visit_duisburg/discover_the_city/industrial_heritage/tiger-turtle.php
Innenhafen
In Duisburg, like in other cities such as Bremen, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, waterfront development was initiated in harbour districts that fell out of use, through long term regeneration policies. From 1994 onwards, first public investments and culture, then offers to businesses and nowadays more housing. All construction projects were somehow linked to ‘inner harbour’, and that brings the port into town and the town to the port (in Rotterdam this was called – linking wet and dry). Mills and warehouses have been converted (see pictures of Küppersmühle and Faktorei 21) and new buildings have been created (see pictures of Five Boats and Landesarchiv). Within the framework of the mixed use of the area, that is, working, living, leisure and culture,
Some beautiful architecture, like the Jewish Centre, the Landesarchiv and the business centres, is not fully accessible. Landesarchiv can be visited through guided tours only. But two museums, the art and the gardens can be enjoyed.
Link: //www.innenhafen-portal.de/
Innenhafen - Küppersmühle
Küppersmühle Museum (MKM - Museum Küppersmühle for Modern Art.) deserves special attention. It is a private museum, located at the end of the inner harbour. In 1999 architects Herzog & de Meuron have transformed the former warehouse building (a mill that was closed in 1972) with its listed brick façade into a modern cultural building. In 2021 a newly built annex was opened. New and old, divided by the grey mill silos (they are kept als industrial monument) merge beautifully. The extension is linked to the old building by bridges through the silos. A platform on top of the silos is to be opened soon.
The two staircases are eye-catching, they have been beautifully designed, and the colour makes the difference. But the best of the architecture experience is the ensemble of old and new, the incorporation of the industrial heritage in a modern interior and the spacious rooms (6 m. high) that facilitate the exposition of big pieces of art.
Essen Zeche Zollverein
The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex (Zeche Zollverein) is a large former coal mine and coking plant in the city of Essen. It functioned from the mid-19th century till 1986 (mining) and 1983 (coking plant). Right after 1986 the coal mine area was declared as monument and in 2000 the Zollverein Foundation declared the coking plant as an heritage site. Till the present-day renovation and restauration works on the huge site have been going on. New functions such as the Ruhr Museum, the Red Dot design museum, halls for events, shops, recreational trails, bars and restaurants, etc. have been created. The site attracts almost three millions of visitors each year.
Also for modern architecture the Zollverein site is worth a visit. First is that the renovation of old structures now show the modernistic appearance of the original Bauhaus-inspired buildings. Second is that many new elements have been added to Zollverein. The landscape architecture follows old patterns, but in a new way (old railway lines are now for walking), the Ruhrmuseum got some remarkable escalators leading to the entrance and staircases - with orange colours. A kind of Reichstag monument of containers was built, a 35 meter cubic building, now the Folkwang University fof the Arts, was built. And so on. Zollverein is a good place to see how modern and heritage are combined.
Link: www.zollverein.de/zollverein-unesco-world-heritage-site/
Essen Folkwang museum
The old Museum Folkwang was opened in 1960, and the new building in 2011, designed by David Chipperfield architects (Berlin). The principles of the old (listed) building and the new museum are the same: openness with inner courtyards and large windows. The new entrance area is designed as an open courtyard with a café and restaurant and a museum bookshop.
Rory Olcayto wrote in the Architect’s Journal (6-11-2013) “Sometimes buildings look better in photos than they do in real life, but sometimes it’s the other way round. I remember seeing snaps of David Chipperfield Architects’ Museum Folkwang when they first began circulating nearly three years ago and thinking it looked a bit flat, a bit dull, a bit meh. Then I went to Essen to write a report for our Stirling Prize issue - it was shortlisted in 2011 - and realised I was wrong.” Indeed, the architecture experience of Folkwang Museum goes beyond looking. The spatial feeling and the light, the corridors and the inner courtyards, make Folkwang a very nice experience. You just want to keep on slowly walking- besides looking at the modern art.
Thyssenkrupp Quarters
West of Essen‘s City centre was the site of the company's former steel factory founded in 1811 by Friedrich Krupp, and is now the place where a new tech campus has been created. It is part of a new quarter that has campus architecture, an ensemble of various individual buildings, water, green and connecting paths and small squares. Q1 is the headquarter building, and 51 m. cube. There is a large multifunctional building with a conference centre and employee catering, as well as the ThyssenKrupp Academy, a hotel and other complementary buildings with a total of around 100,000 sq,m.
The pictures below don’t do justice to this complex – the weather was grey and rainy, and diligent security man told us that taking pictures was not allowed. Strange - it is open public space. Anyway, a new visit next Spring will be made to get better pictures of the site.
