Unfold Wasted Land

Due to its history, Germany holds a vast number of industrial sites that have long been abandoned and thus, have fallen into oblivion. Albeit their indisputable qualities, they also bear obstacles which entails that greenfield development projects are still dominating Germany’s urban planning processes and the construction industries, thus causing a severe land consumption each day. This project deals with the qualities of wasteland sites and explores ways to overcome the involved obstacles in order to emphasize the enormous potential of these fields of land. The aim of promoting the revitalization of wastelands is to save valuable resources and make use of the potential that is unconsciously already at the disposal of municipalities. In order to add to the field of theory, this project deals with a specific site refurbishment of an old steel industry in Solingen, a city in the west of Germany. Interlinked with the general potential of industrial wastelands, the proposed design does not only illustrate the possible transformation of the site in itself but also indicates how the decision of working with an industrial wasteland can in turn have an immense impact on its surroundings. In this connection, the project shows how the ‘use’ of inner-city industrial wastelands can fill a pre-existing gap in the urban structure, create new flows throughout the area and thus, enable new communal activities and encourage social interaction. In the end, this ought to illustrate an easy way to deal with our built world in a more sustainable and future-oriented way