Project Ewald Deer - Land Layers

Highlights on Ewald: Summer 1999 Decision to close the Ewald 1/2/7 mine, Summer 2000 Closure of the mine gates for 4000 miners, 2002 International design workshop for the Ewald project (1st prize - 'Landschichten' concept by arbos landscape architects, Halfmann Architekten and Cino Zucchi). Prize - concept 'Landschichten' by arbos landscape architects, Halfmann architects and Cino Zucchi), 2004 Resolution of the development plan, 2005 First new settlements on the basis of the master plan, 2006 Completion of the Ewald promenade and the Blue Ribbon, 2007 Award of the future location Ewald by the location initiative "Germany - Land of Ideas" as one of the "365 Places of Ideas", 2007 Appreciation of the project Ewald with the BDLA award recognition.

A new business location is being created in the context of the cultural heritage of the former Ewald colliery. The public space and the listed buildings of the collieries, machine houses and winding towers form the strategic initials of an urban revitalisation of this old industrial site.

The central element of the Ewald promenade is part of the ring promenade around the Hoheward slag heap and at the same time the most important footpath and cycle path connection through the Ewald project area. The promenade stretches from the Resser-Bach-Weg in the north via the Ewald market square to the rainwater retention lake in the south. The promenade accompanies a 3 m wide, cascading channel - the Blue Ribbon - which collects surface water from the adjacent construction areas. The promenade and the canal are part of the land layer concept for the former colliery site, according to which different urban structures and uses are structured by concise open space elements. They form a symbolic break between the old colliery core with its buildings worth preserving and the new service and commercial structures in the east. From the promenade, there are repeated views across the canal into the so-called campus area with the historic colliery buildings.

AppreciationGerman Landscape Architecture Award 2007

Jury verdict: Embedded in the economic region "Northern Ruhr Area", a location of European format is being created in the town of Herten - the "Ewald Project". Where once more than 6,000 miners worked on one of the most productive collieries in the Ruhr area, new impulses will be set again in the future. The landscape architecture as a "pioneer" in a long conversion process has an important design-forming task.

"Landschichten" - so the superordinate urban design - transfers the use concept of the old colliery into a system of order for the future. Outstandingly solved thereby the interaction of historically formative old substance and new landscape architecture. By making some strong open space settings - such as the rainwater-fed water band that flows into a lake, and the two linear structures Ewaldpromenade and Valley - individual, pleasantly restrained and usable places are created that will contribute to the positive expression of the newly emerging quarter. Through careful choice of material and color of the plaza surfaces, the public spaces are atmospherically condensed and receive a clear legibility.

Landscape architecture goes into submission in the "Project Ewald" to generate the qualities that promote the development of the area.