HOME AND DRY

摘要

Duisburg was once the biggest inland port in Europe. Its inner harbour was carefully carved out of the banks of the Rhine and lined with warehouses and mills. Like all nineteenth-century ports, Duisburg has collapsed economically and its trade was taken over by lorries and road transport. Kueppersmuehle -the last big industrial building -closed in the '90s, it was revived by Herzog and de Meuron as an art museum (AR June 1999). The city has robustly decided to transform its industrial heart to become a complex interweave of domestic, commercial and leisure functions. A competition was held for Emscher Park, a derelict industrial area, which was organized by Internationales Bauausstellung. Foster and Partners won with a masterplan that has been interpreted by that practice and others. In their housing scheme, Ingenhoven Overdiek & Partner decided to reinterpret the morphology of the area between the city centre and the harbour basin. They have created roughly parallel blocks flanked by shallow canals that are actually slightly above harbour level. These take all rainwater from the development, and are planted with reeds that help purify the water as it gently flows down towards the great river.