ONE OPTION WAS TO DO NOTHING - TO LEAVE THE LANDSCAPE TO ITS OWN DEVICES AS A WILDERNESS

摘要

With little publicity here so far, what's billed as 'the biggest landscape project in Europe' is well under way in the former East Germany. This year marks the mid-point of the 10-year Internationale Bauausstellung Fuerst-Pueckler-Land (IBA), with projects at 24 sites in the Lausitz - a 100 x 50km region of opencast lignite mines roughly halfway between Berlin and Dresden. The lignite (low-grade coal) from these pits was the prime fuel source for the German Democratic Republic, but with changed priorities in energy supply after reunification, the majority of them closed abruptly; there was no gradual wind-down with time to create new jobs. Some 25 per cent of the population has since left the area, while current unemployment is also about 25 per cent. So the IBA aims to give the region a new economic stability while dealing with the aftermath of the mining, in what must be one of the most extreme post-industrial landscapes in Europe today.