Rehabilitation and Change: the IBA Emsher Park case.

The Emsher park in Germany is one of the most complex renovation cases of a brownfield: the Ruhr district. Its dismantlement is exemplary due to the remarkable environmental problems (pollution by waste hills) as well as landscape ones (infrastructures disorganized development). Social problems connected with widespread unemployment must be added to the former ones. Since the start of the project (1998), this area's image has changed, making citizens aware and proud of the process historical meaning. The landscape had a key role during this process: it was the means to act on the imaginary, on the population's wishes, increasing the participated process. One of rehabilitation's aims has been to appraise industrial evidences including them in a a restoration program. These buildings' quality esteem led them to be new national monuments: modern post-industrial cathedrals, suitable for cultural events.