New Wine in Old Bottles?

The coal phase-out law of August 2020 poses a number of challenges for the three German brown coal areas (Rhenish, Central German and Lusatian coalfields) in the course of the associated goal of a socio-ecological and sustainable transformation. These challenges include in particular the villages affected by mining-related resettlements, which, according to the current status, are not to be demolished as planned, but nevertheless have already been abandoned to a large extent (e.g. in Erkelenz at the Garzweiler II open pit) or even completely (e.g. Morschenich Alt at the Hambach open pit).

Under the theme “Turn old into new!” and using the village of Morschenich Alt as an example, the course asks how such places can reinvent themselves and what future, innovative concepts of use might be conceivable. What could Alt Morschenich look like in the future and why? Which developments and measures would be necessary and why? How could future residents and visitors experience the place together in the future and possibly also develop and test new and sustainable forms of living together and doing business? And what criteria for success should be applied for a successful and exemplary development of such localities in general?

The event will be held on site in Morschenich Alt and framed by content-related and methodological inputs and discussions as well as a village tour. An important cooperation partner for the BBSR is the Zukunftsagentur Rheinisches Revier (ZRR), which, as a network hub for the bundling of activities on resettlement and village development processes, allows an appropriate embedding and knowledge transfer into the course.

An interdisciplinary approach to the central questions of the course is explicitly desired. Thus, the participants should bring different areas of focus from the fields of urban and regional development, urban design, landscape planning, sociological and ethnological approaches to narrative, planning theory and participation formats, urban planning and urban land use planning, as well as communication and media studies into the independent group work in the manner of a time-limited design studio and jointly create narrative scenarios for the future development of Alt Morschenich.