Newsletter 120 from 1st July 2010

Internationale Bauausstellung (IBA) Fürst-Pückler-Land

1. Paradise 2: A sculpture of a thousand encounters attracts visitors to Cottbus
2. Stopover: IBA ambassador out and about in China
3. Work in progress: Link-up of Lake Ilse and Lake Sedlitz
4. IBA exchange: IBA meets IBA at the pit edge
5. Wanderlust: IBA specialist excursion goes to Basel - book now!
6. Music spectacle: European Celtic Festival at the F60
7. Family weekend: Discovery tours in the Muskau Arch Geopark
8. Beach party: Event and information days at the future Cottbus Baltic
9. Panorama: Sunset walk in open-cast mine
10. Limited lake edition: Homage to ten years of the IBA

(1) Paradise 2

A sculpture of a thousand encounters attracts visitors to Cottbus

As part of the “Paradise 2” art project, which has been developed by Swiss artist Jürg Montalta for the final year of the IBA, the residents of the Sachsendorf-Madlow district of Cottbus will be called to take their places at the “paradise table” on 4 July from 14:00 hrs. onwards, forming a long banquet table in the middle of the Gelsenkirchener Allee with their own tables, chairs and favourite food. The four-lane road will be closed to traffic on this day. Drummer, percussionist and composer Christoph Hillmann, who lives in Berlin and Cologne, has composed an “urban samba” especially for the “village fete” in the town. Over 100 musicians will sing in unison with the guests and dance the Sachsendorf samba.
The urban district of Sachsendorf-Madlow is one of 30 projects which has been overseen by the IBA in the last few years. Built between 1975 and 1986 for energy industry employees and other workers, the estate was forced to contend with declining population numbers and waning desirability after German reunification. The strategy pursued by the town council and backed by the IBA was a twin approach of demolition and gentrification in a bid to counteract the downward spiral of vacant premises, dilapidation, loss of prestige and emigration. But urban development cannot match the impact of human capital, and the fact remains that a district is really made attractive by the people who live there. In order to boost cohesion and strengthen the community bonds, the local civic association was keen to turn Montalta’s idea into an unusual fete.

(2) Stopover:

IBA ambassador in China

The know-how and experience gained by the IBA in Lusatia are in demand, as demonstrated by the fact that the Head of the Projects Department, Brigitte Scholz, has just returned from a business trip in China. She was speaking about the challenges of mine redevelopment in Lusatia at the 47th World Congress of the International Federation of Landscape Architects in Suzhou near Shanghai and at the China University of Mining in Xuzhou. She and Hon.-Prof. Adrian Hoppenstedt, Chairman of the IBA Expert Advisory Committee and former President of the Federation of German Landscape Architects (BDLA), also attended an advisory session for the mining company in Xuzhou where they added their insights and input in a discussion about potential future uses for a former coal mining area. IBA staff member Michael Feiler is also currently in China where he is giving a presentation on the work of the LMBV and the IBA in Lusatia at an Expo Shanghai business forum as part of a wider presentation of the state of Brandenburg.

(3) Work in progress:

Link-up of Lake Ilse and Lake Sedlitz

The LMBV has been engaged since the middle of June in the preparatory work for a technically challenging project in the Lusatian Lakeland. Lake Ilse will be connected to neighbouring Lake Sedlitz via a 186-metre-long navigable canal which will be routed underneath four railway tracks and the main B 169 road. The groundbreaking ceremony is set for 15 July at 11:30 hrs. and will be attended by representatives of Senftenberg town council, the Zweckverband Lausitzer Seenland Brandenburg, the Ministerium für Infrastruktur und Landwirtschaft, the Investitionsbank des Landes Brandenburg, Deutsche Bahn AG and the LMBV. Having been commissioned by the IBA to produce a design brief, Dresden architectural practice Meyer-Bassin und Partner has developed the concept of a series of 37 posts interspaced along the course of the tunnel and canal. The tops of the columns will be illuminated and glow orange in the dark, while several conical openings are to be fitted in the tunnel ceiling which will admit light and appear like the “eyes of heaven”. Hence the passage through the canal will be a totally unique experience. The design concept should be a reality by 2013 when the canal is scheduled to be completed.

(4) IBA exchange:

IBA meets IBA at the pit edge

There are currently three International Building Exhibitions “at work” in Germany. While the Lusatian IBA is primarily concerned with managing the landscape in the wake of the lignite mining industry, the issue at the centre of a joint project in Saxony-Anhalt involving 19 towns is the response to dwindling population figures and how to manage the situation as regards town planning. The Hamburg IBA will run until 2013 and has set itself the task of developing an entire city district between the HafenCity port development and Harburg incorporating the Elbe islands. Another IBA will have been started by then - at least one other. The IBA Basel will set a precedent in being the first region outside Germany to use the planning services of the IBA. The IBAs have been operating as a network since 2007. A memorandum has been drawn up listing, amongst other things, 10 recommendations for setting up an IBA.
Another meeting is scheduled for 29 and 30 July, this time in Großräschen on the IBA Terraces. One important item on the agenda besides the progress reports and an excursion is the burning question about the perpetuation of an IBA. With both Building Exhibitions in the east of Germany coming to an end in 2010, there is a need to come to some agreement as to how the work at the various project locations will be continued without the IBA.

(5) Wanderlust:

IBA specialist excursion goes to Basel - book now!

This autumn the IBA will be running its annual excursion for professionals from 15 to 18 October for one last time. The destination this time is Basel where the next International Building Exhibition is in the starting blocks. The city at the border triangle where Switzerland, Germany and France meet wants to use the IBA as a vehicle to control the growth of the region over the long term and to strengthen cross-border cooperation. We will not just be looking over the shoulders of the potential IBA originators, however, but will visit selected locations which are typical of the development of the region. The programme includes a guided sightseeing tour of Basel, a visit to the Novartis Campus and the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, a contemporary classical art collection in the Renzo Piano museum building, a tour of Rheinfelden power station, a visit to the Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and a trip on Lake Constance. The contribution towards costs is 340 euros.
Bookings are being taken until 21 July 2010 by Gabriele Völzke by telephone on 035753-370 288
or by email at voelzke@iba-see.de.
More Information about the excursion

(6) Music spectacle:

European Celtic Festival at the F60

The F60 has just celebrated its birthday. It was eight years ago in May that the former overburden conveyor bridge was opened to the public as a visitor mine. But the gigantic feat of engineering, the stunning view and the light and sound installation of artist Hans Peter Kuhn are not the only things which attract visitors to Lichterfeld. The F60 has also become an established venue. The F60 visitor mine will host the European Celtic Music Festival for the fourth time from 30 to 31 July from 18:00 to 24:00 hrs. Bands and soloists from all over Europe will be performing a wide range of styles and varieties of Celtic music. When LIADAN takes to the stage on the Saturday it will be the first time that an all-female band has been the main act. Other acts due to perform stirring anthems and ballads, lively Irish pub songs, spirited jigs & reels, rousing dances and powerful Celtic rock are The Church Mice, Clover from Berlin, the Connemara Stone Company, the Seldom Sober Company, The Aberlour’s, and international master of Irish dance Nicole Ohnesorge. And, in true and proper style, festival-goers will be allowed to camp at the foot of the F60!
www.f60.de

(7) Family weekend:

Discovery tours in the Muskau Arch Geopark

The Muskau Arch Geopark has a great deal to offer in terms of geology. The family weekend on 17 and 18 July will be an opportunity to take guided tours by bicycle, on foot, by train and by charabanc and discover the surprising geological and cultural diversity of this first cross-state and cross-border Geopark and the many aspects of its landscape and its mining and industrial past. The Muskau Forest Railway will be putting on additional trains with facilities to take bicycles free of charge and adding a touch of nostalgia with a steam locomotive and historic carriage, and trains will be running on the brickyard railway line in Klein Kölzig for the first time since it was redeveloped. There will be guided tours in the former brickyard, and the neighbouring local history museum in Groß Kölzig will be celebrating its 10th anniversary. The programme will be rounded off by presentations and themed excursions in the setting of 9th Geoparks Conference.
To find out more information and to register visit www.muskauer-faltenbogen.de

(8) Beach party:

Event and information days at the future Cottbus Baltic

Work is not scheduled to begin on flooding the open-cast mine to the east of Cottbus until 2015. But it will eventually be the biggest lake in Brandenburg which might have considerable impact on town planning and urban development in and around Cottbus. A master plan has been drawn up for the area in a bid to make long-term preparations for the future development, and a “Cottbus Island Council” has been set up which will steer the project from start to finish. The Cottbus Baltic Festival has been running for a few years, informing the public about the development of the open-cast mine and the plans for its future. This summer it will be held from 17 to 18 July near the future lake and by the likewise man-made quarry lake at Maust, the “Mauster Kiessee”. The adventure park there will also gain a viewing tower and a museum on the Saturday. On Sunday a varied programme of events will be laid on, with the traditional “Frühschoppen” or morning pint, brass band performances, children’s activities, paddling pool and dancing. Information will also be available on the Baltic master plan, and tours will be run in the open-cast mine. There will also be a small supply of Baltic water at 14:00 hrs. when teams will line up for the water race from the “Kiessee” quarry lake to the “Ostsee” Baltic. It is not just a matter of speed but of spilling as little water as possible on the way to the finishing line.
www.cottbuser-ostsee.de

(9) Panorama:

Sunset walk in open-cast mine

The IBA tours have been a great success for years. With trips to working open-cast mines, walks on the beds of future lakes and outings on the rippling waves of the newly emerging waterscape, the spectacular surroundings and expert guides ensure that visitors get a lasting impression of the transformation of the landscape. Some new tours have been introduced this year, such as three guided tours for people with disabilities. There is now also a monthly trip in the twilight hours down into what was the Meuro pit and will become Lake Ilse. The setting sun adds a magical atmosphere as its spellbinding light transforms the tour into a unique experience.

The “Sun, Moon and Mars” tour runs every last Saturday in the month at 19:00 hrs. and can be run for groups by arrangement on any other day of the week.

(10) Limited lake edition:

Homage to ten years of the IBA

The “Autohaus Großräschen” car dealership has come up with a nice idea. It has launched a limited “lake edition” for future car buyers from the local area or linked to the IBA to pay "homage" to the work of the Internationale Bauausstellung Fürst-Pückler-Land over the last 10 years. The IBA “see” logo can be applied on request to 25 VW Polo, Golf and Golf Plus cars. The “lake edition” cars come with all the standard features as well as a few added extras, such as parking sensor technology, leather-bound steering wheel, bucket seats and tinted windows. The sales promotion will run until 31 October 2010.