Newsletter 108 from 23/01/2009

Internationale Bauausstellung Fürst-Pückler-Land

1. Planned: International exchange of experiences at IBA conference
2. Networked: Building exhibitions in the laboratory "IBA meets IBA"
3. Printed: "Mobile Floating Architecture" competition report
4. Continued: Preparations for IBA art project "Paradise 2"
5. Discussed: Energy cluster in the Lusatia-Spreewald region
6. Harvested: Robinia from Sedlitz energy landscape
7. Published: New leaflet on Fürst Pückler Path

(1) Planned:

International exchange of experiences at IBA conference

"Newland Lusatia" is the title adopted for the IBA Fürst-Pückler-Land theme year which will see the major international conference entitled "Opportunity: Post - Mining - Landscape" addressed to the business community with an interest in the subject. Those present at the event, scheduled to run from 15 to 17 September 2009 on the IBA Terraces, will be turning their attention to the structural transformation in various mining regions in different parts of the world. Central issues will be regional development, control of the planning culture, and the identity of the regions caught up in a state of flux. Other topics earmarked for discussion include the work of the IBA in Lusatia and the strategic directions for the future. Specific aspects of the restructuring of mining regions will be discussed in various lecture sessions. A themed excursion is also included in the conference programme. The conference is aimed at experts from various disciplines. The programme is currently being drawn up. Anyone interested can register at the end of February via the IBA website.

Moreover, the IBA will again be putting on tours and events this year offering the chance to discover "Lusatia: New Frontiers". The season on the IBA Terraces will start on 20 March with new tours running along the ENERGY Route through Lusatia's Industrial Heritage, for example, calling in at old and new cultural heritage sites, and leaving from the horizontal Eiffel Tower into the new wilderness.

(2) Networked:

Building exhibitions in the laboratory "IBA meets IBA"

The "IBA Laboratory", which was set up by the IBA Hamburg in 2007 and constituted a platform for sharing among past, present and future IBAs, will experience a remake on 6 February in the Academy of the Arts in Berlin. There are plans to use the event as a framework to discuss how the qualities and attributes of the "IBA brand" can be steadily safeguarded and how the international building exhibition might move on from its established base in Germany and make a contribution to the European process of planning and developing the built environment. The pilot project "IBA meets IBA" will also be included in the programme with a view to strengthening networking processes among building exhibitions. For more information visit www.iba-hamburg.de

(3) Printed:

"Mobile Floating Architecture" competition report

The beginning of February will see the publication of the report on the international "Mobile Floating Architecture" competition which was announced by IBA Fürst-Pückler-Land last year in a bid to promote the theme of floating architecture in the Lusatian Lakeland. The weighty 136-page tome will feature the six prizewinning projects and a further 137 designs. They show floating properties which are in keeping with the emerging Lusatian Lakeland setting, offer the comfort and cosiness of a holiday home, enjoy self-sufficiency on the water, and which have the design credentials to change the face of Lusatia. Anyone interested can purchase their own copy of the competition report for 15 euros on the IBA Terraces. It can also be sent by post. Orders can be emailed to Ligia Laferte at laferte@iba-see.de.

(4) Continued:

Preparations for IBA art project "Paradise 2"

Swiss director Jürg Montalta will stage-manage the IBA finale in 2010 in artistic style via the project "Paradise 2". Seven art projects were developed last year in collaboration with the Lusatian people as part of this event. "The aim in 2009 is to work together on these initiatives and to encourage more Lusatians to join in", said Jürg Montalta whose project has already met with great enthusiasm. "The 'listening circles' for Germans and Poles in Gubin are going so well that we will even be putting them on every month this year. They emanate a really strong sense of symbolism for the Gubin parish church restoration project and play an important role in pointing the way to understanding between nations." Moreover, Jürg Montalta has now taken other artists on board from the Netherlands, Greece and Italy. They will assist him with his staging of the event. Jazz musician Martin Franke is also involved. He likes to try out unconventional things and intends to strike a responsive chord from the 500-metre long F60 overburden conveyor bridge in the summer with the people of Lichterfeld and use the giant steel structure itself as a musical instrument. Further dates have already been fixed for the meetings about the art projects in Cottbus, Schlabendorf, Großräschen and Gubin. Anyone interested is very welcome to attend.

Diary dates:
29.1., 18 hrs. Cottbus, Soziokulturelles Zentrum
11.2., 18 hrs. Schlabendorf, Alte Schule
17.2., 17 hrs. Paradieswerkstatt, IBA-Geschäftsstelle Großräschen
18.2., 16 hrs. 5th listening circle, Gubiner Kulturhaus

"Soundcheck" on the convoyer bridge F60

(5) Discussed:

Energy cluster in the Lusatia-Spreewald region

An interim presentation on the projected Lusatia-Spreewald energy cluster initiative will be held on the IBA Terraces on 30 January and attended by Federal Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee from the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs. Those attending the event can expect presentations and discussions on demographic change and restructuring processes, energy sites in rural locations, and promotion of urban climate protection initiatives. The pilot projects being run in the locations selected in 2008 in the administrative districts of Elbe-Elster and Oberspreewald-Lausitz will also be presented. The townships of Uebigau-Wahrenbrück, Lichterfeld-Schacksdorf, Schipkau and Altdöbern want to expedite the development of a local energy cluster and have set up various projects on renewable energy and energy conservation. Anyone interested can register for the event by telephoning Ralf Ullrich of the Regionale Planungsstelle Lausitz-Spreewald on 0355 - 78 28 187 or by emailing him at ralf.ullrich@rpgls.brandenburg.de. The meeting will get underway at 13:00 hrs. in the event centre on the IBA Terraces in Großräschen.

(6) Harvested:

Robinia from Sedlitz energy landscape

Everybody is talking about the cultivation of energy forests on the barren open-cast mining terrain of Lusatia. The potential of selected areas to form energy landscapes in Lusatia was one of the issues analysed by the IBA as part of the EU project entitled "REKULA - Restructuring Cultural Landscapes", one of the initial areas being Sedlitz near Senftenberg. Großräschen farmers had planted 33,000 Robinia in a mine dump measuring some three hectares as part of a trial in 2005 near the location earmarked for the future canal between Lake Ilse and Lake Sedlitz. A few days ago the area boasted a total harvest of 53 tonnes of wood for energy purposes. "95 percent of the plants took root. That's an excellent growth rate", commented Reinhard Wolschke from the Farmers' Cooperative in Großräschen. "But the commercial revenue will show whether it is economically viable for us to plant trees for energy", he added. It will be another few years before the other trees like the poplar, willow, aspen, birch and larch yield a good harvest on the western shore of Lake Sedlitz. Meanwhile, the biomass harvest continues on the post-mining terrain in Lusatia. It will be brought in on 4 February in the Welzow energy landscape.

(7) Published:

New leaflet on Fürst Pückler Path

The Fürst Pückler Path is over 500 kilometres long and runs through the contemporary history of the Brandenburg and Saxon parts of Lusatia, linking almost all 25 IBA projects and boasting the most beautiful sights. The leaflet about the route has now been republished. It contains up-to-date information on the route itself, as well as accommodation, restaurants and campsites along the long-distance cycle path. Cyclists will be well on their way on the Pückler Route which is signposted by a small blue and white pyramid. It is well-surfaced and safe and offers a wide range of tourist attractions from picturesque parks and bizarre lunar landscapes right through to the romanticism of the Spreewald forest and imposing industrial monuments. The leaflet is available at the IBA Terraces in Großräschen and at local tourist information offices.