Robert Hormes
Viewpoint Garzweiler. RWTH Aachen (Germany)
By discovering the brown coal area of Garzweiler it becomes clear, that a simple building can´t really inform about the place in character. At the edge of the mining area, two worlds collide:
The first one is a world of fascinating machines of incredible size, a loss of scale or unexpected views into the belly of the earth.
The second world tells about destroyed villages, homeless people, or various social and ecological problems.
The information point has not only to show the local scenario, but also these invisible things.
Through the decades of coal mining in the area (planned up to the year 2045), the infopoint walks along Garzweiler, leaving concrete columns at the edge of the open cast behind.
Even if the landscape has been reformed through the mining company, those columns show the dimensions of Garzweiler in time and space.
The viewpoint has a machine-like appearance. Its form follows the item of moving from column to column at all, and producing new columns at the front in detail.
Via a stairway at the very end of the structure, the visitor reaches the main level at a height of 12m.
In two longitudinal decks, the visitor can have a look onto the old and the new landscape. Centre of the machine is the driving-unit, that works like a clockwork.
On the one hand side, it moves the structure with a continuous speed of 80m per year, on the other hand, it hosts a multi-purpose-room, which is wandering between the main decks.
With the end of coal mining in the area, the machine will stop, too. The line of columns will stay in the landscape as a memory of terraforming. The machine remains at the coming lake and will be used as resting place an museum.
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