Stadtteilzentrum und Fortbildungsakademie Mont-Cenis

Herne

With the closing of the Mont Cenis mine in Herne-Sodingen, the city's mining district lost not only its economic epicentre, but its functional and urban centre as well. The decision by the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia to relocate the Training Academy for the Interior Ministry to Herne was the critical impetus for the development of the 26 hectares of barren land.

The Akademie Mont-Cenis is one element in an urban master plan to cluster together 300 apartments, commercial spaces and service venues and to develop the surrounding countryside into a district park.

The entire plan for the district and the academy building began in 1990. Within the framework of IBA Emscher Park, an initial design seminar including five international and interdisciplinary groups of professional architects, city planners and landscape architects developed ideas for the site. Subsequently, the results of the design seminar as well as the methods of implementation were presented to the public by means of a civic forum.

The Akademie Mont-Cenis , designed by the firm of Jourda et Perraudin in Lyon, currently houses the training academy for the Interior Ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia and includes a guest house for trainees as well as a community centre with library, a meeting place for locals and a district administrative office for the city of Herne. The inspiration for the building came from London's Crystal Palace built for the 1851 Great Exhibition: all units are organised as interior wooden structures under a glass enclosure. The wood-beam supported micro-climate enclosure – 180-m long, 75-m wide and 15-m high - allows for simple construction of the constituent houses that manage without weather protection. The buildings use 50% less energy than conventional constructions. Heat and electricity are supplied by a communal power source that runs on methane. The roof is lined with a 1 MW photovoltaic system.

Two three-storey truncated cones immediately catch the eye. One is the entry area to the training academy and the other houses the district library. The arrangement of the district town hall is such that the academy and office elements function alongside one another without problems. Within the district park, the academy is situated at a higher elevation and is framed by an oval line of trees and a light installation by Mischa Kuball.

Outside the ellipse, spontaneous vegetation will develop into woodland as the old industrial slag heaps were long ago covered over by grassland. Subsequently, the Landschafts- und Naturschutzgebiet Vosshacken [Vosshacken landscape park and nature reserve] will become part of the park. The 2005 completion of a residential and commercial building, which includes a supermarket, various smaller shops, medical practices as well as apartments suitable for the elderly and disabled, marked the last step in the renewal of the community centre. The public marketplace that fronts the four-storey building links the park and academy to the rest of the district.