Gewerbepark Zeche Waltrop und Halde Brockenscheidt

Waltrop

The former Waltrop mine was referred to as ’the mine in the countryside’. At the south-eastern edge of the city limits in the Waltrop-Brockenscheidt district, the site is imbedded in a large green corridor. Of its total 35 hectares, about 11 hectares is currently under commercial use while the lion's share has been landscaped and includes an industrial park in regional green corridor F of the Emscher Landscape Park.

Once belonging to the state of Prussia, the listed mine has many historical elements. The task of these underground mines in the northern Ruhr was the extraction of coal for the war-critical navy in factory buildings that "were fit to represent the Prussian state in worthy fashion."

Under the motto ’New Technology in Old Halls’ the collection of 11 decommissioned buildings was secured, through the regional development company LEG NRW and within the framework of IBA Emscher Park, to enable their reutilisation by local businesses. Infrastructural measures and the preparation of large areas of open space allowed combined residential and commercial ventures to arise.

More than 40 companies have made their home at the site. These tenants are predominantly small, traditional technology and service-oriented enterprises and tradesmen. The largest company, the mail-order concern Manufactum, was convinced to relocate its headquarters and development office to the site and to set up its first sales outlet there.

The former machine hall serves as the company headquarters. The existing shell of the building has remained intact and new office space was built into the hall as thermally self-contained units without destroying the shell and the character of the building as a whole. Another building, containing an historic steam engine, serves as a museum honouring the former use of the grounds: mining. In the meantime, many interior spaces in the hall are used for art exhibitions. Numerous sculptures shape the exterior grounds. The industrial park's new buildings are situated east of the halls. A unifying element of the industrial park is the green concept with open spaces, forest areas and the Haldenpark [slag heap park].  Accessible on foot, the Spurwerk tower atop the Brockenscheidt slag heap has become a new emblem and landmark of Waltrop. From a height of 12 metres above the surface of the slag heap, the visitor is offered a panoramic view of the eastern Ruhr. The tower, the brainchild of artist Jan Bormann, was built using discarded guide rails that had been used as wooden trusses in mining.