The briefing
The Emscher regeneration shows how multi-decade planning can turn a polluted industrial area into a green hub. Rather than a single project, the IBA-led framework has evolved through continuous restoration, infrastructure, cultural, and ecological initiatives.
Original headline
In the 1990s, 17 cities joined Germany's Emscher regeneration programme. 30 years later the polluted industrial region had become a green hub with a 70-km landscape park