introduction | protecting threatened species | safeguarding biodiversity | improving water quality | enhancing the landscape | managing the archaeological heritage | restoring land for recreation | reducing neighbourhood noise | blending into the landscape | informing the community | creating nature reserves | conserving geological heritage | reducing environmental impacts

Enhancing The Landscape

BACKGROUND

In the surroundings of the city Wesel there are particularly good sand and gravel deposits. This results in two effects: on the one hand the city has an affluence of resources at its disposal, but on the other hand there is a necessity for a sensitive and challenging dialogue concerning the excavation of those resources which is inseparably linked to the interference with the nature and landscape.

Since 1987 the gravel pit Buenderich-Ginderich has provided the purchaser from the region Niederrhein, Muensterland, Ruhr Basin and the Netherlands with sand and gravel. The Huelskens GmbH & Co. Company, which has been based in Wesel for over 100 years, contributes significantly and on a regular basis to the important and complex social dialogue.

ACTION

In 2000 the company decided to illuminate the gravel pit, which put it into the new, positive perspective. An expert company, offering illuminations, was consulted and employed so that the achieved effect is very professional. The characteristics and functions of the illuminated elements have been stressed in a very tasteful artistic way. The elongated transport devices and the tiny steel construction parts have been accentuated by the disguised light strips and the dumps and silos highlighted with light rays of various intensity. The changing colours emphasise the various parts of the plant. The steel construction of the facility together with its zinc-coated surfaces are submerged in the green and blue light. The heaps of sand and gravel gleam in golden yellow. The white shining band-lines play the role of linking elements and complete the initiative.

RESULTS

Observed by the daylight the gravel pit Buederich-Ginderich represents the normal industrial scenery whereas in the evening and at night it turns into a real piece of art.

The undertaking aimed at promoting the understanding of the importance of the gravel pit and the extractive industry itself for the city and the region. It encouraged close liaison with the local community.

The project triggered indeed a wide sympathy and understanding among the local society, which is hard to underestimate. The aesthetic and artfully illuminated gravel pit constitutes a definite tourist attraction and evokes wide interest not only of the photographers.

introduction | protecting threatened species | safeguarding biodiversity | improving water quality | enhancing the landscape | managing the archaeological heritage | restoring land for recreation | reducing neighbourhood noise | blending into the landscape | informing the community | creating nature reserves | conserving geological heritage | reducing environmental impacts