Sustainability in Brownfield Regeneration

More than 20 colleagues from Sweden, Finland, Denmark Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany got together in Rostock on 20 - 23 September 2006. On the basis of examples from Rostock different experiences in handling of waste land were discussed. The guests presented their impressions and proposals how to deal with these problems at the end of the workshop.

Independent experts worked on three different types of waste land. The experts at the UBC workshop developed a synthesis of the long lasting preliminary work of Rostock municipality and the inputs from INTERREG III C operations such as "Brownfield development - BERT. The UBC supervisors proposed e.g. a green corridor leading from the botanic garden to the Warnow bank. There is already the extension of the pedestrian precinct at the riverbank under way. The appointed UBC workgroup emphasised the direct position of the river as the decisive quality criterion for the future development. Therefore the references to the water became clearer, rifts were broadened, and a rangy mix of functions of high-quality urban living and water sports were highlighted.

While two out of the three workshops dealt with conventional waste land of former life and trading estate, the third workshop had to pay attention to the urban location of the "Maritime Museum Rostock". The UBC experts were spunkier than all previous planners of Rostock and found a solution. The message of the workshop was clear: Rostock has been over centuries one of the most famous centres of commerce, culture and science in the Baltic Sea Region. The storerooms of the museums are brimful; due to the lack of space merely 1 % of the treasures can be shown. Under these circumstances it would be unwise to close such a valuable building and to offer it for sale without any criticism. Rostock should put its efforts into creating an economic company of a museum of city history and art. An additional building of glass, which accommodate a museum shop, a museum restaurant and for example a private gallery could make up for a functional deficiency of Rostock museum.

At the end of the consultations all colleagues agreed: They will continue to meet every six month. An established team will be in charge of acquisition of EU grants to support the work of the commission.