For the publication on ArchDaily, Philipp Valente explored various places and cities that characterize the Ruhr area with the internationally renowned architecture and landscape photographer Erieta Attali. The focus was particularly on former industrial locations, such as Dortmund (Kokerei Hansa, Phoenix West), Essen (Zeche Zollverein, Schurenbachhalde), Bochum (German Mining Museum), Duisburg (Landschaftspark-Nord), Oberhausen (Gasometer) and Herten (Ewald colliery, Halde Hoheward).

What do all these places have in common? They were former industrial sites and some of them, including the Zeche Zollverein, are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. In contrast to many places that have changed due to demographic change, these have remained intact. Each of these places is a connection with the landscape.

Erieta Attali often found these places to be dark and oppressive when looking at historical photographs and therefore wanted to draw attention to the connection between buildings and nature through her own photography, which can now be found in the publication on ArchDaily. In this way, in contrast to the darkness, it creates a very unique atmosphere that interacts with the surrounding landscape. With her photography, Attali creates completely new aspects of industrial places that have taken on independent forms in combination with the surrounding cities and urban living spaces. The places become living archaeological cities. With her photography she tries to bring the content and context, the historical legacy and the living inclusion of the past into the present, the fusion of traces with a modern world to the viewer.

You can read the publication on ArchDaily via the following website.

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