2050 is just around the corner

Ok – in 2050, the residential areas planned in the course of the Ruhr2010 will have grown (up, you might say). The boundaries to other projects have disappeared, islands have turned into landmarks within the region. But does this constitute the end of all planning desires?
Of course not. Even considering all the developments and improvements regarding education, culture, and new technologies, there is still one big flaw: urban depopulation. There are job opportunities with a promising future, but there are not enough qualified workers. This region tries to cope with demographic change and its serious consequences.

According to a Bertelsmann survey on demographic change done in 2005, the apartment vacancies will cause future problems – even a total demolition of the affected houses would be possible. Supposedly, the population will decrease between 10 and 30 per cent. And we might see the consequences already very soon, in the next few years.
The city of Herne, according to the study, will lose approximately 12.000 inhabitants as of 2015 – this means 270 empty apartments. In Duisburg, population will shrink from 450.000 to 400.000 – meaning even more vacancies. What’s next: a round of golf in front of our city halls?

On the other hand, one may daydream a bit seeing these figures: maybe there’ll be pubs, bistros, service companies and shops in residential areas – and daily life comes back to those streets.
A small medical complex next to a company next to some shops next to a bistro and café next to a nursing home, a drugstore and a salon – that is a normal sight in many residential districts of the Ruhr area anyway. Young and old, bankers, migrants, creative folks - they are not longer isolated from each other, but live together, in one melting pot.
The city cores will be decentralised a bit after this migration to the respective other parts of town with their own smaller shopping districts and quarters. More and more parks and lawns will be located right in the centre of the city, and you can play boccia on them. Noise and narrowness – gone. You will find a great example of that concept in the centre of Herne, around a certain fountain, the Engelbertbrunnen – people flock to that place because of the attractive boulevards around it.

The city planners thought twice this time and didn’t look for one big investor responsible for communal financing and taxes. Now, politics and city administration have learned to smile at every single tax payer and take their duty seriously. This moves mountains and pushes creativity, and the quality of life in the cities can develop even further
These new corporations and business ventures work unspectacularly, in the city cores, the fringes, in residential areas, according to their infrastructural demands, in clusters or in the vicinity of research or design and development. Working in a park is no longer unique, the green overlapping the surrounding areas. Think tanks do not longer operate in the outskirts where they had to make quite a fuss to make their locations desirable, and when the costs for real estate and rent finally rise, they had to start elsewhere where it was still affordable... Now, their significance is acknowledged.

The town council members have all left their fairy tale castle. The outskirts, barely connected to the core city, gain quality and value by the above mentioned measures. The subway system serves the complete region, finally turning the Ruhr area into a really coherent one.

Related links: 

• Bringing the Rhine back to life – river landscapes in Duisburg