10.01.2025

On the death of Karl Ganser

Building design

Karl Ganser saved the Zollverein colliery from demolition. Photo: Jonas Tebbe via Unsplash

Karl Ganser, one of the protagonists of structural change in the Ruhr region, has died at the age of 84. An obituary.

Karl Ganser passed away on April 21, 2022. As Director of the IBA Emscher Park, he was responsible for the largest structural program in Germany from 1989 to 1999. An obituary

Karl Ganser died on April 21, 2022 at the age of 84 in Nattenhausen, where he spent his retirement in his grandfather’s old village smithy in his home town of Breitenthal. Karl Ganser is considered one of the most important geographers and urban planners in Germany. He has received numerous honors and awards for his work, such as the “National Prize for Integrated Urban Development and Building Culture” from the Federal Ministry of Transport and the Bavarian Nature Conservation Prize. His work has focused on urban development and monument protection as well as nature conservation and environmental protection.

Architect of the new Ruhr region

He achieved fame as managing director of the IBA Emscher Park. From 1989 until his retirement in 1999, Karl Ganser was responsible for the largest structural program in Germany. The Dusiburg-Nord Landscape Park, the Nordsteinpark in Gelsenkirchen and the Zollverein in Essen were created under his leadership. He campaigned for the preservation of architectural witnesses to the industrial age in the Ruhr region. He saved buildings such as the gasometer in Oberhausen and the steelworks in Duisburg-Meiderich from demolition. Today, they are crowd-pullers in the region.

The fact that the steel and coal region developed into a knowledge and creative location is ultimately also thanks to Karl Ganser’s imagination and over 100 projects. He drove his ideas forward with great commitment and inspired other people. “He drilled the thickest boards, but with charm,” is how Roland Günther, art historian and biographer of Karl Ganser, describes him. “He was perhaps the most ingenious guy, who always found a way through unbelievable bureaucracies, through a constant ‘can’t, can’t, can’t’, to make it work after all. He made the impossible possible,” says Roland Günther. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia named him the “Architect of the New Ruhr Area” for his efforts.

Karl Ganser: Stages in his life

Karl Ganser’s career began with a degree in chemistry, biology and geography at the Technical University of Munich. His dissertation from 1964 dealt with the socio-geographical organization of the city of Munich according to election results. After completing his doctorate at the Institute of Geography, Karl Ganser became project manager in the urban development department of the City of Munich. Among other things, he was involved in the planning of the Olympic Games.

He qualified as a professor in 1970 and took over the management of the Institute for Regional Studies in Bonn (now part of the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning) in 1971. He held this position until 1980. Ganser then moved to the Ministry for Regional and Urban Development in North Rhine-Westphalia, where he headed the urban planning department under the leadership of Christoph Zöpel. The 1987 IBA in Berlin prompted Ganser to propose an IBA in the Ruhr region as a structural program to the ministry. From 1989 to 1999, he then headed the IBA Emscher Park as Managing Director. Karl Ganser retired in 1999. During this time, he continued to work as a publicist, expert and mediator.

The film “Geheimnis Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord” by Marika Liebsch tells the story of the Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park. You can find the film here.

17.01.2025

Product

Two premieres of architecture magazine BAUMEISTER

Building design

David Chipperfield in the interview with BAUMEISTER: “In this sense, curating a BAUMEISTER issue brings us closer to understanding who we are.” It is with some pride that we present to you two premieres at once today: 1. This whole issue of BAUMEISTER has been curated by David Chipperfield Architects. 2. this particular issue is […]

13.01.2025

Climate killer cannabis?

Building design

A cannabis plant in an indoor grow room. — CC BY-SA 4.0

The traffic light coalition is planning to legalize cannabis in Germany – in a highly controlled manner in licensed stores. However, according to a new study from Colorado, USA, the indoor cultivation of cannabis is now said to be as harmful to the climate as coal mining. So how green is this green initiative? Check out the facts.

It’s a done deal: in their coalition agreement , the parties in the traffic light coalition stipulate that cannabis will be legal for recreational purposes in future. The drug is only to be sold to adults via licensed stores. The coalition hopes that this will result in controlled quality free of impurities and the possibility of ensuring the protection of minors.

But a study from Colorado is causing a stir in this context. Cannabis has been legalized for recreational purposes in this US state for almost ten years. Tens of companies here now produce over 500 tons of dried hemp flowers. One major problem for the climate appears to be the cultivation method, as almost the entire quantity is grown in greenhouses under artificial light. This costs a lot of energy and therefore alsoCO2, as Hailey Summers and her team at Colorado State University found out. Depending on the cultivation location, between 2.3 and 5.2 tonsof CO2 equivalents are produced per kilogram of dried cannabis flowers.

In total, around 2.6 megatons of climate-impactingCO2 equivalentsare produced annually by the indoor cultivation of cannabis in Colorado. This is significantly more than the 1.8 megatons caused by coal mining in the state. Several factors are responsible for the high greenhouse gas emissions from the production of cannabis flowers. For example, not all production facilities are equipped with economical LEDs and are therefore not particularly energy-efficient to operate. Added to this is the energy required to heat the greenhouses and the drying facilities for the harvested flowers.

In order to protect the climate, the scientists propose modernizing the greenhouses with LEDs and optimizing the processing procedure. This could saveup to 2.1 megatons ofCO2 equivalents. One thing is clear: cannabis will always be produced, whether it is legal or not. However, outside the influence of any controlling authorities, the effects of illegal cannabis plantations on the climate, environment and consumers are even more devastating than those of legal ones, as the example of California shows.

Also interesting: Climate change – what happens in a worst-case scenario? With the help of a computer simulation, W-LAB has developed an idea that shows how we could live one day as a result of the changing climate.