Testing

Modica, Marcello

doi:10.1007/978-3-658-37681-9_7

Marcello Modica⁵

Part of the book series: RaumFragen: Stadt – Region – Landschaft ((RFSRL))

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Abstract

The testing phase involves four case study sites selected from the previously outlined geography of Alpine brownfields as a ‘test base’ for developing a landscape-oriented transformation model. By means of a detailed research protocol, which includes and integrates intensive fieldwork activities and interpretative background analysis, the sites are gradually unveiled as highly representative situations of the vast case systems of Alpine brownfields. Based on concrete and reality-matching inputs from local stakeholders and communities, each site’s transformation is then ‘virtually’ realized through speculative design explorations. This allows not only to outline a specific planning approach to transformation itself, but also it helps to identify and categorise all those possible interventions that can be implemented.

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How to manage the complex redevelopment process of Alpine brownfields through a landscape-based transformation approach? In how far does the actual landscape structure of Alpine brownfields influence the site transformation? How to strategically integrate the different expectations/needs expressed by the local community and the brownfield contextual conditions in an operative model based on structuralist-systemic principles? Can such a model be equally applied (transferred) to different mountain brownfield typologies as well as function in different regional contexts? To help answering these questions, the third analytical phase involves four real-world case study sites, selected from the previously outlined geography of Alpine brownfields as a ‘test base’ for developing a landscape-based transformation approach. By means of a detailed research protocol, which includes and integrates intensive fieldwork activities and interpretative background analysis, the four sites are gradually ‘unveiled’ as highly representative situations of the vast case systems already identified. The ‘virtual’ testing of transformation—though based on concrete, realistic insights from local stakeholders and affected communities—allows to outline not only a methodological approach for redeveloping Alpine brownfields, to be later discussed, but more specifically it helps to identify and categorise the possible interventions that can actually take place. In this sense, the Testing phase is the most operative-oriented phase of the analysis.

1 Framework

Focus

The territorial survey has provided a general overview of Alpine brownfields in terms of geographical distribution and regional-based challenges, while the typological landscape study has highlighted the characteristics and inherent transformation potential of the most representative Alpine brownfields. At this point, a shift in both scale and methodology is required to concretely test the research hypothesis on the analytical base so far outlined. With regards to the scale, the Testing phase zooms-in the Alpine brownfield geography and identifies a few, representative case study sites to work with. In this way, the ‘numbers’ of Mapping and the structural ‘typologies’ of Characterisation are given a concrete representation, an exemplary form and constitution. At the same time, the methodological approach shifts from a detached, data-based approach towards a more operative, field-based one, in which the collection and interpretation of data largely depends on the direct experience with the site itself, as physical, built entity. For the purpose of working with the same methodology on different yet comparable sites, case study research is identified as the most suitable methodological framework. The nature of case studies is descriptive, as it addresses the description of a phenomenon in a real-world context, but also exploratory, as it aims to increase the knowledge of the same phenomenon while developing (or testing) the hypothesis. The goal of the Testing phase is therefore to describe, through direct and on-site analysis, the reality of representative Alpine brownfield sites, as well as to approach and test their transformation by means of design-oriented approaches. The selection of the case study sites, and the construction of the appropriate methodological toolbox are therefore aimed at providing a well-grounded, empirically assessable insight on mountain brownfields, thus fostering the generation of new and useful knowledge on their complex redevelopment process.

Criteria

According to the research hypothesis and aims, as well as considering the analytical process developed so far in Mapping and Characterising phases, the selection of the case study sites was based on two main criteria: representativeness (relevance) and heterogeneity of situations. The relevance of potential case studies was first defined according to the results of the previous phases, which means that the selected case studies had to match either a) the landscape structural typologies (cement plant, EAF steelworks, textile spinning mill, aluminium smelter)^{Footnote 1} and b) the regional types (old industrial regions, industrial-tertiary regions of type 1 and type 2)^{Footnote 2}. A cross comparison between potentially suitable sites within the four identified landscape typologies (based on the mapping results) and the three regional types led, at first, to circumscribe the set of cases. On this latter, the second macro-criterion (heterogeneity) was then applied. Having as main reference the aforementioned four identified site typologies, the heterogeneity criteria can be expressed through:

the site status quo, or degree of ‘brownfieldisation’. This implies that the case studies have to cover different stages of industrial decline, from underused/downsized sites to completely closed down sites, as well as closing down or partially re-activated sites. This ‘staging’ criteria is essential to understand how the process of turning into brownfield influences transformation and redevelopment, i.e. which challenges and opportunities are there existing in each of the different stages. In addition, working with sites in different conditions might help to learn how to anticipate (prevent) certain situations and to develop, accordingly, specific transformative interventions;
the site regional and national context, meant in the broad sense (geography, economy, environment, spatial development policies, etc.). Different socioeconomic and cultural contexts from the Alpine countries have to be then taken into account, to ensure the widest possible reach-out of results. This does not only refer to the fact that in different countries the brownfield issue might be tackled in different ways, but also, and mostly, to the possibility of developing a concrete and transferable methodological approach for Alpine brownfields, regardless the specific socioeconomic context and cultural background.

According to the representativeness and heterogeneity criteria, four case study sites have been therefore selected for the testing phase:

SPZ Zementwerk Eiberg (Schwoich, Land Tyrol/Austria): cement plant, recently closed (1865–2018), industrial-tertiary region of type 2;
Ascometal-Winoa (Le Cheylas, Département de l’Isère/France): EAF steelworks, partly closed (1921–2015), industrial-tertiary region of type 1 (peri-Alpine location);
Cantoni ITC (Ponte Nossa, Provincia di Bergamo/Italy): cotton spinning mill, long closed (1870–2004), old industrial region;
Constellium (Steg-Hohtenn, Kanton Wallis—Canton Valais/Switzerland): aluminium smelter, downsized (1962–2006), industrial-tertiary region of type 1 (inner-Alpine location).

The Italian case study well represents those old Alpine industries in steady decline, for which redevelopment is difficult to achieve due to long status of abandonment and the fragile economic context. The Austrian case study deals with early-established industrial typologies too, although characterized by a dynamic decline trend strongly related to the socioeconomic context—which, in this particular case, is rather well developed and growing. On the contrary, the French and the Swiss case studies are both focused on Alpine heavy industries once based on hydropower, also sharing the same regional type. However, the specific socioeconomic context (urban agglomeration versus inner valley) and the background and current use of the two sites are very different, thus giving rise to diverse, alternative questions.

Methods

To ensure a common analytical framework and procedures for such a heterogeneous set of sites, a detailed case study protocol has been defined in advance (Fig. 7.1). The protocol not only serves as “a standardised agenda for the investigator's line of inquiry for a single case” (Yin 2014), thus allowing its straightforward replication on all the selected cases/sites, but it also helps to integrate in a logic sequence the multiple units of analysis through which each case study is investigated (so-called ‘embedded design’). Indeed, a protocol so conceived is essential to ensure a later, well-documented and transparent comparability of results. The approach behind the protocol structuring is derived by carefully mixing quantitative and qualitative research methods in planning and social sciences (Silva et al. 2014) with those referring to geographical or ‘territorial’ landscape analysis (Turri 2002; Antrop 2013). The protocol integrates and organises the different selected methods and tools in a three-step procedure, developed according to the author’s own interpretation of the outsider/insider dualism in experiencing and studying landscapes (Cosgrove 1985). The procedure encompasses the following temporarily ordered phases.

The preliminary analysis (type of research: desk research; role of researcher: outsider) aims to establish the ‘territorial’ framework for the site in-depth study. This includes an exhaustive overview of the regional context—described through its geography, accessibility, socio-demography, economy, environment and spatial development trends—as well as a description of the brownfield site itself—location, background, current use and future plans. The information and data for the regional and site profiles are gathered from existing and available documentation (mainly planning documents and reports, sectoral studies, literature but also local newspapers) and eventually further integrated by face-to-face or phone/mail interviews to relevant stakeholders (e.g. site owners and local/regional administrative planning institutions). The content of the regional and site profiles constitutes therefore the ‘operational perimeter’ within which the site analysis has to be performed, and to which the testing of transformation has necessarily to confront with (i.e. programmatic guidelines). Subsequently, the site and its contextual conditions are assessed by means of a diachronic landscape analysis, in which a set of historical aerial views of the contextualised site are compared to evidence and record the landscape change—or the current landscape structure as result of layered processes. This fundamental operation—which borrows from cultural geography the understanding of landscape as palimpsest (Meining 1979) and uses the historical-geographic analytical approaches of territorial studies (Turri 2002, 2001)—allows to objectively assess the present situation by assigning a specific relevance and meaning to the existing spatial structural elements. In this sense, the diachronic landscape analysis constitutes at all the effects and purposes a preliminary ‘operative’ step, as it sets the ground for the following field-based investigation of the site, either in terms of content (what to do/see) and planning (where to go).

The fieldwork analysis (type of research: field research, role of researcher: insider) aims to acquire qualitative spatial information through the direct experience of the landscape. The fieldwork analysis is performed through a one week-long excursion, in which the site and its surroundings are thoroughly explored and carefully documented by means of photography. Differently from the typical site visits to transformation sites performed in the architectural and planning fields, this way of documenting involves a longer time span, minimum 5 days, which allows an experiential deepening of the site and its context. Furthermore, the intermediate positioning of the documentary fieldwork between the precedent purely analytical phase and the following deductive and design-oriented one, fully enables a critical involvement in the situation of study. The operative principles of the field visit, such as prolonged stays (familiarity), the use of mental mapping (orientation) and slow-motion field exploration (observation), are based on place-engagement and ‘environmental perception’ techniques already developed and tested in ground-breaking ‘psychogeographic’ experiences of the 1960 s–1980 s (Lynch 1960; Debord 2006; Burckhardt 2015). To document the direct experience of landscape and thus the actual spatial forms and relationships, a photographic study is developed throughout the field visit, as also the main descriptive outcome. The photographic approach used in the fieldwork analysis builds on the author’s own experience in documenting industrial landscapes (Modica 2012, 2018; Modica and Infussi 2017), combined with key elements and techniques from contemporary landscape photography (Alexander 2015). The industrial site and its surroundings are documented according to the ‘topographic style’ (Bertho 2015) developed by ground-breaking collaborative photographic projects such as the New Topographics (1975) in the US (Jenkins 1975; Foster-Rice and Rohrbach 2010), Luigi Ghirri’s collective Viaggio in Italia in the early 1980 s (Ghirri 1989; Ghirri, Leone, and Velati 1984) and the French Mission photographique de la DATAR in 1984–88 (Latarjet and Hers 1985). By pursuing a pure, aesthetics-free documentation of indeterminate yet familiar landscapes—thus including environmental concerns on human intervention on nature—these works have introduced Western societies to a new, objective and critical, approach to landscape representation, far opposite to traditional romantic and idealised conceptions. The photographer assumes here a neutral position toward the landscape, though being conscious of its own position and view, aiming to reproduce it through ‘natural’ framing and depth of field^{Footnote 3} as in a sort of visual mapping process. Due to the specific typology of landscape in the focus, i.e. industrial or industry-altered landscapes, additional references in terms of techniques and representation are borrowed from the field of industrial photography. These encompass artistic works from the German Neue Sachlichkeit tradition, such as those of Albert Renger-Patzsch (Renger-Patzsch and Honnef 1977) and the Becher’s (Becher and Becher 2002), as well as commissioned corporate works mainly from the Italian context (Desole 2015). The photographic approach used in the fieldwork responds to specific criteria, among which highest possible level of objectivity in representation and multi-perspective observation. An essential prerequisite to the fulfilment of these criteria is the preparatory work of the field visit, which includes the identification of preferred viewpoints and elements/spaces to document according to the outcomes of the precedent diachronic landscape analysis. The overall photography study is then presented through a selection of 24 pictures, focusing either on the site contextualisation, on the spatial qualities of the site and surroundings and, most important, on the physical and visual relationships between the site and its context. Each photography is briefly commented, with the purpose to increase the ‘geographical’ readability of the included elements.

The advanced analysis (type of research: design-based desk research; role of the researcher: experienced outsider) aims to outline and test the transformation potential of the brownfield site through a design-oriented approach. Differently from the previous two phases, the advanced analysis is not meant to collect further data or information on the site and its context, but instead to process what has been gathered so far in the view of generating new knowledge on the site future transformation. The methods used in this processing are referrable to the wide methodological approach of ‘study-by-design’ (de Jong and Van der Voordt 2002), and in particular to the so-called ‘scenario design’, in which “a scenario does not only contain the extension of empirically established probable developments perspective, but also […] possible spatial interventions” (de Jong and Engel 2002: 457). For each site, its physical and functional transformation is prefigured according to a sequence of two clearly identifiable steps (Fig. 7.2). At first, the bunch of information collected in the diachronic landscape analysis (phase 1) and during the field visit (phase 2) are reviewed and transposed into a landscape structural map. The landscape structure is here conceived as the composition of spatial elements on the land defined according to their actual characteristics and interdependencies, which means the whole built/open and linear/areal elements of which the site and its surroundings are made of^{Footnote 4}. The landscape structure represents therefore the status quo, the ‘canvas’ of transformation. On this basis, and with the territorial framework (preliminary analysis) as main reference for what concerns the content/inputs, the physical and functional transformation of the site and its premises (context) is gradually outlined and described according to three ‘landscape systems’: backbone, borders, and core. These systems can be defined as infra-structural (i.e. within / based on the landscape structure) configurations of spatial elements sharing the same performances (aims) and transformative interactions (functions). The three systems may include different spatial elements depending on the landscape structure, but essentially:

the backbone deals with the characterising structural elements (either buildings, open spaces or infrastructures, often mixed);
the borders focus on the edges of the site (including mainly open spaces within and beyond the side perimeter);
the core includes the inner productive area with higher densities of built spaces, often subject to most radical changes.

The identification of these systems and their sequential development are strongly related to the spatial characteristics of mountain brownfield sites (detachment, open surroundings, built density, etc.), addressing in particular the relationships between the site and its context in a transformative way. Each system is visually described to ideogrammatic maps, including a general overview (to show the extent of spatial elements involved), a toolkit (actions or ‘rules’ to be applied on the spaces involved) and four transformation phases (to illustrate the process, including the involved stakeholders). The flexible integration of ‘material reality’ (i.e. the site as given) and ‘social inputs’ (the program for the site as expressed by its socioeconomic context) that occurs within the three systems recalls somehow the already mentioned systemic design approach developed by Alan Berger, and applied to the reclamation of industrial wastelands at different scales (Berger 2008, 2009).

In the following amply illustrated pages, the four case studies are described in detail through the aforementioned protocol and phases. To test the protocol, the Italian case study (Cantoni ITC, Ponte Nossa) was chosen as pilot site due to the immediate accessibility of information and the already accumulated (partial) knowledge of the site itself.

2 Case Study I: SPZ Zementwerk Eiberg/A

2.1 Regional Overview

Identification

Cultural region: Northern Limestone Alps (Nördliche Kalkalpen) > North Tyrol Limestone Alps (SOIUSA^{Footnote 5} 21), Bavarian Alps (SOIUSA 22) and Tyrol Schistose Alps (SOIUSA 23) > Tiroler Unterland.

Administrative region: Land Tirol (NUTS^{Footnote 6} 2) > Tiroler Unterland (NUTS 3) > Bezirk Kufstein (30 municipalities).

Geography

The region is located along the northern fringe of the Alps, between the Bavarian Alps, the North Tyrol Limestone Alps and the Tyrol Schistose Alps. The lower Inn Valley between Jenbach (Tyrol) and Rosenheim (Bavaria) is the topographic and hydrographic backbone of the Tyrol Unterland. The large valley bed (1,5–3 km width) is flanked on the west side by rough and wooded reliefs of the Brandenberger Alps (Hochiss 2.299 m, Pendling 1.563 m) and the Bavarian Prealps (Hinteres Sonnwendjoch 1.986 m, Wendelstein 1.838 m),while on the east it gradually fades into the rolling foothills of the Chiemgauer Alps (Geigelstein, 1.808 m) and the Kitzbühel Alps (Hohe Salve, 1.828 m), with the remarkable interruption of the Kaisergebirge massif (Ellmauer Halt 2.344 m). The regional valley system is rather complex, including a few side valleys of the Inn valley (Achental and Thierseetal on the orographic left, Zillertal and Brixental on the right) as well as valley-seemingly extensive plateaus around the Kaisergebirge (Sölllandl to the south and Kaiserwinkl to the north). In addition, the Tyrolean section of the Inn valley between Kufstein and Brixlegg is characterized by the presence of morainic terraces (Mittelgebirgsterrassen) on both sides, such as the Angerberg close to Wörgl and the Bad Häring plateau at the foot of the Pölven massif (1.595 m). The river system is shaped around the Inn, to which several stream-like tributaries are connected (Jennbach, Kaiserbach, Weißache, Brixentaler Ache on the right, Brandenberger Ache, Thierseer Ache, Auerbach on the left). Small lakes of karst and glacial origin are also present, among which the Hintersteinersee and the Walchsee near the Kaisergebirge and the Thiersee in the Thierseetal.

Accessibility

The favourable location of the Kufstein region along the Brenner transalpine corridor (Munich-Innsbruck-Bolzano-Trento-Verona) leads to an extremely high accessibility in comparison to average Alpine regions. The most accessible area is the lower Inn valley floor, which is crossed by two major transport infrastructures: the Innsbruck-Kufstein-Rosenheim railway (a section of the Munich-Verona axis) and the motorway A12 Inntal between Innsbruck and Rosenheim. The train connections are well developed and quite fast: from Kufstein, the urban and administrative centre of the region, Innsbruck can be reached in just 40’ and Munich in around 1h. Much more time is needed to get to Vienna (via Salzburg), around 3h30’. The Kufstein region is also well connected to the inner Alpine regions via the regional railway Salzburg-Tirol, which departs from the Inn valley in Wörgl towards Salzburg and intercepts several touristic centres of national and international relevance (Brixetnal, Kitzbühel, St. Johan in Tirol, Zell am See). Favoured by the soft topography, the road system is also well developed. By car, Innsbruck can be reached from Kufstein in around 1h30, while Munich and Salzburg both in around 2h (via motorway). Minor airports in the vicinity are Innsbruck (1h30’) and Salzburg (2h), while the larger Munich airport is around 2h30’ away. By far, the south-eastern side of the Inn valley towards the Pinzgau touristic district is more accessible than the north-west.

Socio-demographic profile

The Kufstein district (Bezirk) includes 30 municipalities covering an area of 969 km², with 107.233 inhabitants (2017). The district is the 3rd most populated in Tyrol after Innsbruck city and its urban area, hosting 14% of the whole Tyrol population and 42% of the Tiroler Unterland. The average population density is 111/km², far above the average of the Alpine region (76,4) and the Austrian Alps too (60,8). Due to its particular location on the border between Tyrol and Bavaria, at the crossroads of dynamic inner- and peri-Alpine urban agglomerations such as Innsbruck, Munich and even Salzburg, the Kufstein district is experiencing since the 1960 s an impressive and constant population growth: + 55% between 1961 (60.022) and 2001 (93.702), + 15% between 2001 and 2017 and even + 13,3 foreseen for 2030. However, this growth is strongly polarised in favour of the city of Kustein—the second largest city of Tyrol after Innsbruck with around 20.000 inhabitants—and the Inn valley bed, including the surrounding plateaus. Less accessible side valleys with no intensive tourism, mostly located on the left side of the Inn valley corridor (e.g. Walchsee, Brandenberg), are indeed registering a steady decrease of population. A significant impulse to the recent population growth was given by immigration, mostly from bordering regions and countries (Germany and Italy at first). The current 21% share of foreigners on the whole district population (second only to Innsbruck) is expected to increase in the upcoming year, and thus to contribute significantly to the overall population growth (both in terms of births and youngsters below 19 y.o.). Most affected areas will be the urban agglomerations of Kufstein and Wörgl. The positive demographic development is also reflected in the ageing trend, as in 2015 21,1% of the population was below 19 y.o., 62,1% between 20–64 and just 18,8% above 65. The forecast for 2030 shows only minimal variations in terms of increase of the + 65 y.o. group, mainly occurring in communities along the Inn urban corridor.

Economic profile

The Kufstein district is characterized by a developed and mixed economic base oriented towards industry, trade and tourism. With a GDP per capita of 44.800 Euro (2016)—far above the average of Austria (40.800 Euro) and the Alpine region (37.962 Euro)—and unemployment at 5,3% (2017)—lower than Tyrol (5,8%) —, the Kufstein region is the second economic pole of Tyrol after Innsbruck. The wider Tiroler Unterland, in which the Kufstein district is included, is the 9th most productive (gross regional product per employed person) NUTS 3 region in Austria (2015), coming after mainly large cities and lowland agglomerations. The district economic geography is quite polarised, with industry, trade and related services mainly concentrated in the narrow Inn valley floor and tourism in side valleys and peripheral areas. The regional economic repartition among the sectors (2015–2016) shows a prevalence of the service sector (63% gross value added, 61% employment) and a rather high relevance of industry and manufacturing (36% both gross value added and employment), while the primary sector lies far behind (1% gross value added, 3% employment). Compared to the Tyrolean and Austrian average values, the Kufstein region and the Tiroler Unterland in general shows a significantly higher importance of the industrial sector (36% of employment in front of, respectively, 25% and 28%). The latter is mostly based on small-scale businesses (28% of industrial activities are indeed micro-enterprises with 1 employee), but also includes 13 large companies with more than 250 employees, among which Sandoz (two large sites focused on pharmaceutical industry and biochemistry), Hans Bodner Bauges (constructions and civil engineering), Coveris Flexbiles (plastic films), STHIL (agro-machineries), Pirlo (metal and plastic packaging) and Berger Logistik (trade and logistics). Most of these industries developed in the second half of the XX century, often as location-based investment by extra-regional multinational enterprises. Anciently established industrial activities such as cement production, cellulose and timber industries and metal smelting are almost completely disappeared, with just a few exceptions (e.g. Montanwerke Brixlegg, copper smelting). The region is also a knowledge and innovation hub, ranking second after Innsbruck as the most innovative region in Tyrol (376 new start-ups registered in 2016). The Kufstein University of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschule) largely support the regional innovation system and business development. The service sector, which dominates the regional economy, includes many trade and industry -related services (e.g. IT, consulting, logistics, etc.) but also the tourism industry, which holds a relevant position within Tyrol and the Kufstein region too—although slightly less in the latter. The main touristic resorts (including infrastructures and accommodation facilities) are found in side valleys and plateaus on the right side of the Inn, such as the Kaiserwinkl, the Wilder Kaiser and the nearby Söllland, the Alpbachtal. The recent trend (1971–2016) in terms of overnight stays shows an exceptional growth (+160%) of winter tourism (e.g. the Wilder Kaiser ski area) and a significant decrease (−48%) of summer tourism. However, since 2001 both winter and summer tourism are experiencing stagnation or slight decline, mainly due to the decrease of overnight stays connected to the increase of short stays (daily trips or weekends) from nearby metropolitan regions (e.g. Munich). Last but not least, the agriculture and forestry sector is nowadays far less important in economic terms than in the past, as almost everywhere in the Alpine region. In the Kufstein region, the primary sector experienced a sharp decline between 1960 and 1980, with the employment share shifting from 29% in 1961 to the current 3%. Livestock farming and forestry are mainly present on hillsides and plateaus, while intensive crop farming is concentrated in the Inn valley floor. Around 60% of the existing farms are run part-time and, instead of economic output, they contribute more to landscape maintenance.

Environmental profile

Despite the high human pressure, both in terms of urbanisation and intensive agricultural uses, the Kufstein region has still a rich and diverse environmental profile, including several biodiversity hotspots. On the west side, the region is bordered by the Naturpark Karwendel, the oldest and largest protected area in Tyrol (727 km²) and the largest natural park of Austria. As home to 1300 plant species and 3000 animal species (among which the highest density of golden eagles in the Alps), the Karwendel park has been identified by the Alpine Convention as a priority conservation area for Alpine biodiversity. A second, relevant protected area is the Naturschutzgebiet Kaisergebirge (102 km²), created in 1963 to prevent the pristine ecosystems from being over-exploited and compromised by mass tourism. The reserve is home of around 940 flowering plant species, 38 fern species and 400 moss species, and covered with extensive forests of northern alpine spruce-fir-beech, sycamore-ash and mixed beech. Meadows and natural grasslands are also included within the perimeter of the reserve, as well as wetlands and micro-environments which have survived the ice age. Last but not least, the course of the river Brandenberger Ache, which runs from the Mangfall mountains (in Bavaria) through the wild Brandenberger Alps towards the Inn, has been declared regional ‘natural heritage’ in 1988. Its gorges and riparian forests are home to several bird species as well as endangered butterfly species. Besides these valuable natural reserves, minor biodiversity hotspots are existing across the intensively cultivated landscape of the lower foothills and the valley beds. In particular, it needs to be mentioned the “Kufsteiner and Langkampfener Innauen” nature reserve area (17 hectares), which includes the few still existing riparian forests and wetlands along the Inn, between Kufstein and Langkampfen. These ancient alluvial habitats are composed of semi-natural to near-natural woodlands, home of native and rare bird species and plant communities (silver pasture, break pasture, grey alder, black poplar). More to the south, the Söller Wiesen reserve (44 hectares) includes a vast remnant of the original wetland which used to cover most part of the Inn valley floor. In general, a high level of ecological diversity is ensured throughout the region, even outside these protected areas, due to the small-scale landscape pattern, which integrates meadows and pastures at different altitudes with coniferous and mixed forests of variable extension.

Spatial development trends and challenges

The spatial development trends of the Kufstein region are strongly influenced by an increasing and somehow problematic concentration of settlements and economic activities in the Inn valley bed. The recent growth of major urban centres such as Kufstein, Kirchbichl and Wörgl, as well as the ‘suburbanisation’ of small villages in between, has led in fact to the creation of an almost uninterrupted urban belt along the main road and railway infrastructures. The sunny plateaus overlooking the valley floor have been also subject to an increasing urbanisation, mainly for residential and recreational purposes (e.g. the case of Bad Häring). As an economically dynamic region with very limited available space, the Kufstein district is facing a very high pressure in terms of urban development. The Tiroler Unterland—which includes Kufstein, the lower Inn valley and the touristic agglomerations of Kitzbuhel and Sankt Johan in Tirol—has currently the lowest rates of land reserves in the whole Tyrol (15–20%). Furthermore, it is expected that by 2030 the population of Tyrol will increase of 50.000 inhabitants, mostly concentrated in the Inn valley urban axis. Given these forecasts and the current space limitations, the key challenges for future spatial development in the Kufstein region are: a) to foster soil-saving forms of urban development, including either inner development in major centres, land recycling in outer zones and/or industrial areas and building restrictions in mountain (environmentally fragile) areas; b) to address spatial panning concepts based on short distances, able to limit commuting and to overcome functional segregation; c) to take into account the economic benefits of nature and landscape and their contribution to the quality of life, i.e. to carefully manage environmental and landscape accessibility in urban development processes; d) to enhance a climate-resilient urban development, by pursuing energy efficiency in all urban functions and activities, changing the mobility pattern and develop adaptive solutions to natural hazards (e.g. de-sealing, flood management, protection forests). These challenges are affecting in one way or another all the regional economic sectors, from intensive land-use activities such as industry and tourism to extensive ones such as agriculture and forestry. Concerning ‘land eaters’, the main efforts should be addressed to identify in advance the optimal location for new economic activities, taking into account accessibility, conflicting land-uses and environmental impacts. Recycling of vacant or underused land should be prioritised for commercial and industrial activities, while for touristic infrastructures a good level of integration within the existing natural and cultural landscapes is recommended. The Kufstein region incorporates, in a smaller scale, all these Tyrol-wide spatial development challenges. The current functional segregation between the industrial-commercial Inn valley floor, the residential plateaus and the touristic inner valleys and highlands can be superseded by better balancing the distribution of the different urban functions and activities on the territory.

2.2 Site Overview

Location

The cement plant site is located within the Eiberger Becken, a depression on the north-eastern edge of the Häring rolling plateau, surrounded by the forested foothills of the Kaisergebirge, the Pölven massif and the Kufsteiner Wald hills. Concerning topography, the cement plant stands right at the bottom of a Y-shaped deep canyon generated by the confluence of the Gaisbach stream into the Weißache river, below the height of the cultivated plateau floor. The three slices of the plateau around the canyon (namely Egerbach, Eiberg and Amberg) host the quarrying sites belonging to the cement plant, which are fully embedded in the plateau morphology. Due to the complex topography, the cement plant and the quarries are rather isolated from the nearby sparse urban settlements (mainly residential hamlets of Schwoich municipality), thus being surrounded mostly by dense forested areas alternated to open pastures. Along the course of the Weißache, down in the canyon, runs the Eibergstraße (1912), which links the site to the centre of Kufstein (4 km) and thus to the Inn valley on the north, and to the Söll-Ellmau touristic resorts (6,5 km) to the south-east.

Background

The Kufstein region is renowned to be the home of the Austrian cement industry. In 1857, the local entrepreneur Alois Kraft receives the imperial privilege for the exclusive production of hydraulic cement. Through a self-developed process adapted from Portland cement manufacturing, Kraft introduced natural cement production in Austria for the first time, being thus acknowledged as the founding father of Austrian cement industry. A first experimental production site is established in the calcareous Häring plateau. Given the successful results, in 1865 A. Kraft decides to found, together with Michael Egger, a new factory for Roman-type cement (natural cement based on a mixture of clay and limestone) in the Eiberg gorge. Initially, the cement factory is equipped with 6 top-charging kilns and the raw materials excavated right nearby, on the Haberg and Eiberg slopes. In 1879, after the death of A. Kraft, the cement plant is taken over by his son Ing. Karl Kraft. To overcome the physical isolation of the factory, K. Kraft promotes, also financially, the realization of two major infrastructures: an aerial ropeway (1889) for clinker shipping, running over the top of the Winterkopf mountain to link the cement plant to the Kufstein railway station; the Eibergstrasse (1913), a concrete-paved road running through the Eiberg gorge for almost 10 km, from Kufstein to Söll (Fig. 7.3). The improved accessibility of the cement plant is unfortunately not enough to avoid the impact of the economic recession of the late 1920 s. In 1930, production is suspended and the Eiberg cement plant is mothballed. A few years later, in 1938, the existing facilities are taken over by the local entrepreneur Bartl Lechner and gradually reconverted into a larger, modern Portland cement plant. Due to war circumstances, the construction works lasts for several years, leading to achieve full production only in 1946. The new plant is equipped with a couple of shaft kilns (increased to four in 1955), a raw mill and an integrated grinding plant with a reinforced-concrete clinker silo. Since the existing quarrying sites in the vicinity of the plant are not able to satisfy the new production needs, a search for new limestone deposits is developed in the surroundings of the Eiberg gorge. In 1948, the Schmiedl limestone quarry begins to be excavated and exploited through an open pit. As the quarry expanded, a tunnel was excavated at the bottom of the pit to drain water and allow, through a narrow-gauge railway, a direct and flat connection between the cement plant and the mining site. A second large quarry named Matzing is then opened on the northern slopes of Pölven foothills (Fig. 7.4), later also reached by the Schmiedl railway tunnel (final length 780 m). In 1950 the production capacity of the Eiberg cement plant is 60.000 tons of clinker per year, far below the average of other Austrian facilities. A major upgrade takes place in the mid 1960 s, as a new rotating kiln with pre-heating plant (dry process) is installed to replace the obsolete shaft kilns (Fig. 7.5). A larger grinding plant and an automatic packaging line are also added to support the increased production capacity, which reaches 320.000 tons/year. The completion comes in the 1970 s (Fig. 7.6) with the exploitation of rich marlstone surface deposits in the newly opened Neuschwendt quarry. In 1995, the Eiberg cement plant and its three large quarries, with a capacity of around 400.000 tons/year, are taken over by the Bavarian company Rohrdorfer Zement, and thus included in the Südbayerisches Portland-Zementwerk group (becoming SPZ Zementwerk Eiberg). The restructuring process that follows leads to the stop of clinker production at Eiberg, leaving just the mining activities and the grinding plant in operation. The Matzing and Neuschwendt quarries are gradually abandoned and partially reclaimed, while the older Schmiedl quarry is kept open to supply limestone to the Rohrdorfer cement plant in Rohrdorf, Bavaria. In 2010 the useless rotating kiln facility and the first grinding plant are demolished. All remaining activities ceased definitively in November 2018.

Current use and future plans

Since early 2019 the cement plant and the quarries are completely inactive. The site owning company, Rohrdorfer, has planned the removal of leftover machineries and equipment until 2020. After that, in 2020–2021, the existing buildings will be demolished. The plan of Rohrdorfer, in fact, is to transform the site into a new production facility to manufacture concrete blocks and paving stones. Due to the expected creation of new jobs, the site re-industrialization is perceived by the owners, as well as by the community, as a realistic and desirable one. The plan is also supported by the Land Tirol (Spatial planning department), as due to the limited availability of suitable land for industry, craft or trade, the sustainable reuse of already used sites is favoured. Among the issues to be solved prior to the set-up of the new facility there are, according to Rohrdorfer, the management of flooding (as the riverbanks next to the site are currently sealed and built-up) and the flattening of the site topography (at least of its central part, to allow a one-level production facility). On the other side, the future of the former quarries is still open and unclear. The Schmiedl quarry will be probably kept partially in operation for a few more years, to supply the company’s other cement plants. The Neuschwendt quarry will be instead filled-in with building rubble and similar waste from all over Tyrol (serving as regional waste dump), as publicly announced by Rohrdorfer in late 2018. However, such a plan has immediately raised massive protests by local inhabitants in early 2019, who are worried that the besides concrete rubble the quarry will be filled with contaminated materials too, such as sludge from cement factories, asphalt and even asbestos. Although an agreement signed in August 2019 between Rohrdorfer and Land Tirol has excluded contaminated material from the dump content, the protests continued and future developments remain unclear. Through the Gesteinsabbaukonzept Tirol 2013 (quarrying/mining plan), the spatial planning department of Land Tirol has set goals and requirements for the post-mining management of quarrying sites. The preferred solution is, according to the guidelines, the recultivation or landscaping (soil stabilisation and renaturation) of abandoned open pits, also possibly oriented to recreation and tourism purposes. Due to the proximity to touristic centres and the natural reserve of Kaisergebirge mountains, this solution is highly recommended for all the quarries on the Härig plateau, including the Eiberg ones.

Main sources of information for the regional and site profiles:

email interview (questionnaire) with Christian Drechsler and Martin Sailer (spatial planning dep. Land Tirol), 8.03.2018
face-to-face interview with Hintner Heinz (CEO Rohrdorfer Sand und Kies), 3.08.2018
face-to-face interview with Josef Blößl (production manager SPZ Zementwerk Eiberg), 5.08.2018
email interview and exchange with Josef Dillersberger (Mayor of Schwoich), 26.02.2019
Bezirk Kufstein—Regionsprofil Statistik 2019 (tirol.gov)—regional data BK
Leader region KUUSK (Kufstein-Umgebung / Untere Schranne-Kaiserwinkl)—Lokale Entwicklungsstrategie 2014–2020—regional development strategy KUUSK
Integrierte Wirtschaftsförderung in Kufstein (MPRA Paper 88284, 2018)—regional economic profile BK
ZukunftsRaum Tirol_2011 Strategien zur Landesentwicklung—territorial development strategy Tirol 2011
Lebensraum Tirol_Agenda 2030 (Raumordnungsplan)—spatial development plan Tirol 2030
Gesteinsabbaukonzept Tirol 2013—quarrying/mining plan 2013
Treichl H. (2014). In jeder Hinsicht bindend. Zementerzeugung im Bezirk Kufstein. Rohrdorfer.
Kirchmair F. (1988). Schwoicher Dorfbuch. Schwoich Gemeinde.

2.3 Site Preliminary Study

The following site preliminary study is based on both single and comparative analysis of six corrected aerial photographs (orthophotos) covering the time frame 1952–2015. The selection of suitable photos has been done by considering a temporal distance among each other of approximately 10–15 years, although this was not always possible due to the limited availability of the material. The selected orthophotos refers to the following years (source in brackets): 1952 (BEV), 1965 (BEV), 1974 (Luftbildatlas Tirol), 1990 (Luftbildatlas Tirol), 2004 (Luftbildatlas Tirol), 2015 (Luftbildatlas Tirol). The collected material provides a good and detailed coverage of both the cement plant site and the surrounding landscape, thus allowing an easy recognition of temporal changes. The cement plant as represented in the first available picture (1952) is the result of the 1940 s radical refurbishment. Before that date, the only available visual material of the previous cement plant structure is a panoramic overview dating back to early 1900 s.

1952—The cement plant is located on a tiny strip of land at the bottom of a narrow canyon formed by the confluence of the Glaisbach and the Weißache. The plant’s built structures are organised on a dense north-south axis, with just the grinding plant standing separate on the east side. Several quarrying sites can be spotted in the vicinity. A first, large operating quarry is located right to the east of the cement plant, beyond the grinding plant, on the right shore of the Glaisbach. A second quarry can be spotted on the south, far distanced from the previous one and the cement plant too. A funnel-type open pit is clearly visible, which indicates that the quarry is still being explored. Two abandoned (older?) quarrying sites of limited size are also existing on the west side of the plant, beyond the Weißache and the Eibergstraße. The surrounding landscape is predominantly shaped by agricultural fields and woodlands.

1965—The cement plant is expanding towards the quarrying site on the west side. New buildings are then visible, among which the rotary kiln facility. The west edges of the cement plant are now merged completely into the expanding quarrying site, which includes new excavations on the area behind the shaft kilns. The quarrying landscape on the south of the cement plant has expanded considerably. Two active quarries are now existing on both sides of the Weißache canyon, the northern one including two funnel pits and the southern one with slope terracing. Several exploration sites (small-scale excavations) are also visible. To connect the distanced quarries and exploration sites with the cement plant, two new roads have been built, as well as an underground tunnel (whose entrances are clearly visible). Next to the cement plant, the two little abandoned quarries are rapidly rewilding.

1974—The cement plant is further expanding with the addition of a new grinding plant next to the kilns and other minor buildings. The immediate surroundings of the cement plant are also being gradually transformed by further excavations on the south-east and the progressive abandonment of the first quarrying site, now with visible rewilding areas. Major landscape transformations are also occurring on the west side of the cement plant, especially after the construction of the new Eiberg viaduct—to replace the old Eibergstraße road along the Weißache (the section next to the cement plant). The southern quarries have significantly expanded, with many new excavation layers clearly visible. Some of the previous exploration sites are now being fully exploited, while others (Glaisbach side) are instead abandoned and rewilding. New roads have also been created to connect the quarrying site among each other.

1990—The cement plant builtscape is almost unchanged, with the sole exception of a few new buildings (noticeably the clinker silo). The surroundings of the plant are instead rapidly rewilding as result of ceased excavation activities. Just a few bare mineral surfaces are now visible in the early quarrying sites. The complex mining landscape on the south of the plant has also many visible changes. The funnel pit quarry is expanding and deepening through massive terracing. The southernmost quarry is also expanding (to the west), but a large portion of it is already abandoned. The westernmost quarry has undergone a significant expansion, with many lots of farmland now being excavated. At the same time, previous excavation areas have been abandoned and thus rewilding. New road sections have been created to support this latter expansion, while old sections are abandoned.

2004—The cement plant and dense reforestation can be noticed all around the cement plant, especially in the Glaisbach canyon, as well as across the whole related mining landscape. The active quarrying area on the south is also undergoing a significant shrinkage, with just the funnel pit quarry and the northern portion of the western quarry currently being exploited. The southern part of the latter is now abandoned, as early succession and the formation of a small lake clearly indicates. Similar developments are occurring within the southernmost quarry, where the activities are completely ceased. On the far east side of the mining area, a former exploration site seems to have been transformed into a dump site, which is linked to the cement plant through a road passing next to the funnel pit. The built core is shrinking as result of some punctual demolitions, e.g. the old shaft kilns. Widespread rewilding.

2015—The rotary kiln facility and the nearby grinding plant have been demolished, thus generating a significant change in spatial organisation of the easternmost part of the cement plant site. The downsizing of production activities at the plant can be also noticed by the little presence of maintained open spaces compared to vast underused surfaces. In a few spots (lower levels of the first abandoned quarry, clinker silo area, roadside south-east of the plant) the clearing of vegetation suggests a reuse of such spaces, though not significant and probably just temporary (e.g. open storage of raw materials or debris). The only active quarry is now the funnel pit, while the two other large southern quarries being completely abandoned—though cleared in the inner parts, probably due to the filling with waste material from other excavation sites. The waste dump is expanding to the south-east on nearby grassland.

2.4 Photographic (field) Study

The field trip took place on 2–8.08.2018. At first, a “guided” tour of the cement plant and the quarries by car (with stops) was provided by Mr. Heinz Hintner (CEO Rohrdorfer Sand und Kies). The owner gave the permission to freely access the site (gate keys provided) for the entire field trip, with the exception of night time and Sundays. The photographic study took place on several days, shifting between the cement plant site and the surroundings, with much time spent for the extensive mining landscape. The field exploration mainly occurred on foot, but driving was often necessary to cover long distances between different “spots” and to grasp a quick overview on the landscape. A second meeting with the site owners (including Mr. Hintner and the cement plant director) was held in the meantime, to collect more material about the site and to clarify further points/questions. Selected photographs include overviews of the cement plant from the surrounding reliefs (at different distances) as well as “inward” views of the cement plant site (buildings and open spaces) and the quarries landscape. The keymap below provides the exact location and orientation of each image (Fig. 7.7–7.30).

2.5 Site Advanced Study

Landscape structure

The landscape structure of the cement plant, which necessarily includes the quarries and attached infrastructures and spaces, is strongly determined by the topography of the area. This makes the overall structure rather complex, at a first glance undefined in its key elements and perimeters. However, at a closer look it can be noticed the presence of some ‘hard’ elements, such as the cement plant site—with its sealed-off surface and the very high building density—and the mineral excavations surfaces within the quarrying sites, as well as ‘connecting’ or linear elements, such as the gravel roads between the quarries and the cement plant site, the water system and the minimal but extensive network of small roads and paths within and all around the site. A patchwork of ‘soft’ elements, including the variety of semi-natural spaces (forests, shrublands, farmlands, etc.) around the site, increases the thickness of the landscape structure. In particular, a system of woodlands, either protection/cultivation forests or spontaneously rewilding shrublands on the perimeter of excavation sites, enhances the physical integration of all the constituting elements of the industrial (altered) landscape.

Landscape transformation systems

The proposed site transformation follows and integrates the indications of existing plans and regulations, as expressed by the site owning company and the local/regional institutions. The transformation is therefore addressed to the productive-oriented reuse of the cement plant site on the one hand, and to the reclamation and recultivation of the post-mining landscape of the quarries on the other hand. In the transformation process, the cement plant site and the quarries are always considered together, as mutually dependent interacting spaces/objects. The transformation process is structured on the three identified systems: the “backbone”, which focuses on first priority actions such as the cement plant deconstruction and the stabilisation of quarries; the “borders”, which deals with the refurbishment of the extensive gravel road network and surrounding semi-natural spaces; the “core”, which aims to the cement plant site reactivation for new purposes. As such, the process will allow a gradual reconversion of the entire industrial landscape generated by the cement plant activities as well as its environmental and economic re-integration into the context. The cement plant site is radically transformed through the removal of 90% of the existing buildings and key ecological measures (river shore renaturation, de-sealing, uncover of natural water flows, etc.) and prepared to host new productive activities. The quarries and the attached gravel road network are reclaimed and turned, mostly through minimal interventions, into new functional components of the local and regional network of green spaces and recreational infrastructures.

3 Case Study II: Ascometal-Winoa, Le Cheylas / F

3.1 Regional Overview

Identification

Cultural region: Northern French Alps (Alpes du Nord) > Savoy Prealps (SOIUSA 8) and Graian Alps (SIOUSA 7) > Moyen-Grésivaudan.

Administrative region: NUTS 2: Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes > NUTS 3: Isère (FR714) > Communauté de communes Le Grésivaudan (43 municipalities).

Geography

The region is located in the Northern French Alps, part of the Western Alps, and in particular it lays in the transition zone between the inner upper ridges of the Dauphine Alps (Alpes du Dauphiné) and the outer Savoy Prealps (Préalpes de Savoie). The Moyen-Grésivaudan identifies the middle section of the valley of the Isère river (Grésivaudan), roughly comprised between Grenoble in the south and Pontcharra in the north. This is part of a wider valley system known as Sillon Alpin, a glacial groove stretching from the Voreppe gorge towards the junction between the Isère and the Arly in Albertville, today hosting the largest urban agglomeration in the whole Alpine region (which includes the cities of Grenoble, Chambéry and to some extent also Annecy). The wide and flat valley floor between Grenoble and Pontcharra, which constitutes the geographical and socio-economic backbone of the region, is bordered on the west by the crystalline reliefs of the Belledonne range (Grand Pic de Belledonne, 2.977 m) and on the east by the rough, calcareous Chartreuse massif (Chamechaude, 2.082 m). The physical ‘compression’ of the valley floor between the two mountain ranges is softened by a sequence of terraces and plateaus on both sides: the “Balcon de Belledonne” (Allevard, Theys, Saint-Martin-d’Uriage) on the Belledonne side and the “Plateau des Petites Roches” (Saint-Hilaire-du-Touvet, Sainte-Marie-du-Mont) on the Chartreuse side. The topography of the valley floor is therefore defined by several deep gorges generated by small streams, instead of true side valleys. The same applies to the river system, which is dominated by the rectified course of the Isère and a few minor tributaries, such as the Breda flowing down from the Belledonne massif.

Accessibility

The favourable location of the Moyen-Grésivaudan on the western border of the Alps, at the crossroads of north-south (Geneva-Marseille) an east-west (Turin-Lyon) corridors, makes its accessibility very high compared to the other French Alpine regions. As part of the Sillon Alpin urban agglomeration, and in particular due to its function as transit corridor between the urban poles of Grenoble and Chambéry, the valley hosts primary infrastructures among which the motorway A41 Grenoble-Geneve and the Grenoble–Montmélian railway. Furthermore, the valley is crossed by the parallel-running departmental roads RD523/923 (left side of the Isère, from Grenoble to Montmélian) and RD 1090 (right side of the Isére, from Grenoble to Bourg-Saint-Maurice and the Petit-Saint-Bernard pass). From either Chambéry and Grenoble, Lyon can be reached in less than 100 km respectively with the motorways A43 and A48. The Lyon and Geneve international airports can be reached in around 1h30’ from the centre of the Moyen-Grésivaudan by car, and 2h15’ or 3h respectively by train. Other airports in the vicinity are the regional ones of Grenoble and Chambéry. Another relevant connection is towards Italy, as Chambéry is intercepted by the historical Frejus railway line between Turin and Lyon, which runs through the Susa (Italy) and Maurienne (France) inner Alpine valleys. As part of the EU TEN-T Mediterranean Corridor, the Turin-Lyon railway is interested since the early 2000 s by major refurbishment and update projects, among which the ambitious high-speed line whose completion (foreseen for 2030) is relented by financial problems and socio-political frictions. The high-speed line is expected to cross the upper ridges of the Graian Alps with a 57,7 km -long base tunnel (between Susa and St. Jean de Maurienne) and, further towards Lyon, to cut the Grésivaudan valley between Pontcharra and Montmélian. Once completed, this will allow an extremely high accessibility to the Grésivaudan valley and to the Grenoble-Chambéry agglomeration too. Compared to the “corridor” represented by the Isére valley floor, side valleys and plateaus are much less accessible, as reached by small local roads only.

Socio-demographic profile

The Communauté de communes Le Grésivaudan (CC Grésivaudan) includes 46 municipalities covering an area of 676,7 km², with a population of 104.039 inhabitants (2018). After the Grenoble urban area and the Porte de l’Isère agglomeration (part of Lyon metropolitan area), the CC Grésivaudan is the third most populated region within the Isère department (8% of the total department population). This is the result of an impressive population growth experienced by the Grésivaudan region in the past fifty years, mainly as result of the expanding urban agglomerations of Grenoble and Chambery. The regional population registered an increase of + 95% in the period 1968–1999 (with peaks in the 1980 s–1990 s) and a further + 21% in 1999–2018. The average population density of 149/km² is indeed higher in comparison to either that of the French Alps (65,8/km²) and the Alpine region too (76,4/km²), but slightly lower than the Isère department (168,4/km²)—which is half flat and half mountainous. The distribution and composition of the population are rather unequal within the region. In terms of distribution, most of the population is concentrated in the flat and wide Isère valley floor (i.e. the Grésivaudan valley), while the surrounding plateaus and side valleys are sparsely populated. In recent years, however, the highest rates of population growth were registered mostly in ‘mountain’ municipalities in peripheral areas (e.g. Allevard). In terms of composition, the unequal territorial distribution is more between south and north rather than between lowlands and mountains. The south-western part of the region, which is close to Grenoble and falls partially within its urban area, is characterized by a majority of young, qualified and high-income inhabitants (due to the local presence of many high-tech firms and high-profile activities), while the north-eastern part, close to Chambery and the Combe du Savoye, has higher rates of older and less skilled inhabitants. The internal migration of young families (30–40 y.o.) from the urban area of Grenoble is a major cause of the population growth in the CC Grésivaudan territory, as well as of the age composition. In fact, 31% (2006) of the regional population is between 35–54 y.o. (28% in Isére), followed by a high proportion of children below 15 y.o. and youngsters of 20–29 y.o., while just 6% is above 75 y.o. The socio-demographic profile of the CC Grésivaudan is typically that of suburban areas of inner-Alpine agglomerations.

Economic profile

The CC Gresivaudan territory is characterized by a productive-oriented advanced economy, fostered by the spatial and relational proximity to Grenoble and its metropolitan area. The hosting region, the Isère department, has a GPD per capita of 31.600 Euro (2016), which is in line with that of the larger Auvergne Rhône-Alpes (31.639 Euro) but lower than the Alpine average (37.962 Euro). On the contrary, unemployment is slightly higher in the Gresivaudan area (8,1%, 2016) than in Isère (7,1%). The economic geography and structure of the Gresivaudan resembles that of polycentric urban agglomerations, with a spatial concentration (clustering) of the most significant activities along a few key transport axes and a large share of services (68%) and industry (29%). Most of the services are indeed business services, strongly related to and integrated within the regional industrial system. The aggregation of workplaces in industry and services to industry makes the overall share of industry-related employment equal to 58%, a much higher value than the average of Isère (41%). Under the positive influence of the international knowledge and innovation hub of Grenoble (2 universities, national and international research campuses such as CNRS, ESRF and the Polygone Scientifique), the regional industrial system of Gresivaudan developed from the 1970 s towards cutting-edge, highly specialised sectors such as electronics, nanotech and IT. Several multinational enterprises with more than 1000 employees and own R&D facilities are based in the region, among which STMicroelectronics (nanotech), Soitec (semiconductors), Schneider Electric (electrical equipment) and Capgemini (IT consulting). In addition, 362 small and medium-sized companies with 11.174 employees (2014) are currently hosted in the Innovallée science park of Montbonnot-Saint-Martin, specialised on information and communication technology. The relevance of high-tech industries within the regional productive system is also well represented by the high proportion of top-skilled professionals (28%) compared to Isère (20%). On the other side, traditional heavy industries once based on hydropower are gradually disappearing since the 1980 s. The few still operating plants are mainly belonging to metalworking (Winoa, Almeco, Amcor Flexibles) and paper industry (Cascades RDM, Ahlstrom). The geographical distribution of industrial activities is strongly polarised between the south and the north of the region, as well as between the left and right sides of the Isère river. Most innovative and high-tech industries are located on the south-west of the region, at the border of the Grenoble metropolis, while traditional industries are (used to be) located mostly on the north-eastern side, due to the presence of the railway line and abundant water sources. The commuting flows between the Gresivaudan and Grenoble are well expressing the powerful economic integration between the core city and its agglomeration: 42% of CC Gresivaudan inhabitants work in Grenoble, while 29% of the regional jobs are occupied by Grenoble-based employees (2014). Besides industry and business services, other economic sectors are less developed and little influential. Tourism is locally relevant in mountain areas (29.000 beds in 2006), and especially on the eastern plateaus at the foot of the Belledonne massif, where some renowned ski resorts are located (Sept-Laux, Prapoutel, Chamrousse, Collet d’Allevard). With only 400 farms currently active (providing around 500 jobs, 45% in mountain areas), agriculture is a rather marginal economic activity compared to the past. The recent creation of a regional agri-food pole with its own branding strategy (Alpes Is(h)ere) supports the high-quality development of the local agricultural sector towards specialization in organic products (e.g. Grenoble nuts).

Environmental profile

The environment of the mid Gresivaudan valley is highly heterogeneous, characterized by relevant differences between the mountain areas and highlands and the wide, flat valley floor. Despite the proximity to large urban areas, the reliefs on the west (Chartreuse massif) and the east (Belledonne chain) sides of the valley have high quality natural and semi-natural environments, most of which are classified as zones of ecological value (ZNIEFF) of priority 1 (highlands) and 2 (foothills). The calcareous Chartreuse mountains and their foothills are entirely included into a regional natural park established in 1995, which covers an area of 76.700 ha and an altitude range of 200–2.082 m. With 2/3 of mountain forest cover, 2000 flora species and 3 Natura2000 sites, the park constitutes, together with the nearby Bauges and Vercors regional parks, the most significant protected natural area in the northern French Prealps. The same protection status does not exist for the higher Belledonne mountain range, mostly because of the far lower urban pressure and the extensive highlands environment. Differently from the reliefs, the environment down in the Isère valley bed is much more affected by the widespread urbanisation and the infrastructural density. Biodiversity hotspots are nevertheless present, although highly fragmented. Among them, the ENS (natural sensible areas) of “le bois de la Bâtie” in St. Ismier, the “Marais de Montfort” in Crolles and the “Marais du Col du Coq” in Saint Pancrasse. Along the Isère an almost continuous system of alluvial forests is also existing, which includes several ZNIEFF areas and around 1200 wetlands (e.g. Biotope la Frette or le Mas des Essart). Such a valuable lowland ecological system is being gradually eroded and harmed by intensive agriculture, gravel pits along the river, infrastructural corridors and expanding urbanisation. A second relevant issue in terms of ecological connectivity, affecting the whole Gresivaudan valley system, is the lack of transversal or cross -linkages between the three main ecological corridors, i.e. the Chartreuse mountains on the west, the Isère alluvial forests and wetlands in the middle and the Belledonne mountains on the east. In terms of vegetation pattern, an equal distribution between broadleaves and coniferous forests can be noticed. With regards to the broadleaves, these are mainly concentrated in the warmer valley bed (mostly oak and elm trees, with relevant presence of black poplars and ash trees) and the foothills on both sides (oak and chestnut trees mixed with birch and beech trees). The reliefs are mostly covered by coniferous forests of mixed spruce-fir, beech, mugo pine (especially on the Chartreuse massif) and Swiss pine. Extensive shrublands can be found on the foothills, especially on the plateaus and terraces of Belledonne (at higher elevations) and Chartreuse (at lower elevations), as result of the shrinkage of used agricultural surface.

Spatial development trends and challenges

The Gresivaudan valley has experienced since the 1980 s a widespread and intensive suburbanisation process, fostered by the nearby growing metropolitan pole of Grenoble and the particular location along a major urban corridor (the Sillon Alpin formed by Grenoble, Chambery and Annecy regions). In the Gresivaudan, the share of urbanised land (including infrastructures) increased of + 7% between 1998 and 2003 only, and of a lower + 3,5% between 2003 and 2009. New residential areas accounted for around 2/3 of such urban development increase, while industrial and commercial zones for the remaining 1/3. However, the recent trend shows a little but significant decrease in urbanised land for housing—from 66,3% in 2003 to 61% in 2009—and an equal increase for industrial-commercial areas—from 33,7% in 2003 to 39% in 2009. Around 75% of these new urban developments occurred in the Isère flat and wide valley floor, with a spatial concentration in the south and north extremes, i.e. closer to the urban poles of Grenoble and Chambery/Savoie. The Gresivaudan can be clearly identified as an inner-Alpine suburban region, characterized by a recent and significant urban growth fostered by residential and recreational functions instead of workplaces. Faced with the topographic and spatial constraints provided by the surrounding reliefs, such an urban growth model usually gives rise to conflicts in land use. The little available space suitable for settlements, i.e. the valley bed, is shared mainly between urban areas (including transport and energy infrastructures) and intensive agricultural surfaces. Since 1990, around 95% of the newly urbanised land in the valley floor was previously used for cultivation and agriculture purposes. The abandonment of agricultural land in the Isère valley floor is not due to scarce accessibility and profitability, as usually occurs on mountain slopes and inner valleys, but it is mainly caused by expanding urban centres and lot forced ‘isolation’. This process is not only harming (intensive) agriculture as an economic sector, but also indirectly it erodes open spaces and seals greenfields. The key spatial development challenges for the Gresivaudan territory can be synthesised in the need to overcome a suburban development model characterized by unsustainable land consumption and scarce functional resilience. An alternative development, able to reduce the economic, mobility and spatial dependency from the Grenoble metropolitan core, should be therefore addressed through: a) the diversification of the functional uses of the urban land, in particular the limitation of further housing developments and the increase of attractive economic activities (workplaces); b) a better balancing of urban services across the whole territory, which means to improve the actual polycentric character of the urban system (no core city) and concentrate the key regional services in few strategic poles, instead of distributing them everywhere; c) the reduction of private mobility, an objective which can be indirectly reached through the previous strategies. In addition, an already operative strategy to limit land consumption while creating space for new economic activities is that one developed by the economic department of the CC Gresivaudan, which aims to recycle underused and/or abandoned industrial sites and facilities for new productive purposes (creation of Parc d’activités-PA, or activity zones). The CC usually acquires the sites, realises basic infrastructures and then promotes the establishment of new businesses through financial incentives and rent/sale frameworks. Currently, 14 PA are already existing (some of them hosting innovation clusters) and 3 brownfields are being recycled (among which the former paper mill in Lancey, turned into a co-working cluster for IT-companies).

3.2 Site Overview

Location

The site is located in the mid Gresivaudan valley, approx. 34 km from Grenoble (south) and 30 km from Chambéry (north). In particular, the site is located on the eastern margin of the large and flat valley floor, which reaches in this point the width of 3,5 km. On the east, the site is bordered by the soft-descending forested slope of the Bramefarine massif (1210 m), while on the north, west and south it is surrounded by the urban-agricultural landscape of the valley floor. The RN523 road axis and the parallel Grenoble-Montmélian railway divides the eastern half of the valley floor in three parallel strips, of which two are occupied by the site itself and its premises (waste dump and scrap yard) and the last one, next to the river course, by the huge artificial basin belonging to the EDF hydroelectric power station located next to the steelworks. In terms of urbanisation, the site is surrounded (but not directly flanked) by a few low-density settlements belonging to the municipality of Le Cheylas, namely Le Merciers on the south, La Gare and Le Villard on the north side. The accessibility to the site is extremely high due to the RN523 running nearby and the railway connection to the main line (currently out of use).

Background

The history of Le Cheylas steelworks dates back to the very beginning of the XX century, having its roots in the ancient Allevard ironworks. The latter, located in a gorge within the Belledonne massif, was running since 1873 a sophisticated transport infrastructure to link the production site to the new railway line running down in the Gresivaudan valley. In the vicinity of Le Cheylas, the upper section of that infrastructure, a narrow-gauge railway, was connected to the lower normal railway line through an inclined plane of around 500 m length. The flat land nearby the lower station of the inclined plane, next to the railway junction, was chosen in the late 1910 s to establish a modern electric steelwork. This decision represented a key step in the transition process from mineral-based ironmaking to hydropower-based steelmaking undergone by the former Allevard company—meanwhile reorganised and renamed as Société des Hauts Fourneaux et Forges d’Allevard (SHFA). The new factory and its related hydropower-generation network were completed between 1919 and 1921 (Fig. 7.31), initially producing ferroalloys through a 2000 kW electric arc furnace (EAF). Some years later, an agreement between SHFA and the metallurgical division of the French Ministry of Armaments led to the extension of the plant with the addition of a steelworks section, equipped with a new EAF fed with iron scrap. By 1943, most of the production previously carried on at Allevard was transferred definitively to Le Cheylas (Fig. 7.32). After the war, the production process was improved with the implementation, in 1955, of a continuous casting plant, the first of its kind in whole France. Another record was set in 1960, as the first plant for steel shot abrasives in Europe was opened just next to the steelworks by Wheelabrator-Allevard (WA), a joint-venture between Forges d’Alleverd and the American Wheelabrator Corporation, holder of the patent for this kind of production. To support the continuous casting as well as the steel abrasives plant, a new 20-tons EAF was installed in 1963, increased up to 40-tons in 1965 and further to 100-tons in 1971. To pursue a better vertical integration of the complete production process, the owning company decided to concentrate all the activities in the site of Le Cheylas between 1970 and 1974, thus leading to the definitive closure of older and smaller sites such as that of Allevard and Saint-Pierre. As result, the steelworks site was expanded with the addition of two large rolling mills (1972–78), while a new hydroelectric power station was also built in Pinsot, in the upper Bréda valley (1973–74). Despite the world steel crisis of the early 1980 s, the steelworks of Le Cheylas recorded good performances while pursing increasing specialization (Fig. 7.33). The former Forges d’Allevard company was dismantled and the two integrated facilities transferred to the new holding Allevard Industries, with the steelworks being controlled by the subsidiary Aciers d’Allevard and the steel abrasives plant still managed by WA. In mid 1980 s, the steel abrasives plant of Le Cheylas was among the largest of its kind worldwide, employing 150 people and producing around 150.000 tons of steel shots per year. A major corporate transformation led to the split, in 1986, of the two facilities, as the steelworks (Aciers d’Allevard) was sold to Valeo Group while the steel abrasives plant remained in the hands of WA—from 1991 onwards 100% owned by the French CGIP (Compagnie Générale d'Industrie et de Participations). In the 1990 s the steelworks, which employed around 600 people producing mainly steel components for the car industry, was transferred from Valeo to USINOR Group subsidiary Ascometal (1992) and then to the Italian steelmaking company Lucchini (1999). The economic crisis of 2008 and the related troubles in the global steel market forced Lucchini to stop some of its facilities, among which the EAF steelworks of Le Cheylas (2010). To get rid of the 360 million Euro of debts accumulated by Ascometal, Lucchini sold the company to the American investment fund Apollo Global Management in 2011, who proceed to the gradual stop of activities. The first rolling mill was dismantled soon in 2011, followed by the second one in 2013 and, after the dismissal of the remaining 108 workers, the complete closure of the site in 2015. One year later, the former steelworks property, including the attached railway network and other facilities, was acquired by STS real estate company, aiming to redevelop the site as a logistic and multi-firm industrial park. The WA steel abrasives plant, meanwhile renamed WINOA, continued and improved instead the production becoming a world leader in its niche sector.

Current use and future plans

The former Ascometal property, owned by the real estate developer STS, covers around 30 ha (70% of the whole site) of which 30.000 m² built-up. The property includes the core steelworks area (EAF plant, rolling mills, etc.), part of the forested slope on the backside (up to Rue de Bramefarine) and the waste dump site next to the railway line. The original plan of STS after the acquisition was to transform the site into a logistic platform, taking advantage of the existing railway infrastructure and the strategic proximity (10 linear km) to the future Turin-Lyon high-speed railway. However, due to technical and bureaucratic problems (missing authorisation) and uncertainty about the future railway corridor, this plan was put aside and replaced with an incremental and flexible transformation strategy based on turnkey rental of existing spaces. Some of the buildings not requiring significative structural refurbishment, such as the rolling mill 2 and the workshop halls 1–5, have been internally subdivided in “cells” of 100 to 500 m² and rented to interested local small and medium -sized firms. In a couple of years, 15 firms with 45 employees were already established, active in the fields of green technologies (coated recycled carton-board, wood recycling construction materials), industrial supplying (heating/cooling equipment, food transformation) and even industrial services (e-commerce, small-scale logistics). For the oldest and most derelict buildings of the former steelworks, such as the EAF plant and the ancient casting halls, STS has planned the complete demolition and replacement with new industrial buildings. In this way, the former Ascometal site is expected to be transformed into a multi-firm industrial park within 3–5 years. The existing railway network, currently out of use, is also planned to be integrated in the industrial park infrastructural system, although no detailed plan has been prepared yet. The re-industrialization plan of STS for the Ascometal site is sustained by the community of Le Cheylas (as expressed in the municipal PADD, Project d’Aménagement et de Développement Durable) as well as by the Community of Municipalities of Gresivaudan—as it fits into the regional strategy of reusing brownfield sites for productive purposes. The environmental recovery of the heavy polluted EAF dust landfill and the nearby scrap yard (8 hectares in total) is still an open issue for STS and the community too, as the funding for such an expensive procedure are currently missing. Preliminary recovery measures were already taken by Ascometal back in 2010–2011, such as the removal of 5500 tons of soil substrate contaminated with heavy metals and the partial coverage of the excavated area with concrete slabs. However, further analysis revealed a rather extended contamination on the whole area. STS does not have a clear strategy for the landfill reclamation, although the aim is to reuse the area in the future for photovoltaic energy production. The WINOA and STEELMAG facilities are still operating and will continue to do so in the future, so at the moment there’s no reuse/transformation plan for that portion of the site. The Plan Local d’Urbanisme of Le Cheylas confirms and address the industrial and productive use of the former steelworks site, including the core built site and the surrounding infrastructural spaces (such as the landfill and the nearby crafts-industry zone). Furthermore, the same plan also expresses the necessity of reinforcing the green infrastructural network between the mountain side and the river through ecological corridors of proximity, of which several running next the site.

Main sources of information for the regional and site profiles:

face-to-face interview with Mathieu Janin (CEO MJSTONES, site owner since 2017), 13.06.2018 + phone interview 18.07.2019
face-to-face interview with Roger Cohard (Mayor Le Chelyas) and Alain Daramy (chief spatial planning Le Cheylas), 14.06.2018
face-to-face interview with Tonis Antzoulatos (chief economic development CC Gresivaudan), 15.06.2018
PAAD Le Cheylas (strategic territorial development plan)
PLU Le Cheylas (local urban development plan)
PHL Gresivaudan (urbanism and housing plan CC Gresivaudan) + Project du Territoire Gresivaudan (strategic plan)
Le pays de Grésivaudan: un territoire périurbain qui attire les cadres, mais avec de notables disparités internes (regional analysis by INSEE Rhone-Alpes)
CC Le Gresivaudan—Portraits des EPCI Isérois, Emploi—Chômage (economic statistical profile CC Gresivaudan)
Kouchner J., Ricard. P. Allevard, coeurs d’acier, Ed. Thetys 1996
local newspapers (2013–2016)
BASOL (database of polluted sites by the French Ministry for Sustainable and Ecological Transition), basol.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/

3.3 Site Preliminary Study

The attached site preliminary study is based on both single and comparative analysis of six corrected aerial photographs (orthophotos), covering the time frame 1939–2003. The selection of suitable photos has been done by considering a temporal distance among each others of approximately 10–15 years, although this was not always possible due to the limited availability of the material. The selected orthophotos refers to the following years (source in brackets): 1939 (IGN), 1948 (IGN), 1970 (IGN), 1981 (IGN), 1989 (IGN), 2003 (IGN). The collected material provides a spatially detailed and temporarily complete coverage of the site and its surroundings. The fact that the first available year (1939) dates around 20 years later than the factory opening gave the valuable chance to follow the evolution of the site from almost the beginning. Furthermore, the high resolution common to all the photographs was extremely helpful in the identification of many small-scale landscape changes.

1939—The steelworks stand halfway between the RD 523 valley road axis and the forested slopes of the Brame Farine massif. The productive site, which consists of three parallel casting halls and few additional buildings, is located next to—and somehow integrated into—a large railway yard stretching NW-SE. The latter is part of the transport infrastructure developed by the old Allevard steelworks, which links the main railway line down in the valley to the upper narrow-gauge railway via an inclined ropeway. Along the perimeter of the site there are a couple of small-sized workers settlements (cité ouvrière) with terraced houses and gardens. The surroundings are mainly occupied by cultivated fields, interrupted by tree rows, ponds, farms and country estates—among which the Chateau du Villard, north to the steelworks.

1948—The factory site is slowly expanding, as suggested by the northward extension of the casting halls and the gradual conversion of the surroundings to industrial purposes. The agricultural fields between the industrial buildings and the road RD 523 are now included within the factory site, and partially used as temporary by-product waste dump site. The inclined ropeway is out of use and already partially hidden by the growing forest. The dismantling of the railway-ropeway infrastructure is leading the railway yard site to be used mainly by the steelworks, both as transport infrastructure and raw materials storage area. No other significant changes can be noticed in the surroundings.

1970—The steelworks have doubled its size through the extension of the casting, the addition of new service buildings and the construction of the new Wheelabrator steel abrasives plant, on the northern edge of the site. Such expansion has caused the incorporation of the old Chateau du Villard estate into the industrial site, thus causing its decay and abandonment. The boulevard once connecting the estate to the route 523 has become the main access to the industrial site, as well as the direct link between this and the newly created landfill on the former pond. The farmland behind the Chateau, on the slope, is abandoned and subject to rewilding. Within the industrial site, the internal railway network has been upgraded and expanded with new tracks, to reach the abrasives plant. Many unbuilt greenfields within the site perimeter, including the disused railway yard, have been turned into tree farms.

1981—Major changes within and around the factory site can be noticed. Among new additions there are two rolling mills, located between the old casting halls and the route 523, the ‘H’ shaped administration building and the new EDF hydroelectric power station on the north-eastern edge of the site. Connected to the power station (a pump-storage type) there is the huge water basin created next to the railway line. The old buildings of the Chateau have been demolished, as also the lower workers settlement and some of the oldest factory buildings. As result, the open space pattern within the factory perimeter is enriched with many paved aprons for storage of raw materials or finished products. Some of these open spaces are however not used and undergoing rewilding. The landfill is rapidly expanding on surrounding agricultural fields, while a scrap yard has been added nearby.

1989—No significant changes within and around the factory site are noticeable. A few additional buildings are increasing the built footprint of the site, while inner open spaces are now cleared from trees and vegetation and sealed to host storage areas and parking lots. On the contrary, the outer open spaces along the south-eastern perimeter are left apart and thus rewilding into shrublands and forested areas. In particular, the slope side behind the old casting halls, once occupied by the Chateau estate, is turning into a dense forested area. The same rewilding process is visible on the previously sealed surface on the northern edge of the site, as it is not yet used for any purpose. The landfill is increasing in content but not expanding in size. A sort of green buffer seems to divide the landfill from the route 523.

2003—The factory site is rather unchanged, although many new small-scale buildings have been added to the existing ones, especially on the southern edge. The former railway yard is now partially occupied by these new buildings and partially turned into a woodland. Only a few railway tracks are in use. In general, a widespread process of rewilding can be noticed along the site perimeter, with high tree densities on the less usable areas (slopes, borders). A system of green buffers, spontaneous or planned, is also emerging around the site and its detached extensions. Around the landfill and the scrap yard, for example, a continuous system of shrublands and tree buffers has been created, probably to mitigate the negative impact of these activities on the surroundings. On the northern edge of the site a new administration building has been built, surrounded by shrublands.

3.4 Photographic (field) Study

The field trip took place on 11–17.06.2018. At first, a “guided” tour of the site by foot was done together with Mr. Mathieu Janin (CEO MJSTONES and main site owner). Full permission for site access and visit was provided by Mr. Janin, who informed the site gatehouse. This allowed complete freedom for the upcoming days. The site exploration took place mostly by foot, with car used only to reach distant spots for overviews. The field visit was integrated by two more meetings, both occurring on 15.06: one with Mr. Tonis Antzoulatos (director Economic Development, CC Le Grésivaudan) and the other one with Mr. Roger Cohard and Mr. Alain Daramy (Mayor and director urban development dep., Le Cheylas municipality). Selected photographs include overviews of the former steelworks from surrounding reliefs (at different distances) as well as detailed views of the site core (active and disused buildings, open spaces) and immediate surroundings (including waste dump sites and the EDF basin) (Fig. 7.34–7.57).

3.5 Site Advanced Study

Landscape structure

The landscape structure of the steelworks is characterized by the strong counter position between a dense and compact ‘hard’ built core and an extensive ‘soft’ buffer ring of artificial and/or semi-natural open spaces. The proximity to the mountain slope has just little influence on the landscape structure, which is instead shaped by the interactions between grey and blue linear infrastructural elements in the flat valley bed. The complex infrastructural grid of roads, railway tracks and water bodies (on which the steelworks has gradually developed) creates, in fact, a casual patchwork of ‘allotments’ which are ‘filled’ either with industry-related functions or leftover and/or used for other purposes. On the one hand, this particular landscape structure leads to a successful spatial and visual integration of the industrial site into the surroundings, but on the other hand it strongly limits the possibilities of interchanging different functions and land uses when it comes to transformation. The core site and its built system are structured according to the external/internal road and railway accessibility, almost functioning as a landscape ‘room’ with specific access points and borders. The same occurs for outer site-related facilities such as the dust landfill and the scrap yard, as well as the EDF water basin far beyond. All these ‘functional’ rooms are, in fact, strongly circumscribed and delimited by green buffers of mixed woodlands and shrublands developed on leftover open spaces, beyond which agricultural fields and low-density urban settlements extend. The sequence of industrial core and outer areas, green buffers and infrastructures creates somehow a direct but fragmented landscape ‘corridor’ between the Brame Farine mountain on the east and the Isère river axis on the west.

Landscape transformation systems

The proposed site transformation follows and integrates the indications of existing local and regional plans and regulations, as expressed by the site owning company and local planning institutions. On one hand, the transformation addresses the functional reuse of the former steelworks core area, keeping into account the existing productive infrastructure (railway network and available buildings/spaces) as well as the needs of the ongoing activity of the Winoa plant, which shares the northern half of the site. On the other hand, the transformation enhances the buffering effect of semi-natural spaces around the core site through their reclamation, improvement and inter-connection, as part of a wider local green infrastructure already identified in the PADD of Le Cheylas. The transformation process is structured on the three identified systems: the “backbone”, which focuses on first priority developments such as the site clearing, the adaptive refurbishment of the railway network and the landfill reclamation; the “borders”, which deals with the improvement and extension of the ecological buffers, including the renaturation of reclaimed areas; the “core”, which addresses the functional redevelopment of the central area into a multi-firm industrial park. So conceived, the three systems are strongly interrelated in terms of space but highly flexible and somehow independent as it concerns the temporal development. This is essential to ensure a gradual but complete transformation of the whole site without harming the many existing activities already developed on it.

4 Case Study III: Cantoni ITC, Ponte Nossa / I

4.1 Regional Overview

Identification

Cultural region: Lombardian Alps and Prealps (Alpi e Prealpi Lombarde) > Bergamasque Alps and Prealps (SOIUSA 29) > Valle Seriana.

Administrative region: NUTS 2: Regione Lombardia > NUTS 3: Provincia di Bergamo (ITC46) > Comunità Montana Valle Seriana(38 municipalities).

Geography

The region is entirely located within the Bergamasque Alps and Prealps (Alpi Orobie), a section of the Southern Eastern Alps bordered on the west by Lake Como, on the north by Valtelline, on the east by Valcamonica and Lake Iseo and on the south by the Bergamo plain (part of the Po Valley). The Bergamasque Alps are characterized by a clear sequence of mountain systems: a northern range of high crystalline reliefs (highest peak: Pizzo di Coca 3.050 m), a complex system of calcareous reliefs in the middle, which include impressive stand-alone massifs (Grigne 2.410 m, Pizzo Arera 2.512 m, Presolana 2.521 m, Pizzo Camino 2.492 m, Concarena 2.549 m), and lower and softer wooded reliefs towards the foreland. The main valleys Valsassina, Brembana, Seriana and Cavallina are all north-south oriented and connected to each other by minor transversal valleys and passes. The Seriana valley, approximately 50 km long, is named after the river Serio, which originates from the northern range of the Bergamasque Alps (Monte Torena, 2.911 m) and runs to the south for 127 km, leaving the Alps in the eastern outskirts of Bergamo and joining the Adda river near Crema. According to its orography, the Seriana valley is usually divided in upper and lower valley: the point of divide is the Costone gorge, where the river Serio is the only physical separation between the steep slopes of Pizzo Formico massif (1.636 m) and those of Pizzo Frol (part of the Alben massif, 2.019 m). The lower valley is characterized by a large and flat valley floor surrounded by modest reliefs and forested hills, while the upper valley has a narrower valley section and it is surrounded by higher mountains and steep slopes. Two large plateaus are attached to the valley axis on the east site: the Gandino-Leffe plateau in the lower valley, south to the Pizzo Formico massif, and the Clusone plateau in the upper valley, between the Formico and Presolana massifs, connecting the Seriana valley to Scalve and Borlezza valleys and then to Valcamonica (Lago d’Iseo).

Accessibility

Due to its location on the southern border of the Alps, the Seriana valley is highly accessible from Bergamo and the Milan metropolitan region. Bergamo, which is located right at the entrance of the valley in the foreland, is a key regional transport hub including railway connections to Milan (50’) and Venice (2h45’), A4 Turin-Venice motorway and Orio al Serio international airport (part of the Milan metropolitan region airport system and third in Italy for passengers after Rome and Milan-Malpensa). All these facilities, and in particular the airport, can be easily reached from the mid-lower Seriana valley through the expressway SP671 Seriate-Cene (completed in 2007) and the new suburban tramway Bergamo-Albino (opened in 2009 after the reconversion of the former Seriana valley railway line, dismantled in 1967). The upper valley from the Costone gorge upwards is less accessible, with the SP671 normal road running to Clusone and the Scalve valley (and then to Darfo Boario Terme in Valcamonica) and the dead-end SP49 road reaching Valbondione, the last centre in the upper Seriana valley. A network of bus run by SAB covers the whole valley and especially the touristic centres in the higher locations (Castione della Presolana, Schilpario, etc.). Major future plans are the extensions of the tramway from Albino to Vertova and the realization of the tunnel under the Pizzo Formico near Ponte Nossa to extend the expressway SP671 from Cene to Clusone. Lastly, it needs to be also mentioned the Ciclovia Valle Seriana, a 47 km long bike route connecting Bergamo (Torre Boldone) and Clusone developed in the early 2000 s by reusing the site old Seriana valley railway line and part of the embankments of the Serio river.

Socio-demographic profile

The Comunità Montana di Valle Seriana (Seriana valley mountain community) includes 38 municipalities covering an area of 657,76 km², with a population of 145.141 inhabitants (2017). The average population density is 221/km², pretty high if compared to the average of the Alpine region (76,4) and the Italian Alps (83,9) too, but far lower than that of the Province of Bergamo (403,99). Like other mountain regions located on the margin of the Alpine arc and close to highly dynamic metropolitan regions, the Seriana valley has experienced in the last decades a significant population growth: + 29% between 1961 (112.699) and 2001 (130.960) and even + 11% between 2001 and 2017. However, the population dynamics within the region are pretty in favour of the lower valley, where most of the population and the economic activities are located. The lower valley has in fact 9,8% of population and 9,1% of employees in industry (the main economic sector) of the whole Bergamo province, while the upper valley has only the 4% of population and 3% of employees in industry. In terms of ageing population, the region is affected by moderate trends in this sense similarly to other valleys in the Bergamo Alps, but not as dramatic as in other Italian Alpine areas (e.g. Piemonte and Friuli). In 2000 around 50% of the population of the Seriana valley was 30–64 y.o., while only the 20% above 64 y.o. Immigration is quite relevant in the region due to the density of available jobs in manufacturing, with a higher presence of foreign population in the municipalities of the lower valley (average 5%). In general, the Seriana valley community shows overall positive demographic dynamics if compared to the average of the Italian Alps. This can be clearly linked to a rather developed economic system and especially to the high accessibility and proximity to Bergamo and Milan metropolitan centres.

Economic profile

The economy of the Seriana valley is strongly based on industry and manufacturing (45% of employees, 2011), as it is in the wider context of the Bergamo Province (46,2% of employees in the secondary sector, 2010) and also in most of the Italian Prealpine Arc (Provinces of Biella, Como, Lecco, Bergamo, Brescia, Vicenza, Belluno, Pordenone). The Seriana valley region is in fact to one of the 21 officially recognised industrial districts of Lombardy, with high specialization in textile machinery and mechanical engineering for textile industry. Other key industries of the region, developed in the 1960 s–70 s in connection to the original textile production, are fine mechanics, polymers and plastics materials. Several niche leading companies such as ITEMA (advanced weaving solutions), Radici Group (engineering fibres and plastics), LAMIFLEX (technical composite materials) and SCAME (electrical engineering) are rooted in the region, having their HQs in the Seriana Valley. More traditional industrial sectors, such as primary textile industry and non-ferrous mining and metallurgy are today almost completely disappeared. Agriculture represents a marginal activity in the Seriana Valley region as in the whole Bergamo Province, where it employs only 2% of the working population and contributes to the regional GDP for only 1,4%. In the Seriana Valley, and in mountain areas of Bergamo in general, agriculture is in sharp decline since several decades: as an example, between 1990 and 2000 the number of farms has decreased in the whole province of −53% and in mountain areas even of −61%. In the latter, agriculture is mainly related to hillside grazing and livestock farming, both usually managed as a part-time activity aside main jobs in industry and services. Tourism is a developing activity. The strong industrial-oriented economy has led to ignore, in the past decades, the potentials of tourism development in the Seriana Valley region. Between the 1960 s and 1980 s a significant tourist development occurred only in relation to skiing and winter sports, with the establishment of a few tourist resorts of regional importance (Castione della Presolana, Spiazzi di Gromo, Zambla) and the proliferation of second homes. However, the location at modest altitudes (1200–1600 m) plus the effects of climate change (increasing lack of snow) are causing a sharp decline of these locations. In recent years a different perspective has been assumed by the valley community, which actively contributed to the definition of a regional framework for sustainable tourism development (Patto Territoriale per le Orobie), in connection with the valuable environmental and landscape resources represented by the Orobie Natural Park (70.000 hectares in the upper valley), and the foundation in 2010 of the Promoserio regional development agency for tourism promotion and territorial marketing. As result, the summer season is favoured and thus expanding in the Seriana Valley, with a constantly increasing number of visitors (+20% of national visitors and + 19% of foreign visitors between 2010 and 2017).

Environmental profile

The environment of the Valle Seriana and the Bergamasque Alps and Prealps is very diverse, due to the location along the transition zone between inner Alpine areas (upper valleys and main chains) and outer Alpine forelands (foothills and plains). A particular feature of the region is the incredibly high biodiversity, which is due to the fact that in the Miocene the glacial coverage was pretty lower here than elsewhere in the Alps. Hundreds of endemic flora and fauna species can be found only here, thus making of the Bergamasque Alps a biodiversity hotspot and one of the 9 priority areas for Alpine biodiversity conservation (cf. Alpine Convention). The main mountain range and most of the upper Seriana Valley are included in the perimeter of the Regional Nature Park “Orobie Bergamasche”, created in 1989 on 70.000 hectares of forests, pastures and grasslands and including around 100 natural mountain lakes, waterfalls and several peaks between 2000 and 3000 mt. In addition, the Presolana and Grem massifs are included in two Natura 2000 sites (SIC Val Nossana and SIC Val Sedornia). In the lower valley there no such protected areas due to the less outstanding biodiversity, but anyway some PLIS (Parco Locale di Interesse Sovracomunale, transl. Local Park of Regional Interest) have been created, among all the PLIS Naturalserio, which covers a section of the Serio river and surrounding wetlands not yet interested by urbanisation and soil sealing. In fact, a major environmental problem of the mid-lower section of the Seriana Valley is the missing communication between the ecosystems of the mountain slopes (forests, pastures) and those of the river (wetlands, fields). Due to the gradual abandonment of agricultural surfaces, the forest is rapidly expanding and today it covers most of the lower calcareous reliefs of the lower valley. In terms of vegetational pattern, broadleaves are predominant, with oak and chestnut (formerly cultivated) forests covering the lower valley slopes and mixed beech and spruce fir forests in the upper valley. Noticeable exceptions are birch trees, growing fast in rewilding grasslands at 1000–1200 mt, and scots pine, which are mainly located in the Clusone Pine Forest (the result of a massive reforestation occurred in the mid XIX century). Water ecosystems are in general under significant pressure due to the high level of anthropisation of the valley. In particular, the Serio river has been subject in the past to the dam/sealing of banks and to several water catchment systems (for agricultural and hydroelectric purposes) which have impoverished its ecosystem, especially in the mid-lower valley.

Spatial development trends and challenges

Spatial development trends in the Bergamasque Alps and in particular in the Seriana Valley region can be ascribed a two main processes: increasing urbanisation of the flatland and soft slopes in the valley floor and progressive abandonment of farmland at the higher altitudes and in unfavourable areas (e.g. steep slopes). In the last decades, these two processes have radically changed the landscape of the valley and also the stability of the ecosystem, thus increasing the risk of natural disasters (flooding, landslides, etc.). With regards to urbanisation, the Seriana Valley ranks among the most urbanised valleys of the Lombardian Alps with a percentage of urbanised soil over the available usable land equal to 43,5% (2011). The lower valley is the most problematic in this sense, since the higher accessibility, the larger valley section and the proximity to Bergamo and the plains have favoured in recent times an intense urbanisation connected to small-scale industrial development (industrial district) and housing development (metropolisation effect). In the upper valley, significant urbanisation has occurred in relation to industry and especially tourism development (second homes). The challenge of limiting further soil consumption is already assumed as a key priority by regional and local administrations, although it often conflicts with the economic needs expressed by the communities. In this sense, the Mountain Community of Valle Seriana and other regional actors are strongly promoting the reindustrialisation of former industrial sites (of which the valley is extremely rich) to avoid the establishment of new industries on the few remaining flat greenfields. This also applies to tourist resorts, such as Castione della Presolana, where the 80% of houses are second homes built in the 1970 s–80 s which are now empty due to the decline of this type of tourism. The second process already mentioned is the progressive abandonment of farmland and the uncontrolled expansion of the forest. This process is of course related to the vitality of mountain agriculture and thus to the economic relevance of this sector. Therefore, the hyper-urbanised and industrialised lower valley and prealpine areas are generally more affected by the abandonment of agricultural surfaces than the upper valley. As an example, in the decade 1990–2000 the lower valley has experienced a decrease of the UUA (utilised agricultural area) of 37%, while the upper valley of 29% (which is still relevant). Although this process can hardly be reversed, the regional authorities and the Mountain Community are trying to sustain and promote agricultural training and the development of new farms able to take care of critical semi-natural spaces (new forests).

4.2 Site Overview

Location

The site is located ca. 2 km north to the Costone gorge, at the entrance of the upper Seriana Valley and at the crossroads of the Clusone plateau and the Rise valley (both leading to the touristic locations of Castione della Presolana and Zambla respectively). In particular, the site is located on the orographic left side of the Serio river, close to the watercourse, on a triangle-shaped alluvial fan at the base of Corno Guazza (1270 m, NW extremity of Pizzo Formico massif). Indeed, the site is “compressed” between the river and the steep mountain slope, extending on a curve from NE to S. On the right side of the river, facing the site, at the confluence between the Serio and the smaller Nossa stream, there is old town of Ponte Nossa (Italian for ‘Nossa bridge’), crossed by the main valley road SS 671 and overlooked by Premolo and Parre centres, developed over the soft and terraced sunny slopes of Pizzo Arera massif. The site is visually and spatially embedded in the densely urbanised floor and slopes of this particular valley section, of which constitutes a relevant structural element. The accessibility to the site is really high due to the presence of three bridges (of which two pedestrians, including the former railway bridge) in just 250 m of river section, connecting the lower half of the site to the town centre on the opposite side of the Serio.

Background

The cotton mill was established in 1870 by the Swiss-Italian entrepreneurs Giacomo Trumpy and Alfredo Zopfi, who moved from Schwanden (Glarus) to Bergamo to invest their capital and know-how in the promising business of textile industry. The location in the mid Seriana valley was chosen for the abundant water supply and the skilled workforce in textile manufacturing. The industrial complex consisted, at the beginning, of a shed building with 6 working halls (small spinning mill and large weaving, 400 weaving machines), hydraulic-power facilities including an artificial canal, a villa for the owner’s family and a few housing blocks for the workers (Fig. 7.58). In 1899 the cotton mill was sold by Trumpy to the newborn company Società Anonima Cotonificio Bergamasco, founded by a group of Swiss and Italian entrepreneurs based in Milan, among which Federico Mylius, Edoardo Amman, Giuseppe Frua, Paolo Muggiani, Emilio Wepfer and the same Giacomo Trumpy and Alfredo Zopfi. Further expanded, the mill had at time 10.000 fuses and 520 weaving machines (most of them Northrop automatic) and employed around 650 workers. A financial crisis hit the company in 1909 and, at the same time, a vast fire destroyed mostly of the weaving section. Close to bankruptcy, the company and the factory of Ponte Nossa were then taken over by a growing and already leading textile company at the time, De Angeli-Frua, Società per l'industria dei tessuti stampati S.p.A., based in Milan and founded by Ernesto De Angeli and Giuseppe Frua. Under the new ownership, the factory was incredibly expanded with the addition of a new spinning section (50.000 fuses) in a multi-story luminous building and the upgrade of weaving (700 machines) and printing, dying and bleaching sections. In the late 1910 s, the factory was able to produce 20 million of meters of textiles per year and employed around 1600 workers. Several social and housing services were also established in Ponte Nossa, such as workers houses (on a terrace above the old town, right side of the Serio), nursery and schools, and also a boarding school for incoming female workers (1917). In 1924 two hydroelectric power stations were built in the upper valley (Ardesio and Gromo) by the De Angeli-Frua subsidiary Società impianti idroelettrici alto Serio, which served not only the Ponte Nossa cotton mill (already provided with two power stations, one internal and one downstream in Casnigo-Costone) but also other companies plants in the lowlands. Within De Angeli-Frua productive network, the cotton mill of Ponte Nossa developed rapidly becoming one of the leading production sites (Fig. 7.59) (Fig. 7.60). Several years later, in 1968, De Angeli-Frua was taken over by Cotonificio Cantoni, an historical and renowned textile company based in Milan leader in the cotton manufacturing business. The cotton mill was updated and partially refurbished with the addition of new weaving section (replacing the old one), although the new ownership began soon to consider this plant (as all those sites inherited from De Angeli-Frua) a non-profitable business. In 1972 the cotton mill employed around 1000 workers and had 49.528 active fuses and 748 weaving machines. In 1984 Cantoni was then taken over by Inghirami Textile Company, part of the financial holding of Inghirami, thus becoming Cantoni ITC. The activities in Ponte Nossa were gradually reduced and some unused buildings were taken over by local SMEs (Lamiflex and Officine Meccaniche) and refurbished for their production purposes. In early 2000 s most of the raw cotton manufacturing of Inghirami group was moved from Italy to developing countries. In this context, the cotton mill of Ponte Nossa, almost inactive, was definitively closed in 2004. Soon after, the Municipality of Ponte Nossa and the Mountain Community of Valle Seriana promoted the creation of a STU-Società di Trasformazione Urbana (a public-private joint-stock urban development company) named “Kilometro Verde” (transl. green mile). The aim of the STU was the reactivation of the site through the functional reuse of the existing structures for small scale industry and new businesses focused on green economy. However, despite the financial support of the Lombardy Region authority and Fondazione Cariplo (a charitable foundation active in economic and cultural development projects), the compulsory purchase of the site (=esproprio) could not be completed due to the too high costs and the missing sponsorship of Inghirami Group, the site owner. In 2010, a feasibility study following the same orientation of the STU goals was commissioned by Inghirami to the Bergamo-based architectural office Studio Pievani. The preliminary project included the reuse of several existing buildings and environmental mitigation works on the mountain backside. In 2012 the Municipality of Ponte Nossa approved the new PGT (town plan) in which the productive reuse of the site is confirmed, including further details on the functional use of specific buildings and areas within the property and considering architectural heritage values in the process of transformation. In 2015, after the formal dissolution of the STU “Kilometro Verde”, the Municipality together with the Mountain Community of Valle Seriana presented again to Lombardy Region and Fondazione Cariplo a new project proposal for co-funding called “La comunità sostenibile—Green sul Serio”, which aims to support green economy in the valley through the reuse of former industrial sites. In particular, two sites are included in the project: the Cantoni site in Ponte Nossa and the former Pigna paper mill in Alzano Lombardo. With regards to Ponte Nossa, the project mentioned the will to proceed through an Accordo di Programma, i.e. a cooperation between all administrative levels (region, province, municipality) to ensure a stronger public framework for relevant spatial planning projects. Within the new project proposal, the start-up phase is tied to the establishment of a business incubator (PCUBE) on the site, in a former industrial building of 900 m² which, on the basis of the Accordo di Programma, has to be transferred free of charge from the owner to the Municipality. Overall cost of the reuse operation is estimated in 1.5 million Euro. Following these last developments, an updated and economically lighter version of the feasibility study is again commissioned by Inghirami to Studio Pievani, in which the percentage of reused spaces is lowered down and replaced with brand new buildings, still with productive use. In 2017 the company Officine Meccaniche, which already occupied some of the former cotton mills buildings since the 1980 s after having bought and refurbished them, took over the upper part of the former industrial sites (former spinning mill block) with the aim to expand its production surfaces. In 2018, finally, Inghirami presented a concrete proposal of Piano Attuativo which integrates the last feasibility study (2015) with the prescriptions of the Municipal town plan (2012). The official adoption of the Piano Attuativo occurred in late 2019.

Current use and future plans

The main expectations of the local and valley community are connected to the concrete reactivation of the site for productive purposes, and this way seems to be already seriously taken due to the recent agreements. The takeover of the former spinning mill block by Officine Meccaniche is perceived as a good sign towards the site reactivation, although the interested portion of the site is still very limited. The lower part of the site, larger and in worst conditions due to the earlier abandonment of the spaces, is still waiting for an investor, which is quite difficult to find (because there are restrictions on the transformation of buildings due to industrial heritage value). The fear that a coherent transformation of the whole site might not happen due to the different timing and the lack of a single investor is true. The municipality and the valley community are not able to acquire the remaining parts of the sites or even less, and to transform it, but at least through the local development plan their aims are expressed and made clear. Some upcoming projects are believed to foster the transformation of the site, such as the realization of a new larger bridge to connect the left and right shores of the river in the proximity of the site (required by industrial activities on the left side which needs to move goods). Potentially, the site redevelopment is seen by the valley community as also a chance to improve the problematic environmental conditions of the surroundings (impermeable river shores, landslides due to low maintenance of the slopes, etc.) and also to foster a more sustainable and diffused mountain tourism.

Main sources of information for the regional and site profiles:

face-to-face interview with Mario Balduzzi (spatial planning and cultural heritage dep. Comunità Montana Valle Seriana), 23.01.2018
face-to-face interview with Alessandra Pellegrini (chief of urban planning Ponte Nossa), 01.06.2018
email exchange with Roberta Ripa (Inghirami Group, site owner), 17.05.2019
telephone interview with Matteo Pievani (architect and owner of Studio Pievani), 25.09.2018
PGT Ponte Nossa (local urban development plan)
Piano Attuativo ADT 4 “Polo Produttivo Comprensoriale” via De Angeli (site development plan)
PTCP Provincia di Bergamo (territorial development plan, Bergamo Province)
ISTAT statistics (elaborated)
“La comunità sostenibile _ Green sul Serio” (progetto N48)
Gelfi M. (1995), Capitali svizzeri e nascita dell’industria cotoniera a Bergamo, in Archivio Storico Bergamasco, 15, 3, pp. 4–40.
Archivio Storico Mediobanca (1973), Cotonificio Cantoni, in Ricerche & Studi.
“Il territorio di Clusone. Evoluzione geologica e paesaggio vegetale”, AAVV, Comune di Clusone 2004
local newspapers (2012–2019)

4.3 Site Preliminary Study

The attached site preliminary study is based on both single and comparative analysis of six corrected aerial photographs (orthophotos), covering the time frame 1954–2015. The selection of suitable photos has been done by considering a temporal distance among each other of approximately 10–15 years, although this was not always possible due to the limited availability of the material. The selected orthophotos refers to the following years (source in brackets): 1954 (IGM), 1962 (IGM), 1975 (Regione Lombardia), 1988 (Regione Lombardia), 1998 (Regione Lombardia), 2015 (Regione Lombardia). The collected material provides a good coverage of the recent temporal development of the site and its surroundings. However, since the industrial site was already formed in the first available year (1954), thus no more subject to major transformations, the temporal series provides more elements with regards to the landscape change in the surroundings rather than the site itself.

1954—The cotton mill is divided in three distinct areas: the old spinning mill as huge and compact built-on block on the south, an intermediate area including the director ‘s villa and the boarding house, and the new spinning mill on the north-east end. On the left side, the site is bordered by the river Serio on the south and the railway line on the north. The complex intercepts a long water canal derived from the Serio, which runs through the site (underneath buildings and inner roads) and continues far to the south. The canal, the railway and the river create a fragmented flat landscape around the site, whose open spaces are mainly made of grassland used for pastures or other activities (e.g. football field). On the backside, at the foot of the mountain slope, the site is delimited by a wall. On the other side of the river it is possible to distinguish the old town and the newer workers settlement.

1962—The factory site looks almost unchanged, with just a few small additions next to the new spinning mill plant. The distinction between inner and outer factory areas is much clearer, as beyond the factory wall a growing shrubland is covering the lower part of the mountain slope. The density and regularity of the shrubs might suggest that part of it is the result of a plantation (reforestation?). Along the water canal, north and south to the factory site, the same growing shrubland can be spotted too, but much more fragmented and chaotic (probably spontaneous rewilding of inaccessible areas for pastures). Within the factory perimeter, it can be noticed the appearance of small paths connecting the new spinning mill with the other buildings, which run across maintained grassland and orchard gardens around the boarding-house.

1975—Relevant changed within and around the site perimeter can be detected. Some ancient buildings in the core site (including the old director’s villa) have been demolished, while on the north and south edges of the site there are some new additions as well as replacements (the new weaving mill). A power substation has been also added on the backside, next to the boarding-house. The railway once running through the valley and crossing the river Serio in front of the mill is now abandoned. Reforestation and rewilding processes are evidently occurring on the mountain slope, out of the factory wall, along the canal and on residual land between the canal and the river. In addition, new small-scale industries have been established on former pastures next to the river and the canal, both on the north-east side of the mill and further to the south—provided with new roads for accessibility.

1988—The factory site is almost unchanged. On the southern edge, some small old buildings are demolished and replaced with a new modern one, next to the weaving plant. On the northern edge, a section of the spinning plant has been demolished. The most relevant issue is again the fast-rewilding process, which is superimposing to the existing reforestation on the backside of the mill, thus leading to a dense tree pattern beyond the factory wall. Some rewilding spots can be also detected within the factory perimeter, on unused/leftover open spaces (e.g. near the new spinning mill and around the boarding-house). Similar developments can be also seen along the abandoned railway line as well as the water canal, towards the mountain slope. The recently established industries are expanding, while a new road is created on the north side of the mill (refurbishing an existing agricultural pathway).

1998—No major changes occurred on the factory site. A new building has been added on the northern edge, close to the newer spinning mill. The factory wall can barely contain the expanding and growing forest on the mountain slopes, which is now surrounding the factory site from all sides except the riverfront. The river shores are increasingly subject to rewilding and tree-coverage densification too, especially on the north and south sides of the cotton mill area. New industrial and commercial buildings are now occupying the flat land between the river and the former railway line, on what used to be (partially) a railway yard. Urbanisation on the valley floor and sunny slopes is expanding with new mixed industrial, residential and leisure zones.

2015—The factory builtscape is unchanged, although most of the open spaces within the factory site are now fully rewilded—as consequence of the factory closure and abandonment. An impressive continuity of tree pattern can be seen between the mountain slope and the inner courtyards of the cotton mill, such as around the boarding-house, on the former director’s villa site (previously a private garden) and next to the newer spinning mill. A new building added on the northern edge of the site suggests that this part of the factory has been reused for other purposes. The former railway line has been transformed into a bike path. On the southern edge of the site, the fallow land (former pastures) between the river and the canal now hosts a riverside public park. New industrial buildings have filled the leftover meadows on the north-east, between the canal and the former railway line.

4.4 Photographic (field) Study

The field trip took place on 31.05–6.06.2018. Due to the restrictions imposed by the site owner and the general conditions of the structures, only one full day was dedicated to the site visit—including access to some relevant buildings. The fact that the site was already visited by the author back in 2008 eased the on-site operations. Beside the cotton mill site, however, most of the field study was dedicated to exploring and documenting the surroundings, with particular attention towards the extensive water infrastructure connected to hydropower generation (partially still in use). Selected photographs include overviews of the cotton mill from different distances and point of view (reliefs, plateaus, valley floor), detailed views of the site internal structure (including overviews from rooftops) and the related ‘water landscape’ along the valley bed. In addition, during the field work a fruitful meeting with architect Alessandra Pellegrini (urban planning chief at Ponte Nossa municipality) and her team took place, which allowed to gather useful information and insights on the current state of the site and plans (Fig. 7.61–7.84).

4.5 Site Advanced Study

Landscape structure

The landscape structure of the former cotton mill is strongly characterised by the linearity of the Serio river and the parallel-running hydropower canal. The two water courses, although different by width and footprint, are interwoven into a complex and irregular waterscape. The cotton mill site is totally integrated in this waterscape, of which it occupies a key intermediate section. Due to the fact the hydropower canal literally crosses the industrial site, entering from upstream the river Serio and leaving that downstream, the position and orientation of most of the existing factory buildings are strongly influenced by the course of the canal itself. The oldest part of the site is aligned to a south-oriented section of the Serio, directly facing the old town of Ponte Nossa at the junction between Serio and Nossana rivers. The newest part extends further upwards, organised around a linear section of the hydropower canal, and thus having a less binding spatial relationship with the river. The internal structure of the site is characterised by the clear distinction between the two built-up parts, which are indeed separated by a vast open green space mostly covered by spontaneous vegetation due to long abandonment. On the backside of the former industrial site, where the mountain slope rises rapidly in altitude, the layered complexity of the built-up industrial landscape fades away into a homogenous forest-covered rugged terrain. From a wider perspective, the cotton mill site can be figuratively seen as a big knot in a rope, where the latter is represented by the water infrastructure. The same situation, i.e. little flatlands compressed between the river system and the harsh mountain slopes, can be found both upstream and downstream of the site, where other (more recent) industrial areas are also existing.

Landscape systems

The outlined site transformation follows and integrates the indications of existing local and regional plans and regulations, as expressed by the different site owners and planning institutions. In particular, the transformation strongly enhances the site potential in connection to the wider river landscape system, of which the former cotton mill is an integral and relevant part. The complexity of the site, well expressed by the layered composition of many different built and open spaces, is tackled by means of gradual refurbishment and reactivation process. The latter is centred on and driven by the infrastructural reclamation of the hydropower canal and its adjacent spaces, as well as founded on the valorisation of the architectural and spatial qualities of the old industrial buildings there existing. The transformation process is structured on the three identified systems: the “backbone”, which focuses on the complex waterscape designed by the canal and its functional ‘encounter’ with the former industrial site; the “borders”, which deals with the stratified sequence of liminal spaces in the narrow valley floor, resulting from the interaction between the river, the canal, the mountain slope and the industrial site; the “core”, which addresses the adaptive reuse of the long abandoned old industrial buildings and adjacent open spaces, developing their potential for productive, cultural and service activities. So conceived, the three systems advance a fully integrated site redevelopment, which takes into account the many existing infrastructures while improving their multi-functionality through a progressive, highly adaptive approach.

5 Case Study IV: Constellium, Steg-Hohtenn / CH

5.1 Regional Overview

Identification

Cultural region: Swiss Western Central Alps (Westliche Zentralalpen) > Bernese Alps (SOIUSA 12) and Pennine Alps (SIOUSA 9) > Oberwallis.

Administrative region: NUTS 2: Région Lémanique/Genferseeregion > NUTS 3: Canton Valais/Kanton Wallis (CH012) > Region Oberwallis (socio-economic aggregation of Goms, Östlich Raron, Brig, Visp, Westlich Raron, Leuk administrative districts: 63 municipalities).

Geography

The region corresponds to the hydrographic basin of the upper Rhone, centred on the upper Rhone valley and including several side valleys on both the right (Leukertal, Lötschental) and left (Turtmanntal, Mattertal, Saastal, Binntal) bank. The orographic system is typically inner-Alpine, i.e. strongly characterized by impressively high and complex crystalline massifs which physically isolate the enclosed valleys from the surrounding regions. The northern edge of the region is defined by the Bernese Alps, which include several renowned Swiss 4000 + peaks (Jungfrau 4.158 m, Mönch 4.099 m, Finsteraarhorn 4.274 m, Aletschhorn 4.195 m) and the largest European glacier (Aletschgletscher), while the southern border towards Italy is dominated by the equally impressive and even higher Pennine Alps (Matterhorn/Cervino 4.478 m, Weisshorn 4.506 m, Mischabel-Dom 4.545 m, Monte Rosa-Dufourspitze 4.633 m). The eastern part of the region is partly occupied by the Lepontine Alps (Monte Leone 3.553 m, Blinnenhorn 3.373 m) and, towards north-east, the Uri Alps (Dammastock 3.630 m). The western side is instead the continuation of the mid Rhone course with surrounding valleys and peaks, which form the adjacent central Valais. In the upper Valais, the Rhone course and the related valley shape can be clearly distinguished between a lower and an upper section. The lower section, ca. 28 km from Leuk to Brig, is characterized by an EW orientation and a relatively large and flat valley floor of maximum width 1,2 km, surrounded by steep slopes on both the north and the south side (in this last case, some plateaus and terraces at high altitude are also present). The upper section, ca. 37 km from Brig to Obergoms, has a narrower valley floor (almost a gorge) which in the last section, above 1.300, opens up into a long-shaped, cultivated plateau.

Accessibility

Despite the inward Alpine location, the region Oberwallis has a rather high level of accessibility in comparison to similar regions. This is mainly due to the unique position at the crossroads of French, Swiss and Italian Alpine regions, which makes of the upper Valais a key node in the transalpine transport network. The latter particularly applies to the railway system, which intercepts between Brig and Visp the historical Simplon-Lötschberg axis (connecting Milan to Bern-Basel, as part of the EU Rhine-Alpine Corridor). The completion in 2007 of the new Lötschberg basis tunnel (34,6 km), as part of the Swiss AlpTransit project, has largely improved the connections between the region and the major urban poles on the Swiss plateau (1h Brig-Bern, around 2h Brig-Zurich). On the southern side, the Simplon tunnel (20 km) allows to reach Milan in around 2h. Along the Rhone valley, towards west, another important railway line connects Brig-Visp to Lausanne (1h30’) and Genève (2h20’). The narrow gauge Furka-Oberalp railway, on the eastern highlands, connects the region to Andermatt and Disentis/Mustér, though it is mainly used for touristic purposes and local commuting. Another narrow-gauge railway of mainly touristic relevance is the Visp-Zermatt line, climbing up through the Mattertal. The out-reaching road system is far less developed than railways, consisting mainly of single carriageways of historical importance but low capacity, often dealing with considerable elevations (Simplonpass towards Domodossola 2.005 m, Furkapass towards Andermatt 2.431 m, Grimselpass towards Brienz 2.165 m, Nufenenpass towards Airolo 2.478 m). Along the Rhone valley floor, downstream to Brig, the main road axis is represented by the H9 cantonal road (which includes the Simplon Road towards Italy). A major upgrade of the H9 is represented by the motorway A9, whose last section between Sierre and Brig (31,8 km) is expected to be completed by 2025. In terms of airport accessibility, the region is clearly disadvantaged, as the closest ones are indeed quite distant (Zurich and Genève around 200 km, Milan-Malpensa 150 km).

Socio-demographic profile

The Oberwallis region includes 63 municipalities grouped in 6 administrative districts, covering an area of 2.620,86 km² and hosting 83.100 inhabitants (2018). With an average population density of 31,6/km², the Oberwallis stands far below the averages of Canton Valais (65), the Swiss Alps too (76,5) and the whole Alpine region (74,6) too. However, due to the harsh topography, the regional population is mainly concentrated in the Rhone valley floor between Brig and Leuk, where significant densities up to 500–700/km² are normally reached into and around the main urban centres (Visp, Brig). Urban dwellers constitute, in fact, the majority of the population (78,7%). In quantitative terms, the Oberwallis contributes with its population for around one fourth to the overall Canton Valais (343.955 inhab. in 2018), thus matching the 24,9% of German-speaking population of Valais here residing. The region experienced an outstanding population growth (+41,2%) between 1961 (54.276 inhab.) and 2000 (76.625 inhab.), while in more recent years (2000–2017) this trend has relented significantly, although remaining positive (+8,2%). With regards to the age composition of the population, the Oberwallis is experiencing a moderate ageing trend as the share of >65 y.o. inhabitants increased from 16,5% in 1990 to 19,3% in 2017 (21,4% at the cantonal level). The majority of the regional population (60,8%) is indeed active population between 20–64 y.o. With regards to the foreign population, the Oberwallis has a relatively lower share (15%) compared to the whole Valais (23,2%). However, in major industrial and touristic poles such as Visp and Zermatt the same rises up to 21–22%. In general, the Oberwallis shows a rather dynamic demographic trend but strongly polarised between central locations (high growth rates, more active population and many foreigners) and peripheral areas (low growth rates, more elderly people and less foreigners).

Economic profile

The Oberwallis is an economically dynamic inner Alpine region, characterized by a well-established industrial base and a strong orientation towards the service sector and especially intensive tourism. The employment figures of Oberwallis are matching those of the hosting region Valais/Wallis, although the latter is slightly more pronounced towards the service sector (72% of employment compared to 79% in Oberwallis, 2015) while the first is stronger in industry (24% of employment compared to 22% in Valais, 2015). In terms of unemployment, Oberwallis exceeds the canton with 1% against 2,7%. However, the contribution of the regional economy to the cantonal GDP is limited to 26% (2016), thus suggesting a rather marginal role of the region compared to those in the central and lower Rhone valley—more accessible and thus more developed. The industrial sector in Oberwallis is particularly well developed, as its specific contribution to the regional GDP exceeds the employment (respectively 27% and 24%). The main driver of the regional industrial sector is the multinational chemicals and biotechnology company Lonza AG, founded in the region in the late XIX century and running since 1909 a large chemical plant in Visp (90 ha, 2600 employees, 70 labs and R&D departments). In the whole canton, Lonza and the other few multinational enterprises (Constellium, BASF, Syngenta) occupy 16% of the industry employees, while the rest is employed in around 300 SMEs—90% of which have less than 100 employees. Halfway between industry and services (but accounting for the latter), energy production is also a major economic activity in the region as it is in the whole canton: with 10 billions of kWh per year, the Valais/Wallis accounts for around 30% of the total hydropower generation of Switzerland. With regards to the proper service sector, a key role is played by trade and transport businesses (due to the strategic location on the Basel-Milan railway axis) as well as by tourism-related activities (35% of regional employment) such as accommodation, catering, retail and healthcare/well-being. Tourism, in particular, is a well-established and high-profile activity in the region since more than one century, with world famous top-class destinations for winter tourism such as Zermatt and Sass-Fee and wellness resorts such as Leukerbad. The high relevance of tourism is a common feature of the whole canton Valais/Wallis, which holds the second place as the most visited Swiss Alpine region after the Grisons with around 12 millions of nights (2014). The share of foreign arrivals is rather high (40%) compared to other tourism-based Alpine regions, with higher proportions of visitors from Asia and North America. However, a significant difference there exists between high-profile destinations such as those mentioned before, which are mainly based on international tourism and strongly focused on the winter season, and less relevant destinations of “extensive”, domestic and mostly summer-based tourism (such as the Lötschental and the Goms district). As regards to agriculture, a general declining trend can be observed in Oberwallis too. Although the employment share in agriculture is a bit higher here than the Alpine average (respectively 6% and 3%), its contribution to the regional GDP is limited to just 2%. Around 60% of the utilised agricultural area (UUA) of the region is still concentrated in mountain areas, where extensive cattle farming is the most diffused activity.

Environmental profile

The inner location of Oberwallis, stretched between two of the widest and highest mountain ranges of the Alps, makes the quality as well as the role of natural environment particularly relevant, much more than in middle and lower Valais. However, the environment is here strongly influenced by “extremes” uses (or lack of) of the land, from the densely urbanised Rhone valley floor to the vast inhabited highlands above 3000 m. These extremes are also readable in terms of climate, as the Rhone valley and the surrounding slopes are characterized by a warm and dry climate—almost Mediterranean and common to many inner valleys in the south-western Alps—while the narrow side valleys and the highlands are subject to a cold Alpine climate. The resulting great diversity of ecosystems and landscapes is widely recognised and partially protected through extensive nature reserves. The northern part of the region, i.e. the mountainous area on the right side of the Rhone, is almost entirely included within the UNESCO Natural World Heritage site “Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn”. Established in 2011, the protected area covers 824 km² of Alpine highlands of high ecological and geological importance, including the largest glaciated area in western Eurasia and the largest glacier in the Alps, the Aletsch Glacier. A second, national-relevant protected area is the Naturpark Pfyn-Finges, a regional park of 276 km² located between Gampel and Sierre, stretching from the Rhone valley bed (500 m) up to the Weisshorn massif (4100 m). The core zone of the nature reserve is the Pfynwald or Bois de Finges, a 20 km² wide scots pine forest, the largest contiguous of its kind in both Switzerland and the Alps too. The ancient cultural landscape of the rural highlands in the upper Rhone valley is partially included in the Landschaftspark Binntal, a regional park of 181 km² first “informally” established by local inhabitants in 1964 and officials recognised and protected since 2002. Besides these protected areas, a network of small-sized and widespread nature reserves of national relevance can be also found, especially in or nearby the Rhone valley floor. For what concerns Oberwallis, around 80% of these reserves are dry meadows and pastures located on sunny and harsh slopes at medium altitudes, mostly on the right side of the Rhone, while the remaining 20% is constituted by glacier forelands. The vegetation pattern reflects the ecosystem and climate diversity in the region, with broadleaves such as oak and birch trees concentrated in the Rhone valley floor and on lower sunny slopes and coniferous at higher altitudes. With regards to coniferous, a particular feature of the region is the extensive presence of scots pines at medium altitudes, between 500 m (valley bed) and 1500 m). However, most of these scots pine forests are highly threatened by climate change, as it has been observed in the last three to four decades an increasing mortality rate with spontaneous replacement by broadleaves.

Spatial development trends and challenges

In Valais/Wallis, and in particular in the inner Oberwallis, spatial development is strongly influenced by the harsh topography and the lack of flatland suitable for settlements and economic activities. The Cantonal Spatial Development Concept Plan (CCDT) distinguishes among different types of spaces across the region, such as urban spaces (either small settlements and agglomerations, including transport nodes), the multifunctional space in the Rhone valley bed (devoted to intensive agriculture and de-centralised, inter-municipal industrial zones), hillsides (cultural landscapes of rural matrix, with hamlets and limited touristic offer) and alpine resorts (intensively used highlands, including ski station and touristic centres). The most critical area with regards to spatial development is certainly the flatland along the Rhone valley bed, which does represent around 6% of the cantonal territory but hosts 70% of the population as well as most of the economic activities in the industrial and service sector. The management of land use conflicts generated by the overlapping of aforementioned urban spaces and multifunctional spaces does represent, therefore, a key challenge not only for the spatial development of the Rhone valley flatland, but for the whole region. Different land uses are indeed concentrated and compressed in the tiny flatland strip along the Rhone, among which urbanisation and peri-urbanisation (including commercial and industrial zones), intensive agriculture requiring wide and continuous surfaces, few ecological corridors to be preserved and the necessary flooding zones along the Rhone and tributaries. Many of the strategies identified by the CCDT with regards to spatial development in the Rhone valley floor are directed towards the containment of urbanisation through optimisation of the existing spaces/possibilities. In major urban centres and agglomerations such as the Brig-Visp-Naters agglomeration, the main economic engine of Oberwallis, inner development is considered a key priority to limit further land take and preserve the not yet urbanised spaces in the valley. Either in agglomerations and minor centres, as well as in de-centralised commercial and industrial zones, densification through infilling, renovation or brownfield reuse have to be prioritised. Financial incentives and planning measures are implemented to help municipalities to use and properly manage the land reserves and building zones. A particular relevance is assigned to the further development and optimisation of the so-called poles of economic development (PDE), i.e. existing economic clusters or new activity zones to be implemented on brownfield sites. Seven PDEs have been identified along the Rhone valley: Monthey-Collombey, Martigny, Sion, Sierre, Steg, Visp and Brig-Gils (the last three in Oberwallis). The establishment of new industrial and commercial activities in these PDEs should be done at first through densification of the available reserves, while the extension of building zones is only possible under specific circumstances and requires adequate ecological compensation measures. The improvement of the existing ecological network, especially in semi-natural spaces under pressure by growing urbanisation as well as intensive agricultural uses, is also considered as a key objective in a well-balanced spatial development of the urban and economic backbone of the region.

5.2 Site Overview

LocationThe aluminium smelter is located in the upper Rhone valley, roughly halfway between the regional centres of Visp and Leuk. In particular, the site lies in the middle of the flat valley floor along the orographic right of the Rhone, 300–400 meters away from the steep slopes of the surrounding mountains on both northern (Chistehorn 2700 m) and southern sides (Signalhorn 2910 m). Physically detached from the nearby villages of Gampel-Steg and Niedergesteln, the site is thus fully embedded into the intensive agricultural landscape of the valley floor, right in the centre of the cultivated flatland known as Stegerfeld, bordered by the Galdi canal on the north and the Rhone on the south. In terms of topography, the site has no direct relationship with the surrounding reliefs, but its specific location is instead indirectly influenced by the spatial constraints provided by the mountains—i.e. the functional proximity and density in the valley floor. A rather good accessibly to the industrial site is provided by either regional road corridors, such as the H9 cantonal road running parallel to the Rhone (currently being upgraded as motorway), and local roads, such as the A509 towards the touristic Lötsch valley. The site is also located nearby and directly connected with the international railway line Geneva-Lausanne-Milan, which runs along the Rhone valley from Brig (Simplon tunnel) to Villeneuve (Fig. 7.85).

Background

The aluminium smelter of Steg was established in 1961–62 by the Swiss Aluminium-Industrie AG (AIAG). That company was at the time a major aluminium manufacturer in Switzerland, with roots in the Valais/Wallis region. Founded in 1887 in Zurich by a group of entrepreneurs, among which Paul-Luis Toussaint Héroult, one of the key figures behind the modern electrolysis process, AIAG began its activities in 1888 in Neuhausen am Rheinfall, near Schaffhausen. The transfer of production to the inner Alpine region of Valais/Wallis occurred in 1908 through the set-up of a large aluminium smelter in Chippis, motivated by the local availability of cheap hydropower from the Rhone and its glacial tributaries. A second facility with rolling mills was then established in 1928 in the nearby centre of Sierre. In late 1950 s it became clear the Chippis smelter was not able alone to sustain the growing market demand of aluminium finished products, and especially the lack of available space around the site was limiting any further expansion. The Stegerfeld agricultural plain in the upper Rhone valley, near the twin villages of Steg and Gampel, was thus identified as a suitable area for the establishment of a new smelter facility, which came in operation in spring 1962 (Fig. 7.85). The strategic location at the crossroads of transalpine railway corridors between France, central Switzerland and Italy allowed the smelter to be constantly supplied with essential raw materials, such as aluminium oxide (from Italy and France), cryolite and fluorides (from Swiss chemical industries) and anodes (from Italy in the first years, then manufactured directly on-site). The huge amount of energy needed for the electrolysis process was generated within the region through seven hydropower station managed by AIAG subsidiaries Rhonewerke AG and Ernen-Illsee-Turtmann. The smelter was supplied via a 65 kV powerline, and the energy converted (rectified) on-site into a direct current of 475 V and 100.000 A, to be used in the electrolysis process. At first, 96 electrolysis furnaces of 100.000 A were installed, each with a capacity of 260 t/y of molten aluminium. As a brand-new facility, though small-sized compared to similar ones built in the same period, the Steg smelter was designed according to the very modern criteria, such as automation and full interconnection of the different working spaces/phases. In 1963 the owning company AIAG is transformed into Alusuisse-Schweizerische Aluminium AG. A plan to further expand the Steg smelter was then developed, leading to the addition of a second electrolysis hall and the subsequent upgrade of the plant capacity from the original 25.000 t/y to 45.000 t/y. In 1973 Alusuisse proceeded to take over the regional-based Lonza chemical enterprise, with key facilities located just a few km from Steg, in Gampel and Visp. The 1970 s were also, and mostly, signed by the environmental scandal involving Alusuisse known as the “war of fluorine”, in which the disastrous effects of pollution due to fluorine emissions were publicly reported by workers, farmers and local communities. Especially the orchards and vineyards in the Rhone valley, as well as the local water sources, were severely polluted by aluminium smelting. After the company’s reached its peak of production of 800.000 t in 1980, a restructuring and modernisation program was set up. Outdated plants had to be closed and/or downsized, while semi-finished aluminium production facilities had to be modernised and privileged. According to this program, the Steg smelter was refurbished and upgraded to 48–50.000 t/y in the view of the upcoming stop of primary aluminium production at the older Chippis plant. In 1990 Alusuisse is transformed into Alusisse-Lonza Holding AG, a group with 30.000 employees, of which 5.800 in Switzerland only. However, soon in 1998 the chemical activities of Lonza were spin off and the aluminium branch was renamed Algroup and, already in 2000, taken over by the Canadian multinational Alcan, a worldwide leading aluminium producer. The Swiss plants of Steg, Sierre and Chippis were then assigned to a subsidiary called Alcan Aluminium Valais. In 2004, after the acquisition of the France-based Pechiney Group, Alcan became the first aluminium producer worldwide. Optimisation through concentration and restructuring became thus essential to ensure an efficient production worldwide. Many of the smelters managed by Alcan around the globe produced aluminium at a cost 70% lower than the factories in Valais. The rising energy costs in the region, as well as the expiration of the energy supply contract, led Alcan to decide for the definitive stop of primary aluminium production (electrolysis plant) at Steg in 2006. Following the takeover of Alcan by the British-Australian multinational Rio Tinto in 2007, the still operating foundry in Steg (130 workers) as well as the rolling mills in Sierre were transferred in 2011 to Constellium, the former Alcan Engineered Product division. As result, around 70% of the Steg site became unused and wasted. The Canton of Valais and Constellium agreed upon regeneration measures for the former smelter site and, together with the Rio Tinto subsidiary Metallwerke Refonda AG, set up a plan for the site reclamation and rehabilitation in 2015. Heavy soil pollution with fluorine (13 t accumulated) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (around 1 t) became the focus of first reclamation measures, especially on the area occupied by the former electrolysis plant and the anodes factory.

Current use and future plans

Besides necessary depolluting measures, the agreement between the Canton and Rio Tinto also included the sell and/or rent of land (lots) and cleaned-up buildings to local small and medium businesses and property developers. The functional and adaptive reuse of as much as possible of the existing structures and spaces was considered by the two parties as a key priority. To date, a few companies already moved on the reclaimed brownfield site, among which Theler AG (20 employees), Swissredux (30), Plasco (25) and Schollglas (40). Theler AG, in particular, has occupied most of the former electrolysis halls and related aprons and is planning to extend its activities over the greenfield (partially already reclaimed) on the north of the site. Other companies are instead hosted in renovated former industrial buildings (workshops and warehouses) or newly built structures (e.g. Schollglas). The many vacant lots and buildings within the site perimeter are still owned by Metallwerke Refonda, while the remaining aluminium production (foundry and finishing) and related infrastructures (railway yard, road network and site access) are property of Constellium. The fragmentation of the site ownership as well as of the current uses (or not) of buildings and lots make the perspective of a complete transformation of the site still wide open. The aim of the different owners, as well as of the local and regional institutions, is to foster the gradual and productive-oriented redevelopment of the brownfield site (21 ha) and, eventually, of the adjoining greenfields (14 ha). This approach follows and complies with the Cantonal strategy of developing a few key PDEs through the improvement of existing industrial platforms (e.g. Visp, Monthey) as well as the productive recycling of large-scale brownfield sites—among which the former aluminium factories in Steg, Sierre, Chippis, Martigny and the disused oil refinery in Collombey-Muraz. The long-term management of the Steg site reactivation process, including a plan to attract new investors and developers, is currently in the hand of the regional development company RW Oberwallis.

Main sources of information for the regional and site profiles:

Skype interview with Tamar Hosennen (project manager RW Oberwallis, regional development), 12.06.2018
face-to-face interview with Renzo Theler (project manager Theler AG), 13.08.2018
face-to-face interview with Raphael Matter (production manager Constellium Valais SA), 14.08.2018
CCDT Valais/Wallis (canton territorial development plan)
“L’économie valaisanne” (regional economic profile, 2014)
Praxisbeispiele «Kohärente Raumentwicklung»—Region Oberwallis (paper by Regiosuisse, 2018)
“Entwicklung Industriegebiet SteNiGa” (site development plan by RW Oberwallis, 2016)
“Steg aluminium smelter, Valais Switzerland” (document by Rio Tinto—Legacy Management case study, 2013)
Wipf H., Oehler R. (1964), “Die Aluminium-Hütte der Schweizerischen Aluminium AG in Steg (Wallis): Ueberblick”, in Schweizerische Bauzeitung, 82 (6), 85–94.
BFS/Cantonal statistics (elaborated)
local newspapers (2016–2018)

5.3 Site Preliminary Study

The attached site preliminary study is based on both single and comparative analysis of six corrected aerial photographs (orthophotos), covering the time frame 1958–2014. The selection of suitable photos has been done by considering a temporal distance among each others of approximately 10 years, although this was not always possible due to the limited availability of the material. The selected orthophotos refers to the following years (source in brackets): 1958 (swisstopo), 1972 (swisstopo), 1981 (swisstopo), 1993 (swisstopo), 2005 (swisstopo), 2015 (swisstopo). The collected material provides a spatially detailed and temporarily complete coverage of the site and its surroundings. In particular, since the first selected year (1958) shows the area prior to the establishment of the industrial site, the complete series allowed to understand to a great detail the impact of industry on the surrounding landscape. Indeed, the most relevant changes occurred in the surroundings rather than on the site itself—due to the recent origin.

1958—The aluminium smelter is not existing yet. The flat valley floor on the north side of the river Rhone is occupied by cultivated fields and small farms. The few relevant linear infrastructures are the canalised Rhone in the south, the curved Galdi canal and an irregular farm road crossing the fields from west to east. At the intersection of the Galdi canal and the farm road, a newly built road ending up in the fields suggests that the site preparation for the smelter is already started. Woodlands are only present along the Rhone banks and around some flooded (abandoned?) gravel pits along the river.

1972—The smelter has been built in the middle of the flat valley floor. It consists of several buildings with different footprints, among which the long electrolysis halls stand out. New infrastructures have been also created for the purpose of the factory, such as the railway line crossing the Rhone (departing from the Simplon railway line on the south) and a large access road on the site west side. Other smelter-related structures added in the surroundings are the settling ponds next to the Rhone, a soccer field (for workers?) and some workers houses along the Galdi canal. It can be noticed a gradual abandonment of those cultivated fields and crops attached to the factory perimeter, as well as some rewilding spots (shrublands) on the northern edge of the site and on the eastern side (abandoned farms?). Some agricultural roads have been created to support the changed crops accessibility.

1981—The industrial site is almost unchanged, except for a small building addition on the east side and the extension of paved open surfaces along towards the site edges. The abandonment process affecting the agricultural fields and crops around the site is ongoing, which suggests that part of this land has been probably taken over by the smelter too (but not yet developed). However, while extensive fallow land including rewilding spots can be noticed on the north and south-east of the site, some “regenerated” crops are now visible on the south and north-east edges, thus indicating a temporary use of agricultural surfaces. Many shrublands and woodlands are emerging around the site, on abandoned fields and along the water infrastructures (Rhone and Galdi).

1993—The factory site is still unchanged, especially concerning the builtscape. Several leftover green spaces along the factory perimeter are gradually turning in shrubland/woodland through spontaneous rewilding. The location and pattern of such spaces creates a sort of unintentional green belt around the factory core, thus separating it from the surrounding agricultural fields. The process of crops regeneration, already started in the previous phase, is expanding towards fallow land previously used for agriculture. New crops can be observed on the northern side of the smelter, towards the Galdi canal, as well as on the south-east side. A clear demarcation between intensively used or reused agricultural surfaces (crops) and leftover rewilding woodlands is increasingly visible. Around the smelter, new industrial zones are gradually developing former agricultural land.

2005—The agricultural fields on the north side of the smelter are turned into a large construction site, which relates to the opening of the Niedergesteln side portal within the Lötschberg-Basistunnel project. The construction site extends from the foot of the mountain slope on the north-east of the smelter towards the railway curve near the entrance of it. Besides that, no significant changes can be observed in the surroundings. Within and along the factory perimeter, however, a couple of small-scale industrial buildings have been added on a previously fallow land. The spontaneous and discontinuous green belt grown on leftover spaces within the site perimeter is subject to some kind of maintenance, looking therefore as a green buffer to mitigate the impact of the plant on the surrounding landscape.

2014—As the construction works for the Niedergesteln portal are suspended for economic reasons, the massive construction site is dismantled and the land turned to the former use. Crops are recreated (for the third time!) and a narrow strip of discontinuous woodland is kept to separate the crops from the factory site. Major changes have occurred also within the site perimeter, as many key buildings have been completely or partially demolished (electrolysis hall and anode plant), while some others have been expanded through add-ons. The downsizing of activities on the site has also led to the partial abandonment of some inner open spaces, such as a large portion of the eastern edge. The green buffer established in the previous phase is then less effective. The small industrial zones around the site are growing by size and density.

5.4 Photographic (field) Study

The field trip took place on 11–17.08.2018. Two different permissions for the site access were provided in advance by the two major owners: Theler AG, which holds the former electrolysis hall and most of the eastern portion of the site, and Constellium, which manages the still partially active aluminium casting plant and its premises. With regards to Theler (around 80% of the site), complete freedom of movement was ensured except for building interiors, while Constellium provided a guided tour of the area with photographic restriction to the interiors. During the multiple-day site visit, the representatives of the two owning companies were also interviewed: Mr. Renzo Theler for Theler AG and Mr. Raphael Matter for Constellium. The site exploration occurred mostly on foot, due to the limited size, while for the surroundings (and especially the high viewpoints) the car had to be necessarily used. Selected photographs include overviews of the aluminium smelter from both the mountains and the valley floor, detailed views of the builtscape within the site (including open spaces and infrastructures) and views of the surrounding agricultural and urban landscape (Fig. 7.86–7.109).

5.5 Site Advanced Study

Landscape structure

The landscape structure of the aluminium smelter is rather simple in its components and their relationships, mainly because of the site recent origin as well as due to its particular location along the median axis of the valley floor. The latter makes topography less relevant, as reliefs are quite distanced from the core site. What really influences the overall structure is instead the detachment of the industrial site structure from the underlying, previous agricultural landscape. The smelter, originally designed as an autonomous productive platform connected to nearby infrastructures by minimal functional links (e.g. railway), has become gradually more permeable to the surroundings, especially after its downsizing. The hard paved surfaces are only limited to the main buildings and adjacent lots, while many previously hard surfaces are now softer thanks to underuse and/or abandonment and related rewilding processes (front and back ends of the electrolysis halls, silos area, former anodes plant site). Along the site borders and beyond, fragmented small-scale woodlands and shrublands are contributing to blur the structural contrast between the site and its surroundings. Accordingly, the linear water infrastructures running along the valley floor—i.e. the Rhone on the south of the site and the Galdi canal forming an arch on the north—do represent the ‘real’ edges, within which a developing landscape structure can be identified.

Landscape systems

The outlined site transformation follows and integrates the indications of existing local and regional plans and regulations, as expressed by the different site owners and planning institutions. In particular, the transformation takes into account the site strategic development guidelines developed by RM Oberwallis, which identify both the former smelter site and the agricultural surroundings as industrial development zone. The functional adaption and refurbishment of the core productive site is therefore integrated with a flexible management strategy for the surrounding areas, including temporary nature-oriented land uses and increased permanent ecological connectivity. The transformation process is structured on three systems: the “backbone”, which addresses the infrastructural upgrade of the core site through punctual demolitions and the development of a new mobility grid; the “borders”, which increases the functionality of outer areas, including ecological compensation zones and large-scale connectivity between blue and green infrastructures; the “core”, which focuses on the productive densification of the former smelter area and its immediate surroundings. By integrating and enhancing the functional relationships between the former industrial site and its surroundings, the proposed transformation is able to generate a highly flexible productive landscape in which different activities and uses are coexisting (either temporarily or permanently), while taking advantage of relational proximity.

6 Intervention taxonomy

The richness of information so far collected and produced for each case study allows to perform a variety of comparative reviews according to specific questions. To which extent the transformation of a single site is influenced by the regional socioeconomic and spatial development conditions? Key factors such as the state of the site, the current quality of the open spaces and buildings, the ownership and land situation, the location, etc. are they always relevant and/or determinant? What does the resilience of a certain landscape structure depend on? Does the transformative potential depend more on built structures or open spaces? While these and other questions will find their answer in the following conclusive chapters, this last section of Chapter 07 specifically aims to identify and define the common results across the heterogeneous case system investigated, with clear reference to the tested transformation strategies. The two main criteria used to select the case studies, i.e. representativeness and heterogeneity, allowed to work with four very different site typologies and regional contexts as well. For each site, a foreseeable, well-grounded transformation has been outlined through a systemic design model, on the basis of the results of fieldwork analysis and also taking in consideration the programmatic inputs from local stakeholders and the regional and local contextual conditions. Accordingly, a set of concrete interventions has been ‘spontaneously’ generated. Although apparently strongly site-specific, these transformative interventions are indeed shared, yet differently interpreted, among the sites. By comparing the proposed interventions in all the four sites, a taxonomy or classification of interventions can be outlined, a one which includes both physical and functional/programmatic elements. The resulting categories of intervention can be described as:

productive refurbishment, i.e. the adaptive reuse of existing spatial elements (buildings, open spaces, infrastructures) for productive purposes (manufacturing, business-oriented). A common feature of all the case studies is indeed the more or less explicit will by stakeholders and communities to maintain if not improve the productive function of currently underused or abandoned industrial sites. The form in which this productive refurbishment might take place varies according to the site-specific features and conditions. In the case of the former aluminium smelter of Steg-Hothenn, the steelworks of Le Cheylas and, to some extent, the Cantoni cotton mill of Ponte Nossa, the site is gradually reactivated through a process of adaptive fragmentation, in which the setup of new small-scale industrial and commercial firms occurs according to the immediate availability of spaces. In the case of the disused cement plant in Schwoich, the specific configuration of the site as well as the ownership situation favour instead a reconversion/update of the existing industry—the cement plant is dismantled and ‘returned’ to the quarries while the site is prepared for a new concrete paved stones facility. The productive refurbishment strategy works better when the existing spatial and landscape structure allows greater flexibility, both in terms of space and time. It is the case of heavy industries with ‘platform-like’ productive sites, characterized by large and empty halls with poor but functional architectural quality and key infrastructures such as railway tracks. In both Steg and Le Cheylas sites, most of the former industrial buildings are indeed suitable for a cheap reutilisation and quick parcelling of indoor spaces. With some differences, the same also applies to the Cantoni cotton mill, whose imposing and architecturally valuable buildings are also quite flexible due to the size and continuity of indoor spaces—although requiring more efforts for structural amelioration. Ideally, the final result of such a productive refurbishment should resemble the previous site structure. In the case of heavy industries with high availability of wide open and indoor spaces and (often) railway connection the scenario is more likely that of an industrial business park, i.e. an agglomerate of SMEs sharing key services such as transport, energy, surveillance, etc. In the case of big-scale traditional ‘light’ industries, such as the Cantoni site, the productive refurbishment will probably lead more to a business ‘campus’, i.e. a small-scale business park in which the relational and intellectual proximity between firms is more relevant than infrastructural efficiency;
environmental regeneration, which entails the mitigation of the current impacts of brownfield sites as well as the future integration of related new developments in the surrounding environmental context. A striking aspect that emerges in all the proposed transformations is the high yet hidden potential of ecological upgrade in the specific case of mountain brownfields, mainly due to their permeable/porous landscape structure and spatial footprint. In most of the analysed cases, this upgrade mostly occurs within the ‘borders’ system, i.e. the scattered network of micro and macro spaces which shapes the relations between the core site and its surroundings—or the impacts of the first on the second, assuming an ‘ecological’ perspective. Interventions addressing environmental regeneration rely indeed on the real footprint of the sites, which largely exceeds the builtscape extending over the many seemingly unrelated open spaces around. This aspect is clearly evident especially in sites with an ancient origin and developed in close connection to natural resources and topography, such as the Eiberg cement plant with its extensive (post)mining landscape or the Cantoni cotton mill interwoven with its complex waterscape. Regenerative interventions do often address different issues and thus different spaces at the same time. A first one, common to all the analysed case study sites, is the improvement of ecological connectivity at either small and big scale, within and around the site. The location of these sites along interrupted or impoverished ecological corridors, such as in the evident cases of Ponte Nossa, Schwoich and Le Cheylas, ‘naturally’ favours restoration measures in this sense. A second kind of intervention is the environmental repurpose, either temporary or permanent, of wastelands and abandoned/leftover open spaces around the site built core. This is particularly relevant in those sites with evident spatial constraints connected to intensively used surroundings (urban or agricultural), where ecological interventions are necessarily concentrated on tiny strips of land while having a key role in balancing the existing and future land uses. The ‘buffering’ examples of Steg, Le Cheylas and partially Ponte Nossa goes right in this direction. A third category intervention is the reclamation of polluted or ecologically compromised areas, which occurs both within the productive site itself and, more often, in the altered landscape of the surroundings. Reclamation measures are occurring more frequently in formerly heavy industrial sites, where past industrial activities were responsible for a significant alteration of the soil and water system. It is the case of the EAF dust landfill and slag dump in Le Cheylas, located outside the site perimeter, or the former anode factory area in Steg, located within the site perimeter. Reclamation also applies to extensive ecological alteration without significant pollution presence, such as in the abandoned quarries of Schwoich;
cultural reuse, i.e. the ‘cultural reclamation’ of existing built and open spaces of industrial origin according to their symbolic, aesthetic or formal qualities. Very popular in dynamic and over-developed urban contexts, the cultural reinterpretation of disused industrial sites is often perceived in the analysed mountain contexts as a plan B for economically weak sites, where productive refurbishment failed or cannot be implemented. The proposed transformation, which always follow and integrate the needs and plans of the local community, have demonstrated that the cultural reuse of Alpine brownfields is more likely to occur where specific contextual conditions meet specific typologies of sites. With regards to the firsts, it is the case of e.g. old industrial regions seeking alternative socioeconomic development paths, such as in Ponte Nossa, or peri-urban touristic and recreation regions where mass tourism will never develop, such as in Schwoich. Not by chance, the typologies of sites more suitable for cultural reuse are those with an ancient origin and a rooted, stronger integration of the existing industrial structures in the surrounding cultural landscape, such as textile mills and pre-1900 cement plants. Cultural reuse interventions might work actively on the creative refurbishment of indoor spaces as well as outer spaces of particular architectonic and landscape values, such as in the former Cantoni cotton mill, or rather playing around the visual integration of imposing industrial landmarks, such as in the case of Eiberg cement pant (e.g. the clinker silo and the raw material bunker included in the Glasibach wetland park). In any case, the cultural-led reinterpretation of existing structures is strongly related to the heritage value assigned to them—not always matching between institutional and local perspectives—or their impact on the landscape. For instance, heavy industries such as those represented by the sites in Steg and Le Cheylas have a far more limited impact on the surrounding landscape than the other two mentioned sites.

These three categories of intervention represent an attempt to group, or classify, the different ways in which transformation has been outlined in/on the previous case study sites. Each category brings a set of specific and easily replicable interventions, which often overlaps and interacts in a single site transformation process, both in space (structure) and time (systems). The most interesting, if not striking, result of the testing phase is indeed the fact that a certain degree of spatial and temporal flexibility has to be ensured, to allow a widest possible range (or mix) of interventions to be implemented. The three landscape transformation systems seem to provide the conceptual space for this to happen. In the following chapter, the results of the case study analysis and the testing phase will be critically compared and merged with those derived from the mapping and characterising phases.

Notes

1.
The six sites per typology already used in the typological study have been prioritised in the selection of potential case study sites.
2.
Rural-industrial regions have been totally excluded from the range of suitable regional types due to the limited number and impact of brownfield sites in this specific context. This makes the potential trajectories of reuse and transformation rather different from the other regional types, which are indeed characterized by higher densities of sites and more pressure for redevelopment.
3.
For example, 50 mm lens are preferred as they most closely resemble the human eye perspective and depth of field.
4.
Such definition of landscape structure has been developed by the author by integrating different understandings of the same concept from landscape ecology (Farina 2000) and geographical studies (Turri 2001), as well as by considering the definition of “industrial landscape” based on functional interactions provided by Borsi (1975, 1978).
5.
Acronym of Suddivisione Orografica Internazionale Unificata del Sistema Alpino (International Standardised Mountain Subdivision of the Alps), an updated classification system of the Alps based on transnational geographic and toponomastic principles, designed and proposed by Sergio Marazzi (Marazzi 2005).
6.
Acronym of Nomenclature des unités territoriales statistiques (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics), the EU standard for referencing the subdivision of countries for statistical purposes.

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Marcello Modica

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Modica, M. (2022). Testing. In: Alpine Industrial Landscapes. RaumFragen: Stadt – Region – Landschaft. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-37681-9_7

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-37681-9_7
Published: 07 June 2022
Publisher Name: Springer VS, Wiesbaden
Print ISBN: 978-3-658-37680-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-658-37681-9
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Testing

Abstract

1 Framework

2 Case Study I: SPZ Zementwerk Eiberg/A

2.1 Regional Overview

2.2 Site Overview

2.3 Site Preliminary Study

2.4 Photographic (field) Study

2.5 Site Advanced Study

3 Case Study II: Ascometal-Winoa, Le Cheylas / F

3.1 Regional Overview

3.2 Site Overview

3.3 Site Preliminary Study

3.4 Photographic (field) Study

3.5 Site Advanced Study

4 Case Study III: Cantoni ITC, Ponte Nossa / I

4.1 Regional Overview

4.2 Site Overview

4.3 Site Preliminary Study

4.4 Photographic (field) Study

4.5 Site Advanced Study

5 Case Study IV: Constellium, Steg-Hohtenn / CH

5.1 Regional Overview

5.2 Site Overview

5.3 Site Preliminary Study

5.4 Photographic (field) Study

5.5 Site Advanced Study

6 Intervention taxonomy

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