The portion of the Ruhrgebiet where Mont-Cenis is located was bucolically rebaptized as Emscher Park about 10 years ago. The IBA established development guidelines emphasizing the use of ecological approaches and new technology in building projects. The thrust of its mission was to renaturalize the landscape, renovate housing sites, clean up polluted rivers and land, and transform major industrial sites into recreational or cultural venues. The changes in the region within the past 10 years are dramatic. The cities within Emscher Park are now linked by a chain of parks that runs along the Emscher River which, like the Ruhr, was cleaned and stocked with wildlife.
Old factories are now galleries and concert halls.
Perhaps the most impressive industrial renovation is the site of a former factory at Zollverein, also to the west. A temple of brick architecture, the central factory building was turned into an industrial design museum by British architect Lord Norman Foster, Hon. faia. Here, the latest and slickest industrial products contrast with massive rusted valves and ovens, all still in place. Outside, the public is attracted to the area by exhibition spaces, cafes, and restaurants located among the acres of outbuildings, mine shafts, and pipes that surround the factory. The Mont-Cenis Academy, completed last summer, is the organization's major accomplishment.