Coal mine in Belguim becomes community hub
The Winterslag Mine in Genk, Belgium has become a shining example of mine reclamation as the former coal mine has been reborn as a modernist community space, with high schools, movie theatres and hiking tracks taking the place of old mining infrastructure on the border of Belgium and Germany.
The website Gizmodo reported on the reclamation of the mine and photos of what the coal mine that opened in 1917 and operated until 1988 looks like today can be found by clicking here.
Now called the C-Mine, the property has been completely transformed. The processing facilities, factories, and even the underground tunneling system have been transformed. The site now includes a movie complex, a high school, with the former slag heap turned into a hiking area. The mine’s old ventilation shaft has been transformed into an “experience space,” where people can explore a maze of underground tunnels and climb to the top of the 180-ft-tall ventilation tower into an observation deck.
“It takes visitors through a range of different disorienting spaces, starting with an archive that carries out the memory of the mine-industry,” the architects said.
These are said to include ‘atmospheric spaces” where sounds and images of the mine’s formers life fill the air, as well as mine-specific art installations.
The ‘unusual creative space’ of the C-Mine is becoming a burgeoning tourist attraction for the town, with thousands of people visiting the space each year.
