This issue of a+u magazine features Hombroich. Located between Düsseldorf and Cologne, on the banks of the Erft River, Hombroich is a place for art and culture that covers an area of more than 60 ha.
First opened in 1984, Hombroich is situated near lignite mines, on sites sandwiched between farmlands and railroad tracks and stretching from southeast to northwest. Toward the south is Museum Island, a lush green art park dotted with pavilions, and toward the north is a former NATO missile base, Raketenstation, that has been transformed into spaces for artistic production. In addition to these 2 sites, Museum Island and Raketenstation, this issue also features SpacePlaceLab, an ambitious expansion project conceived from 2003 to 2008, and SpacePlacePractice, a series of regional scale proposals, triggered by events near the site in the 2020s, such as climate change disasters and the shutting down of open-cast lignite mining. What started as a pursuit of the utopian dream of &lart parallel to nature&r in an &lurban backyard landscape,&r
Hombroich is now being confronted by the challenges of our century with extreme urgency and relevance – which similarly raises the question, &lhow can our way of life exist in parallel with nature?&r
