Boudewijn Wijnacker – Master Thesis Human Geography s0601039 - Radboud University Nijmegen, November 2011 Revitalizing a once forgotten past? How the Arnhem Nijmegen City Region can use its industrial DNA to contribute to spatial, economic and tourist development This report is written as a Master Thesis for the Master specialization ‘Urban and Cultural Geography’ from the master Human Geography at the Radboud University Nijmegen, Faculty of Management. Furthermore this research is written on behalf of the Arnhem Nijmegen City Region and the Regional Tourist Board (RBT-KAN). Title of Report Revitalizing a once forgotten past? How the Arnhem Nijmegen City Region can use its industrial DNA to contribute to spatial, economic and tourist development Cover photo Cover map Current state of former Coberco factory, Arnhem 2011. Map of the Arnhem Nijmegen City Region Author Organizations Boudewijn Roderick Emery Wijnacker MA Arnhem Nijmegen City Region and Regional Tourist Board (RBT-KAN) Student number Photography 0601039 Boudewijn Wijnacker 2011 Tutors Radboud University Tutors Organizations Drs. Jackie van de Walle Drs. Eva Verhoeven – Arnhem Nijmegen City Region Dr. Stefan Dormans – Second reader Drs. René Kwant – Arnhem Nijmegen City Region / Regional Tourist Board Date and place Nijmegen, November 2011. 2 Index Preface 4 Introduction 5 Chapter 1. What’s smoking in the City Region? 28 Chapter 2. Reawakening the history of the common man? 58 Chapter 3. Exposing your industrial DNA? 105 Chapter 4. Final Conclusion 116 References 121 Appendices 129 3 Preface As a Master student Human Geography at the Radboud University Nijmegen, I was stimulated to find an internship in the second half of the year that would suit my preferences and qualities. After graduating in November 2010 as a Master student Cultural Geography at the Radboud University Nijmegen, my interests soon focused on the historical and urban questions that dealt with cities and urban cultures. As a cultural historian, the terrain of urban and cultural geography is a discipline of renewed insights: evolving a sole historical focus into a more practical and day-to-day attitude, focused on issues that are of relevance for society as a whole. That is what makes this specialization so special in my opinion: knowledge from the present, derived by the past. This terrain of historical urban and cultural geography became the base on which this research was founded on. From February on till September 2011, I followed an internship at the Arnhem Nijmegen City Region, an organization that deals with infrastructural, economic and residential issues for the Arnhem Nijmegen City Region as a geographical area. Therefore, this research was focused on this specific region. In cooperation with the Regional Tourist Board (RBT-KAN), the focus of this research was determined. Since there was a need from both the Arnhem Nijmegen City Region and the Regional Tourist Board to create plans for a so-called ‘Regionaal Beeldverhaal’ – a concept discussed in the introduction of this research – this research was directed towards the reutilization of industrial heritage and the impact this process possesses on economic, spatial and tourist progress. What opportunities arise for the Arnhem Nijmegen City Region to use its industrial DNA for economic, spatial and tourist prosperity? Closely linked to this question is the redevelopment of many deserted factory complexes that are widely spread across the region as part of the region’s historically grown identity. Together with my two tutors from the Arnhem Nijmegen City Region – Drs. Eva Verhoeven – and the Regional Tourist Board – Drs. René Kwant – I came up with the focus of this research. I want to thank them for their inspiration, their guidance and their effort in assisting me with this research. Since this research mainly deals with qualitative issues as identity, cultural history and regional tourist policy, interviews were thought to fill in the methodological needs. I want to thank every participant that I have interviewed throughout this research for their involvement in the process. Without their substantial input, this research would have suffered from a lack of substance, theoretical depth and even more, quality. By means of interviewing relevant institutions and thorough desk research, this report tried to find a balance between scientific, theoretical notions and empirical views derived from daily practice and expertise. In this way, I tried to embed this research in relevant scientific debates as well as entangling it in relevant, practical debates. In contacting educational institutions, urban planning agencies, cultural advisory organs, cultural entrepreneurs as well as economic institutions as the Chamber of Commerce and smaller, regional entrepreneurial organizations, this research was able to balance between economic expertise and cultural significance to provide a broad overview of the questions involved. Last, but certainly not least, I wish to thank my tutor at the Radboud University – Drs. Jackie van de Walle – for her guidance, motivation and openness in interpersonal contact. I can review on a very pleasant and fruitful cooperation and I appreciate her enthusiasm and interest in the project very much. For now, I wish the reader all the pleasure in discovering a part of the region’s identity that had been underexposed for many years. 4 Introduction Image of the former Coberco dairy factory in the city of Arnhem. 5 Boudewijn Wijnacker 2011 “New ideas must use old buildings” - Jane Jacobs, The death and life of great American cities (1961) It was 1961 when urban sociologist Jane Jacobs launched her influential urban analysis The death and life of great American cities as an answer to the alleged impersonal modernist city planning by visionary planners as Le Corbusier and Franklin Lloyd Wright. According to Jacobs, in the context of the rapidly modernizing American society, the increasing amount of commercial enterprises moved to newly built stores, mostly in the urban periphery, following the modernist need for ongoing urban renewal. Jacobs stated that creative businesses, such as neighbourhood bars, galleries, antique stores, book shops and art museums remained active in old buildings: buildings telling a story. Jacobs rejected the idea that educated architects and planners were the ones to create an urban identity, as she assumed that an urban environment derived its meaning through dialectical interaction within an urban population. In the eyes of Jacobs, living climate in a city benefited from the presence of old buildings that were able to attract businesses that were closely related to local or regional cultural values (Jacobs 1961). With her statement on the value of old buildings, Jacobs referred to the reutilization of old buildings by implementing new ideas. In her opinion, preservation of these buildings for the sake of preservation was to be avoided. This notion can be linked to the current rise of redevelopment programs in Dutch monumental policy. For a long time policy was focused on the remnants of the nineteenth century, including aesthetically beautiful manor houses, neo-classical buildings and public buildings of latenineteenth-century bourgeois allure. Factories that were built in the context of industrialization in the second half of the nineteenth century as well as industrial complexes built in the course of the twentieth century remained absent on Dutch municipal monumental lists for a long time. When the concept of industrial heritage received human interest in the 1970s and 1980s, many advocators turned to the view of Jacobs. The first sounds for protecting industrial heritage were heard in England in the 1950s. Neil Cossons stated that this attitude derived from the threatening destruction of nineteenth century buildings, but especially from the post-war attention for ‘physical monuments of those who had so spectacularly generated growth in the industrial revolution’ (Cossons 1975: 18). This renewed interest was also shown in Dutch society, with former factories such as the Van Nelle factory (1983) and the Westergas factory (1989) being baptized into national monuments in the 1980s. Of course, many former factories possess value without being assigned a monumental status. Several industries find their origins in the surroundings of Arnhem and Nijmegen, creating a chimney-dominated panorama, even visible from large distance. This research focuses on the redevelopment of these industrial buildings in the Arnhem Nijmegen City Region. Since this report is written as initiative by the Arnhem Nijmegen City Region and the Regional Tourist Board (RBT-KAN), the primary focus of this research is on this geographical defined area. It is interesting to see to what extent industrial characteristics determine the region’s identity and how one can describe this industrial DNA. With this industrial DNA into mind, redevelopment of former factories is becoming more and more important for policy makers. The main goal of this research is to find out which opportunities arise for the Arnhem Nijmegen City Region to use its industrial DNA for spatial, economic and tourist development. This aim is strongly embedded in the current economic profile of the region, giving room for multidisciplinary approaches and transsectoral economic policy. Also, urban renewal programs tend to focus more and more on the redevelopment and transformation of existing 6 buildings, rather than advocating an urban expansion that would damage the natural