Climate settlement coal slinger
Since 1979, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Umweltstiftung der Sparkasse Karlsruhe have been awarding the Sparkassen-Umwelt-Preis for outstanding work related to environmentally relevant topics. The prize is awarded to outstanding dissertations as well as diploma and master theses of all KIT faculties. The 2022 Sparkassen Environment Prize was awarded on July 27, 2023, in the KIT Senate Hall in the course of the annual conference of the KIT Climate and Environment Center. It is endowed with a total of 15,000 euros.
Master's graduate Alisa Schneider was awarded for her thesis "Klimasiedlung Kohleschleuder - Über die Umnutzung decommissioned coal-fired power plants". Alisa Schneider's design is based on the assumption that the global coal phase-out will render more than 13,000 coal-fired power plants obsolete. Using the example of the Neurath power plant at the Garzweiler opencast lignite mine in North Rhine-Westphalia, she develops an exemplary scenario for the transformation of these unused power plants.
The Neurath power plant becomes the climate settlement Coal Slinger, which combines as a new habitat, the function of a power plant, industrial production and resilient agriculture. Through this networking, the different areas complement each other in the sense of a functioning circular economy. Another central aspect of the design is the renaturation of huge natural areas. This creates a place for people and nature, for industry and agriculture, a supra-regional meeting place, a settlement in which a wide variety of actors can exchange ideas and educate themselves on topics such as the climate crisis.
The work was supervised by the professorships of Sustainable Building (Prof. Dirk Hebel) and Architectural Communication (Prof. Dr. Riklef Rambow).
In addition to Alisa Schneider's project, two doctoral theses also received awards.
Further information
https://www.klima-umwelt.kit.edu/1842.php
Documentation of the thesis:
https://open.arch.kit.edu/arbeiten/klimasiedlung-kohleschleuder/
