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 What do you do with the smoulder ingremains of former power plants? Turn them into tour ist attractions, of course. Words by Owain Thomas
ON THE LONG LIST OF things you were forbidden to do as a child, hanging around decommissioned steelworks or unused coalmines ranked pretty highly. And unlike running across roads or playing with your food - now wholly acceptable grown-up practices - the idea of exploring abandoned industrial facilities might still sound a little risky today.
But what if they were a bit more user-friendly? What if former gasholders were flooded for scuba diving? Or if thrumming electricity generators were replaced with cutting-edge art installations? Or if regular music festivals livened up the empty echoes of colossal blast halls?
 Well, the answer has been making itself heard all over Europe in recent years, albeit in a subtle way. Over five million people have poured into the Tate Modern in London annually since architects Herzog & de Meuron converted the building in 2000. Although they left the original structure more or less alone, the blocky mid-20th century edifice that housed the Bankside Power Station until 1981 seems equally at home sheltering the Tate's modern collection, including the current Shibboleth by Doris Salcedo in the Turbine Hall. It is now one considered of London's iconic pieces of architecture.
Elsewhere you may wander nonchalantly onto the A38 party boat on the banks of the River Danube in Budapest to catch a big name rock band or hyperactive DJ hitting the decks by the docks. But in its previous life, A38 was less likely to host the Stones, and more likely to simply transport stone, in its incarnation as a Ukrainian stone-carrier ship.
 Or if you find yourself in the meatpacking district (of Gazi, Athens that is, not New York), you might chance upon the quintessentially Greek-sounding Technopolis, which is housed inside a massive former gasworks. Now it is far more glamorous, hosting such golden ticket events as MTV Europe after-parties where, arguably, just as much gas is emitted as before. Otherwise, technology and art exhibitions are the order of the day.
Sticking to the topic of gas, Amsterdam itself is renowned for its fumes, but the Westergasfabriek, dormant for so long, was given a new lease of life in 2003 when it was reinstated as a versatile art, music and culture centre.
 The original complexity of the gasworks translates well into making this a multifunctional venue from the very first loaf baked at the baker's shop in the morning, through the theatre and art events held during the day, right up until the last dancer has wearily left the building in the small hours of the night - around the time the ovens fire up again to make bread.
 As was eloquently revealed in The Full Monty, Sheffield has a proud industrial past, so it should come as no surprise that the Steel City has also tapped its heritage in the same way. Magna is an interactive museum housed inside the former Templeborough Steel Works, which, unlike the other venues, actually pays homage to its past with an in-depth walk through the rigours of metallurgy in sweat-inducing style. Otherwise, the venue makes room for firework displays, ghostly all-night visits and the world's highest indoor bungee jump at 130m.
But the big daddy of industrial Europe has to be the Ruhrgebiet. Even the name itself seems to echo the whirr and crunch of heavy machinery. Once notorious as "the rust belt of Europe", Germany's Ruhr Valley has also cleaned up its act and turned filthy factories into cutting edge venues for the arts and outdoor activities.
 It's hard to imagine what the Ruhrgebiet must have looked (or smelled) like a century ago. As the country's industrial revolution moved into its filthiest phase at the turn of the 1900s, this once-green expanse of land stretching from Dortmund in the east to the River Rhine in the west had been indelibly marked in the name of progress. Coalmines and steel factories had replaced the valley's crumbling castles and a new era had begun.
A coal crisis in the 1960s and steel crisis in the 1980s shattered confidence in both industries. This comparatively rapid decline presented some huge problems: what could be done with all the abandoned structures rusting into the countryside? The solution: Emscher Landscape Park.
 Across approximately 100 projects, plans were drawn up to preserve leftover rubble mounds, gasholders, railway tracks and factory buildings as "industrial monuments" rather than begin a more costly dismantling process. This architectural competition suggested that a more sustainable future depended on a combination of patience and creativity.
A shining example of this reversal of industry today is the Landschaftspark. This former metalworks at the heart of a sprawling 200-hectare site has undergone a dramatic makeover since locals and ex-workers saved it from demolition in the mid-1980s.
Its transformation has seen out-of-bounds areas turned into nightclubs and theatrical auditoriums, lift shafts and smoke stacks lit up like a Pink Floyd concert and 20,000m2 of water pumped into the site's old gas storage tanks for scuba diving. But even after all this, you are under no illusion of what it used to be. And that's the attraction.
 "On the whole, the Landschaftspark creates an image, a fantasy of what has been and will be. And this is the basis of its fascination," says events manager Joachim Mannebach. "The impression of something gigantic and monumental prevails. Also, the fascination of exploring a site where, formerly, people worked under extremely dangerous conditions."
Far from being a macabre museum devoted to hardships of the past, Landscaftspark exhibits life-affirming ingenuity on a massive scale and awe-inspiring in its ambition. And like the other industrial sites across Emscher Landscape Park, including the former coalmine Zollverein XII (a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001), where hard labour has given way to leisure, arts and culture, its driving force is now overwhelmingly contemporary.
"It's amazing to see what kind of creative impact the atmosphere of the venue has on each performance," says Jürgen Krings, general manager of the RuhrTriennale, which is gearing up to use both Landschaftspark and Zollverein XII as backdrops for its season of dance, music and theatre starting late-August.
"It's also a real challenge for artists to create productions that could not be staged in any conventional space. And reclaiming these industrial sites for cultural purposes has a positive effect on the entire region: fascinating venues have been 'brought back to life' while continuing to reflect the Ruhrgebiet's industrial identity."
Brought back to life is the key phrase, as each of these enterprises has taken a fossil of Europe's smoggy industrial past and polished it into a clean, modern and educational venue, redefining it for the future. How's that for recycling?
ADDRESS BOOK
Tate Modern Bankside, London, SE1 9TG, +44 (0)20 7887 8888, www.tate.org.uk
A38 Ship Pázmány Péter sétány, Budapest, +36 1 464 39 40, www.a38.hu Technopolis 100 Pireos Street, Athens, +30 1 346 0981 Westergasfabriek 8-10 Haarlemmerweg, Amsterdam, +31
(0)20 586 0710, www.westergasfabriek.nl
Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord Emscherstraße 71, Duisburg, +49
(0)203 429 1942, www.landschaftsparkduisburg-nord.de
Magna Sheffield Road, Templeborough, Rotherham, S60 1DX, +44 (0)1709 720 002, www.visitmagna.co.uk
Włóczenie się po terenach dawnych hut i kopalń zapewne wysoko plasowało się w hierarchii rzeczy, których nie pozwalano ci robić w dzieciństwie. Ale jak by się sprawy miały, gdyby obiekty te przystosowano do bezpiecznej zabawy i rozrywki? Gdyby dawne zbiorniki gazowe napełniono wodą, stwarzając doskonałe warunki do nurkowania? Albo gdyby generatory energii przekształcono w nowoczesne instalacje artystyczne? Albo w ogromnych halach fabrycznych organizowano by koncerty?
W niektórych miastach Europy powoli daje sie słyszeć odpowiedź na te pytania. Każdego roku przez londyńską galerię Tate Modern, utworzoną w budynku po dawnej elektrowni, przewija się ponad pięć milionów ludzi. Budowla jest uważana za jedną z ikon londyńskiej architektury.
Budapesztański klub A38 znajduje się w dawnym ukraińskim transportowcu do przewozu kamienia. Klub Technopolis, znajdujący się w ateńskiej dzielnicy Gazi, mieści się w dawnej gazowni. Również budynek dawnej gazowni zajmuje amsterdamski kompleks handlowo-teatralnoartystyczny Westergasfabriek. Interaktywne muzeum Magna w szczycącym się przemysłową przeszłością Sheffield znajduje się w dawnej hucie stali Templeborough.
Ale sercem industrialnej Europy tak naprawdę zawsze było Zagłębie Ruhry. Jednak wskutek kryzysu węglowego z lat 60. i kryzysu w przemyśle stalowym z lat 80. wiele obiektów zamknięto. Pojawił się problem: co z nimi zrobić? Znaleziono rozwiązanie: utworzenie Parku Krajobrazowego Emscher.
Postanowiono zachować wszelkie zbiorniki gazowe, szyny kolejowe i budynki fabryczne jako "pomniki przemysłu". Nieczynna kopalnia Zollverein po przekształceniach została wpisana na Listę Światowego Dziedzictwa UNESCO. W ramach rewitalizacji obiekty przemysłowe zamieniono na night-cluby, sale teatralne i windy, zbiorniki gazowe przekształcono w baseny do nurkowania. Ale nawet mimo wszystkich tych zmian widać, co kiedyś się tu znajdowało. I na tym właśnie polega atrakcyjność tego miejsca.
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