GREEN ACADEMY.

A new government training centre in the Ruhr is a paradigm of ecological consciousness.

Formerly the industrial powerhouse of Europe, the Ruhr is now a derelict, polluted wasteland with attendant social and economic problems. But since 1989 the federal land of North-Rhine Westphalia has been co-ordinating an ambitious regeneration masterplan for the region that brings together funding, expertise and political will (AR February 1999). Comprising over 100 individual landscaping, regeneration and architectural projects spread over an area of 800 square kilometres, Internationale Bauausstellung (IBA) Emscher Park is a colossal enterprise of restructuring and redevelopment. With its heavy industries and coal mining long since extinguished, the region is also trying to encourage a shift towards the white collar business and services sector to attract future investment.

Within this context, Jourda & Perraudin's recently completed government training centre at Herne-Sodingen is a showpiece building, both in terms of its architecture and programme. Consciously modern, with a focus on ecological sustainability, it is also an enlightened riposte to the notion of some dreary barrack-like facility built and run to punctilious standards of state parsimony.

Surrounded by houses of former miners, the site lies over one of the Ruhr's deepest coalfields (now disused). A new oval park, housing and supermarket have already been built as part of the area's gradual regeneration. Originally conceived as a training and recreational centre for government employees, the building has, over its long gestation (it first won a competition in 1991), acquired an important public dimension. With the addition of a library, community hall and social welfare centre, it has assumed a distinct civic focus.

Powerful and rustic, the Herne-Sodingen Academy stands out as a memory and abstraction of the past. Its monumental scale and repetitive structure evoke the big sheds, furnaces and factories of the Ruhr's old industrial landscape. Enveloped in a transparent glass skin, a vast timber-framed hangar 168m long shelters a congregation of buildings and functions. Rows of rough hewn columns of ancient pine march through the cavernous space in regimented, arboreal splendour. The modular structural system was designed to maximize prefabrication and simplify construction.

The timber and glass hangar encloses two linear three-storey wings arranged around a central axis. Interstitial spaces are landscaped with water and greenery, nurtured by the greenhouse's equable, Mediterranean microclimate. Like a winter garden, landscaped spaces form external rooms that will be habitable all year round for work, socializing and study. In summer, parts of the facade can be opened to ventilate the greenhouse through natural cross ventilation.

On the north-east wing, facilities for the government training centre form the heart of the complex. A conical entrance hall protrudes through blocks of classrooms and seminar spaces, breaking up the long, horizontal volumes. Other parts of the wing are occupied by recreational facilities, offices for the training academy, a restaurant and a hall for receptions and performances housed in a detached cube.

The south-west wing is largely given over to residential accommodation for delegates. The scale and arrangement of the blocks resembles student halls of residence; deck access terraces on the end blocks help to mitigate the regular, repetitive forms. A section of the wing is occupied by local civic offices, which face back symbolically towards the town. Next to the offices, a conical library contains books and reference materials for both the training centre and the public. Visible through the enclosing greenhouse, the imposing geometry of the cone marks the meeting of different realms.

On the roof, a vast array of photovoltaic cells forms the building's energy powerhouse. The 10 000sq m of cells are capable of generating 1 MW of electricity annually. This exceeds the building's requirements, so any surplus is sold to the national electricity network. Grouped in different densities, solar cells form cloud-like patterns that magically diffuse light into the great greenhouse.

As well as the solar power from the photovoltaic cells, the building explores other methods of energy generation and environmental control. The former mine pitheads on the site release more than one million cubic metres of diluted methane gas annually, which is used to fuel both electricity and heat generation units. Exploiting the mine gas in this way prevents the release of methane into the atmosphere and reduces annual carbon dioxide emissions by 12 000 tons. The concrete structure of the internal buildings acts as a heat sink, balancing out diurnal and seasonal extremes of temperature. Pointing the way to the ecological generation of energy, a 1.2MW battery plant stores the electrical power, balances fluctuations in energy production and reduces peak loads.

Architect

Jourda & Perraudin, Paris

Associate architect

Hegger Hegger Schleiff

Structural and services engineers

Ove Arup & Partners, Schlaich Bergemann,

HL Technik

Landscape architect

Desvignes & Danolky

Photographs

2,3,4,7,8,9,11 Paul Raftery/ARCAID

1,6,10 Ralph Richter/Architekturphoto

The Herne-Sodingen Academy has wide and undeniably laudable ambitions. Responding to a challenging programme, it attempts to create a sense of place for both workers and visitors, demonstrate ecological responsibility and generate some kind of heroic, tectonic presence. In both its form and combination of functions it suggests an intriguing and much needed prototype

1. The great timber and glass shed echoes the monumental scale of the Ruhr's old industrial landscape. The new building lies on the site of a vast disused coalfield.

2. The flat roof extends to create a welcoming portico. A new park is gradually taking shape around the building, as part of the town's regeneration.

3.The greenhouse structure resembles a cavernous winter garden. Two long blocks housing offices, recreational facilities and residential accommodation are arranged round an axial promenade.

4.The hangar like volume is a heroic presence in the landscape.

5.Equable microclimate encourages year round use of the greenhouse space.

6. A conical library at the end of the south-west wing breaks up the long horizontal blocks.

7. The repetitive, modular system of columns and trusses was designed to simplify prefabrication. Columns made from ancient pine trunks emphasize the arboreal quality of the structure.

8. Photovoltaic cells on the roof diffuse light into the vast space.

9. Deck access on accommodation blocks offers views out over the new park.

10. Elevated walkways link the blocks.

11. The building is a magical fusion of light, structure and greenery.