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From coal to zero-emission district, Dudelange industry area will get a second life

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Back in 2005, ArcelorMittal’s rolling mill in Dudelange pushed the last sections of steel through its rollers. Since then, the 600-meter long rolling mill has been at rest like a silent giant. To the sides are the route de Thionville and the route de Volmerange, which converge at the end of the brownfield into a single road towards France. Today, fencing surrounds the area, with signposts reminding us that the redevelopment has just begun.

The industry’s crisis of the early 2000s led to the giant multinational shutting down the plant, located just meters away from the southern border of the country. Ever since then, the decommissioned plant has kept the legacy of the industrial past alive. The government is investing half a billion euros in the remediation of this brownfield. A sum of 24 million euros from the SRF is being used for the development of the energy concept. Where once upon a time tonnes of greenhouse gases were released by burning coal, a zero CO2 district is now being built.

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The area can be reached on foot in about 15 minutes from the town hall. The 36-hectare industrial park is not separate from a residential area. It actually lies between the two residential neighborhoods of Italie and Schmeltz. The old steel factory will accommodate housing and commercial buildings, as well as cultural venues.

“The project stemmed from a competition that we won in 2009,” says Sala Makumbundu, managing partner of CBA architects, the team who designed the project. “The aim of the city and of the Ministry of Housing was to create a mixed-use area using the former industrial site.”

NeiSchmeltz is not the first project Luxembourg is carrying out to repurpose an industrial site. In the Belvaux area – where there used to be a steel mill as well – the obsolete industrial buildings form part of the university campus. As the level of industrial production has declined, reuse of these sites has become a necessity, given the growing demand for housing.