REGENERATION OF THE FORMER LIGNITE MINES ΙΝ WESTERN MACEDONIA

The study chooses a triptych, three main axis for the Restoration and Rehabilitation of former lignite mining areas, for upgrading landscape:

• Environmental design / Environmental education
• Sports / Leisure
• Culture

Each axis incorporates a network broken down into six basic multilayers. Each level contains a number of schemes, installations and structures.

Environment / Environmental education Environmental Education Center, experimental cultivation, eco park, reforestation , weather station, geothermal energy / ground heat exchanger. Sports / Leisure Playgrounds, sports center (tennis, football, basketball, rock climbing), Trekking / Trail running / biking, outdoor gym / cross fit – yoga, motocross track, flights (aerostat, hand gliding, paragliding). Culture Land on Land/ installations – exhibitions, art park, music concerts – festivals /events, active platforms, amphitheater, future thematic museum.

The study introduces in the design the hyper dimension of the landscape, landscape as hypertext, and chooses six abstract and essential principles that analyze hypertext as a metaphor (P. Lévy, 1990):

1) Principle of transformation , because basically it is a network that is constantly advancing

2) Principle of heterogenity , because accesses, connections , and the movements are heterogeneous

3) Principle of multiplicity of scales , because of fractal organization.

4) Principle of externality

5) Principle of topology

6) Principle of mobility centers

In coherence with the hypertext dimension of the landscape and the manufacturing process which is developed in the active Lignite PPC Center