Revitalization of BPT Trzic: trAILs - Alpine Industrial Landscapes Transformation

High chimneys, steam, dust, noise and dense railway tracks: In the peripheries of big cities, post-industrial areas have often already been transformed, due to the pressure of resources exploitation. In non-urban and rural regions such abandoned sites pose new challenges for planners and communities. This is the case for the former Textile industry in Tržic located in the south-eastern Alps - a geographic area which is usually disregarded when it comes to post-industrial transformation. The influence of industry in the economic, social and spatial transformation of the Alps through the last two centuries has been revolutionary. The functional link between industry, hydroelectric energy and the railway was, at least in the beginning, a major driving force for the modern development in several Alpine areas. The Bombažna Predilnica complex in Tkalnica Tržic, D.D (BPT), the Spinning and weaving Company TRŽIC, is a good example: It was positioned at a bottleneck of an already narrow valley in order to use the hydroelectric energy of the Bistrica river, and separates the Alpine village in a younger and a historical part. The textile and clothing industry in Slovenia have a long tradition and reached highquality standards. The relatively small enterprises could not successfully compete in price with the production sites of low-wage countries. The decline of the industry in this particular topographic situation offers a big opportunity for the development of the village. By breaking up the spatial barrier of the industrial complex, it is possible for the first time to connect the separated parts of the village. The former Spinning and weaving site in Tržic is one of four pilot areas of the research project trAILs (Alpine Industrial Landscapes Transformation) and is also the focus area in the master studio at the Chair of Landscape Architecture and Industrial Landscapes of the Technical University Munich in the winter term 2017/18.