Every design for Marl

Would you guess that around 60 per cent of Marl is fields, woods, water, parks and other green space? Outsiders tend to picture pit heads and chemical plants, but this town sits on the gentle seam between the industrial Ruhr and the rural Münsterland. The woodlands of the Haard and the Hohe Mark nature park lie to the north, the River Lippe traces almost the whole of the northern boundary, and the Wesel-Datteln Canal runs nearby. Some of the open land is protected, from the Lippeau to the reserve called Die Burg, named after an old hillfort.

The Halde Brassert I/II, the spoil heap left by the colliery of the same name, is the clearest reminder of how the town came to be. Marl grew with its mines, Brassert and Auguste Victoria, and with the Chemische Werke Hüls; the Chemiepark Marl remains one of Europe's largest chemical sites, and coal was mined here until 2015. Today the Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten and the many sculptures dotted around the centre give the town a different kind of landmark, while the Grimme-Institut makes its name known across Germany.

Those who grew up in Marl see a map that is half town, half countryside: the climb up the spoil heap, the paths along the Lippe, the woods of the Haard on a Sunday afternoon, and the streets in between where everything else happened.