There are many cases when the city development neglects the full potentialities of the river and the city uses it as a backyard; specially rivers with the smaller widths. This thesis aims to find a micro-scale design solution to bring back the river from the “backyard” to “frontyard” by using River Emscher as a framework.

Since the early 1990s, efforts to restore the Emscher to its natural state have been making progress and with that, a group of cities is going through a shared, simultaneous and comprehensive transformation. It is more than a hundred years since a populated agricultural landscape was transformed into an industrial metropolitan area, and the naturally flowing Emscher became a manmade system of open sewers. The end of mining subsidence now also makes it possible in this region to transform the river and it’s subsidiary waterways into near-natural bodies of water. This transformation offers a chance to give a new face to the urban landscape of the region.

Henrichenburg, a city in the North-Rhine Westphalia area of Germany, transformed from a small village into a city after the beginning of the mining of coal and the production of coke and steel within the last hundred years. Like other cities in this revolution, the Emscher near Henrichenburg also faced the same fate of being a sewer system. In the present day, the river Emscher still in a process of getting cleaned and within three years, the Emscher will not radiate anymore. So, it creates vast opportunities to wake this sleeping river up again. Based on these opportunities, there can be a lot of scopes for urban planning and landscape designs. This study will aim to conserve the potentials and challenges to create a connection between the city and the river.

Starting the design process, the main goal was to realize a flexible activity module to regenerate the riverfront. The proposed modular unit is adaptive to context and can be used according to users‘ needs. Working with this idea, two simple solutions were developed.

• The elements of each module have a universal design language but can be made of various alternative materials. The unit has diverse functional affordability. It allows the users to become part of the design process by engaging them from assembling to the positioning of the modules on the site. Further, it has the potential to involve users in the maintenance process by creating a sense of ownership.
• Modules can be split up or combined to provide a fit-for-purpose design solution respecting the site, surrounding and ecology.