The Ruhr rocks. Not that London, New York and Berlin need quake in their shoes, but what is happening in the Ruhr valley is quite extraordinary. Forget about smoking chimneystacks and hard graft in underground mine shafts - these days it's all happening above ground. The pragmatic denizens of the Ruhr refused to be dragged down by the decline of their traditional coal and steel industry, and are currently in the business of reinventing themselves - as a design hub and cultural centre. The Ruhr Metropolis, as the 53 municipalities from Essen to Dortmund and Unna to Duisburg collectively call themselves, is slated to be the European City of Culture in 2010, and already creative shoots are fast appearing: light-art in Unna, state-of-the-art architecture in Duisburg, solar technology in Gelsenkirchen, avant-garde music in Bochum and Mülheim, cutting-edge design in Dortmund and Essen. Carpet designers such as Jan Kath, graffiti artists like Mason or the creative fashionistas of Mode wichtig prove there are plenty of brilliant ideas emerging from this part of the world. Elsewhere people would be proud to lay claim to a fraction of these enterprises - in the Ruhr you won't find any hype surrounding them.

   

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