'Production landscape' is a proposal for the erstwhile coal-mine of Waterschei on the Kempisch Plateau, a tableland in the northeast of Belgium. The complex is a relic of the past, a memory of seventy-five years of work 'down the pits'. Its closure brought economic and environmental problems to the area. The present proposal offers a sustainable basis from which to continue the production landscape, albeit with a change of content. Certain interventions are to give Waterschei a new identity. Scattered between the pits are slagheaps, known locally as terriels. These poison the surface water and have a negative effect on the collection of drinking water from the brook. The haphazard dumping of slag brings with it the added danger that coal present in the slagheaps might spontaneously ignite. In short, these terriels are an ecological timebomb. The coniferous forests planted on behalf of the mining industry lost their economic value. To compound matters, conifererous forests take in more water than broad-leafed forests with unfavourable repercussions for water collection and drainage of the area. The dangers to the environment have here been greatly reduced by burying and compressing the slagheaps. Visually, the terriels retain the shape of heaps deposited there artificially. A helophyte filter, a spatial element linking the slagheap with the brook, purifies the water issuing from the terriel following compression. Additionally, the woods become interesting environmentally, recreationally and economically by being planted with acacias. The result is part production, part recreation and part nature. The coal-mine's surroundings pick up on these interventions. The old buildings are recycled as conference space with a hotel and a restaurant, while the headframes and cooling tower continue life as local landmarks. Again, the slagheap's accessibility is increased, with a walkers' path running through the various types of woods and terminating there. Each intervention has its own environmental and/or spatial motive. All elements together constitute a spatial structure. After 75 years of providing coal the landscape has been returned to the local inhabitants. Institution: Amsterdam Tutors: Hubert de Boer, Paul van Beek, Hans van der Made, Roel van Aalderen & Jeroen Bosch Specialization: landscape architecture