Loos-Lille prison is the better-known name, although was let’s say. It is completely demolished today.
This prison closed in 2011, originally there was a monastery on the site, but turned into a prison in the 19ᵗʰ century. 1500 Inmates was the max. capacity. It had a wing for both men and women.
We visited this interesting prison twice in 2014 and we found it astonishing to explore.
© Prison H15 | door locks
By Alan & A Good Friend | A Belgian Duo
© Alan Cuypers | Mine Shaft
And not just a friend.
It wasn’t just by coincidence that we met in the first place! We were as a matter of fact working for one and the same company, although not at the same office and only 65 kilometers away we did got to know each other after all.
It was because of the internal magazine from ENGIE Axima that brought me to him. I mentioned my love for urban exploration and this meant that I had another friend to explore abandoned places with. Yay! 😃
He, the person in question, wrote me an email with subject: Vu dans le Blablaxi, date: 19 September 2011, and even pictures from his favourite explores.
Quote: “Salut collègue.
Désolé mais je ne parle pas un mot de flamand, mais si tu veux que je te parle en anglais, je devrais pouvoir me débrouiller.
Tout ça pour te dire que une de mes passions c’est la photo industrielle (genre site derelicta ou forbidden places) et aussi la photo nocturne en pose (de sites abandonnés ou d’industries métallurgiques).
Une autre c’est la visite de mines souterraines (avec mon appareil photo bien sûr).
Je ne faits quasi plus de varappe mais j’aime encore bien faire une belle descente en rappel ou une via ferrata et bien sûr de la randonnée à la journée.
Bien a toi et serai heureux de te rencontrer à la remise des vœux de Pissens au mois de janvier.”
He became my tutor when it came down to knowledge, he knew so much about all these derelict places. Places like military bunkers from WOI and WOII, as well as industrial plants like steel manufacturing sites.
Really! Thank you! I mean, I felt so honored that someone out there at the other side of Belgium read my short interview presenting myself in the internal magazine of the company. It was crazy and I was so psyched. And that even in another language!
My hobby wasn’t so famous as it later became and photography isn’t a practice that gets a lot of attention as well. Although it should get more rewarded and respected because to me a photo isn’t just a photo. It is a moment or object or anything really captured on camera which could potentially freeze time forever.
Photography is magical as these captured photos can be picked up again from the (dusty) shelve or from your hard drive on the PC and you can look at them for hours to come where beautiful memories can be brought back to life once again.
One can make a photo album or print a picture and hang it on the wall or even use it as your favourite background on your PC or smartphone.
To me taking photos means protecting any kind of memory in time stored forever in the palm of your hands.
Van Damme Quarry Ciply by Alan Cuypers
Why we want to explore beneath our surface?
It can perfectly being said that we humans have built many things on our planet, both above ground and underground. For all sorts of reasons we have considerably altered the face of our surface, be it in a good or bad way, we changed it according to our needs, experiments, unfortunate events or bad habbits. You name it, we changed it and it can’t always be undone.
Above ground it’s easy, we only need to keep in mind that gravity is a real thing.
Underground there’s also gravity, but also other things to keep in mind. The soil can be wet, cold, hot, muddy, dry, it can even shake and collapse which could leave huge sinkholes all the way to the surface.
This time I will talk more in depth about underground activities and why they can be very beneficial to us.
Mother Earth is a resource-rich planet which could serve our needs for many years to come, although sometimes these vulnerable resources are rather hard to reach or difficult to extract and process.
Today, I will bring you only a handful of meters below the surface where massive mazes of human activity carved their memories in the ground for a lifetime to come.
Belgium is rich in chalk, clay, pig iron and many more resources from the underground world. We explored just a small fraction of what once was a very big booming industry of mining.
Although I do am very satisfied with the chance of being stood there, under the surface away from the sun, for just a couple of hours. This experience was already enough to fulfil my dreams as an urban explorer.
Why growing mushrooms underground?
Industrialization brouth people to the cities where work was and where people could earn enough to support their hungry families in the countryside. Today isn’t any different. We have our cities and farmlands and for some it is a beautiful sanctuary somewhere in a hot place where they work an online job and can relax at the same time. Today and in the future we’re growing towards a digital online world, but for most of our products we still need agricultural and industrial factories. Aren’t we right?
Meanwhile underground everything was empty and excavated by many men. Rock formations were split open by either dynamite, immense machinery or hand-crafted tools and these tunnels formed huge underground galleries which eventually could still be used as a second purpose.
And so these quarries were also considered practical for growing mushrooms. Rows of mushroom beds were made with the help of horse poo or compost as a fertiliser and in the picture below this practice can still be found today.
© Alan Cuypers | 23/12/2016 @ 16:42 | Canon EOS 5D Mark III | f/8 | 25 sec. | Mushroom beds at the Van Damme Quarry, Ciply Belgium
What are we going to rediscover?
To my surprise there was still active water pumping going on in some visited quarries, of course, otherwise the quarry would have been completely flooded by rainwater. If it were flooded the mine wouldn’t be still accessible to us.
Although these mines are actually forbidden to enter, I was guided by an expert who explored many mines before. Deep underground and open-pit ones alike.
We knew what we were doing and we did it carefully.
So, what did we rediscover?
Equipment was in some of them still there and ready to use at any given moment. Fresh truck tracks leading in the angled mine were a sign of recent life inside this rocky cave where water was being pumped out.
These scenes gave us beautiful pictures as a result.
Small lakes can be seen here and we remind you to not dare to take a swim in it as it can be very cold water and it isn’t the best water to swim in.
Small volcanoes under the water can be seen, which was a very cool sight, I admit.
The crystal clear water was perfect to photograph and the ground beneath it could be seen from afar.
Be sure to bring enough light in case you want to enter this exquisite underground maze of tunnels!
Nobody wants a dark future! Right?
Currently, there are only a handful of small start-ups that invest their piggy savings 🐖 into greener and more efficient life-oriented industries like farming and transportation from the farm field to the consumer.
How hard we’re all trying to conquer the ecological strugle this world comes with, we can only do even more to help protect us from our doomsday that might come sooner rather than later.
Although we’re not trying to be less optimistic here, we’re supporting businesses who try to make our lives better. And so can we!
By supporting local produce or growing your own vegetables and fruits. Yes, this is possible and completely safe to do, plus you help our beloved planet to survive even longer. It’s a win-win situation for you and us.
Take this amazing company for example, PlantLab 🌱, a startu-up business from The Netherlands is doing everything it can to go global and they’ve reached the US with one plant launched in December of 2020.
They are doing an amazing job 😊
© PlantLab ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands
GO GREEN or GO HOME
How are we helping?
One of us, that’s Alan, loves to read about all things with better environmental impact which could only benefit us in the right way possible.
Yes, friends, there are solutions to our global threats out there. We only need to go big on this one and we will succeed! 💪
The answer to this is BAMBOO.
We understand and know it grows like crazy, we have tested this ourselves and have proof. There is an extensive blog about this in the making!
One can manage without eating flesh; but one cannot manage without the bamboo.
© Alan Cuypers | Flowers in Hong Kong
MVRDV | Expo 2000 | Our Visit | Future Plans
What does it stand for?
MVRDV is an acronym for the founding members of the architecture and design practice with the same name: Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries.
Founded in 1993 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Current offices with 250 employees are located in Rotterdam, Shanghai and Paris.
Check out their amazing creations, click here to learn more.
A world’s fair
World’s fairs or world fairs haven been in existance for quite a long time and can be officially traced back to The Great Exhibition of 1851 in London where the Crystal Palace was made out of cast iron and glass by architect Sir Joseph Paxton.
These fairs, or World Expos as we modern Europeans call it, are designed to showcase a nation’s achievement through architectural pavilions. Participants of the World Expos usually build their own pavilions and are thereby the most expensive exhibitions out there.
In the year 2000, the World Expo was held in Hanover, Germany from Thursday 1 June to Tuesday 31 October 2000. For this event the Hanover Fairground (Messegelände Hannover) was chosen, which was originally a place where military aircraft were created.
At the Expo 2000 were 40 million visitors expected but a mere half appeared at the event and it unfortunately became a flop and financial failure as a result. Nevertheless the Dutch pavilion present at the exhibition seemed to be very successful for the Dutch Economy despite a generally failed expo at the time.
Another perspective
As Alan’s friend Hannes was studying architecture in Antwerp at the moment of their travel they planned their trips to fulfull their needs with either empty buildings or architectural highlights in places less explored. They visited Berlin 2 years earlier in April 2012 when they had seen leftovers of the winter’s snow and took father’s tent to accommodate their nights to make their trip a little less expensive.
Back to Hanover 2014, where Alan & Hannes took the car from Antwerp to Germany & Poland to attend a Belgian/Polish family wedding. Our trip lasted about 3 weeks and on our schedule was the Netherlands Pavilion from the Expo 2000 exhibition event, located in Hanover, Germany.
We knew it was abandoned for years and that is exactly why we wanted to take a glimpse of this extraordinary building. Just to see with our own eyes what the Dutch had created 14 years earlier.
It was painful to see such an inovative creation in such despair and actual state of decay. Vandalists came long before us…
Urban exploration unsuccessful
In the picture above you can see Alan posing for a photo while sitting near the edge of a huge building in decay.
This is called urban exploration at its best. No guard, no fence, no people, well almost no people, no rules, no nothing. Well, haha, we wish right!
Actually these properties still belong to someone or the government, but are usually left behind unattended and neglected for years. So basically one can freely enter, but beware to enter with caution and great awareness of hidden dangers are always lurking around the corner. Take full responsibility if you want to enter, especially when taking other people with you and we suggest to explore at least with two or even three in case something bad might happen. You never know!
Is it going to be preserved?
Plans are on the table to preserve this creative piece of architecture from the MVRDV team.
But no sketches of it have been shared as of yet.
By Alan & Hannes | A Belgian & A Belgian
As we, Alan & Hannes, were invited to attend and also film the marriage of Alan’s 2nd cousin Nicky and Mateusz who is of Polish descent, we planned our trip by car to Poland through Germany with a couple of stops on the road.
First stop, Hanover, Germany, where we checked out the MVRDV building from Expo 2000, which was, off course, inaccessible due to abandonnement and closure of the site. Read the post here.
Second stop, Berlin, also Germany, we found out about the once famous Spreepark, which closed its doors in 2002 and opened in 1969.
We didn’t regret our secret explore of this exciting theme park!
Read on to find out what we came across.
It must be said that, at the time of the event, we both were 24 years of age and we were kind of stunned by the fact that a place like this was left behind for more than a decade, just because it went bankrupt as less visitors came to the park.
We didn’t understand quite well where all those kids and parents would go to if they like to enjoy a good theme park likes this.
There’s a lot of amazing cool rides in here, yes, they are a bit old and outfashioned. But when refurbished and with a fresh layer of paint, it would be good enough for many kids out there. At least that’s what we think.
Now, 7 years later, we’re writing about this place and to our surprise the government of Berlin has plans to reopen the park step by step.
Our sad faces turned into happy ones after all.
All of us know that there is a ferris wheel in every theme park in the world and every explore is about finding that first and explore the remaining later. For us, we were in unknown territories as Germany isn’t our country of birth, so we were very cautious and didn’t want to get noticed. So we stayed out of sight most of the time and we had a great amount of fun too.
We’re always psyched about our urban explorations. This “thing” is so much fun, although actually not very nor always legal to trespass a property that still belongs to an individual or city. There’s always an owner who might have guarded their property, or maybe not, but always be careful when considering intruding such big scale of properties as it isn’t always safe to hang out.
Always go with at least two people, so if one gets into trouble for any reason, then the other one can search for help or try to control the situation himself or herself. Advice for the young people out there who love exploring abandoned stuff. People do die in abandoned buildings because they are not careful enough or explore on their own.
The Spreepark is located right next to the Spree river, hence the park’s name. Mitte Berlin, or the heart of the city of Berlin, is located just 7 kilometers away, which makes the park easily reachable for those who want to dive into Berlin’s history or enjoy a relaxing walk in the Plänterwald’s park, where the Spreepark is located.
The park has in fact a whole path around it where one can enjoy the view of the Spree river and the old park at the other side of the fence. Hiking, biking or strolling around with the kids is a very nice activity on a quiet Sunday afternoon.
The GDR built it’s first and ever only Kulturpark in the GDR in 1969.
With the highest attraction being the Ferris Wheel standing tall at a height of 45 meters. This Wheel still spins and makes creepy noises, check out our video here.
Concept drawings were created in 2018 with the intention to open the park once again in three main stages.
From 2022, the Eierhäuschen (Egg House) will be open for the public, then, in 2024 the area around the ferris wheel will be accessible, and at last but not least, in 2026 the entire Spreepark will be completed.
All five stages are properly explained on the website of the Spreepark, which you can check out here.
Check out the Spreepark’s official website here or https://www.spreepark.berlin/en/.
Now you can officially visit the park with prices at € 5 for adults & € 3 for children from 6 to 14 years old.
Get your tickets here.
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