The government of North Rhine-Westphalia bought the grounds of the Zeche Zollverein coal mine after its closure in 1986, declaring it national monument and transforming it into an international point of attraction thanks to the Master Plan designed by OMA in 2002 which introduced a broad program dedicated to art and culture that should turn what was once a source of contamination into a cultural focus. The most significant buildings of the industrial complex have been reused in various ways, including the old washing plant, today the Ruhr Museum, renewed by OMA, always with the aim of rehabilitating a highly damaged territory due to intense mining activity.
Within the building complex of Shaft XII designed by Fritz Schupp and Martin Kremmer, we can find the former boiler house, a superb example of industrial architecture of Bauhaus style, simple and functional. In 1997 the 5,000 sqm were rehabilitated by Norman Foster and adapted to house a museum dedicated to the Red Dot Design Awards, with samples of all the objects that have received this award. The project included the rehabilitation of the facade, the elimination of some later additions that did not belong to the original design and, as in the Ruhr Museum, the conservation of the machinery for the 120,000 visitors every year to appreciate the building as close as possible to its original state.
Description of the project by Foster + Partners
The powerhouse forms the centrepiece of an extraordinary group of buildings which share a vocabulary of red-painted exposed-steel I-beams, with an infill of industrial glazing and red brick. These magnificent structures, with their towering chimneys and vast halls, are celebrated within the complex as if cathedrals of the industrial age - none more so than the powerhouse, with its inner hall of colossal proportions, which is as impressive as any Gothic edifice. The challenge throughout the design of the new centre was to adapt this heroic building without fundamentally altering its character.
The first step was one of conservation, restoring the building’s facade and removing a number of later additions to reveal its original form. Inside, the heavy industrial feel of the building was maintained, with one of the five original boilers preserved as an example of 1930s technology. The remaining boilers were hollowed out to house independently supported galleries, which are articulated as ‘boxes within a box’, their lightness juxtaposed with the heaviness of the original fabric. A simple concrete cube contains conference rooms as well as further flexible exhibition spaces, able to be constantly updated in line with the shifting temporary and permanent collections. Visitors enter via the dramatic central hall where the rusty steel structure and exposed brick walls are constantly visible alongside the various displays - everything from cars to electrical appliances. The different exhibition areas and the interaction of old and new architectures create a varied backdrop for the location of exhibits, while the changing nature of the exhibitions themselves adds a further dynamic element to this relationship.
CREDITS. DATA SHEET.-
Architect.- Foster + Partners.
Date of completion.- 1997.
Area.- 5.000m².
Structural Engineer.- Arup (new structure) Weber, Hamelmann, Surmann (old structure).
M+E Engineer.- Ingenieur Büro G. Hoffmann.
Additional Consultants.- Buro Boll, Steidich & Partner.
