Historical sewage treatment plant Krefeld / Historisches Klärwerk Krefeld
(Architect / Architekt Georg Bruggaier, 1909)
www.duelks.de/architektur-des-18-19-und-fruhen-20-jahrh
"What now, old sewage treatment plant?
The sewage treatment plant is a monument, one of the oldest surviving mechanical cleaning systems and is being extensively and carefully repaired since 2018, until 2025. It can therefore only be visited on special dates.
The plant built in 1909 by the then velvet and silk city of Krefeld represented the completion of modern city drainage, the underground canalisation.
Since the peak of industrialization, sewage has disappeared into an invisible city beneath the city and was the first man-made network to ensure the reliable transport of pathogens and waste, but also industrial production residues, out of the city.
The new problems of pollution that immediately arise elsewhere as a result should be alleviated by sewage treatment plants.
The Krefeld sewage treatment plant was built near the receiving waters of the Rhine, but still directly in front of the town of Uerdingen on the Rhine, far away from Krefeld. It was initially state-of-the-art, but remained in operation surprisingly unchanged until 1962 and cleaned mechanically, with fine rakes, the waste water of the city of Krefeld and also of the industrial plants in the Rhine port near Krefeld-Linn, which was inaugurated in 1906 and built river above Uerdingen.
The sewage treatment plant consists of the large and high sewage treatment hall, served both as a flood pumping station and an electrical overland distribution station and has other adjoining parts of the building, all of which were made of reinforced concrete, which was a new building material at the time, as column-free halls, designed organically in Art Nouveau style, as so-called concrete monoliths.
The area of the cleaning plant is designed as a park landscape, the specially existing visitor portal allows guests to take a look at one of the most modern achievements of the time in architecture, public hygiene and environmental protection, even before the latter two technical terms had become common parlance.
Due to coincidences in history, the sewage treatment plant survived the Second World War almost undamaged and was preserved even after it was decommissioned in 1962. From 1980-1998 it was converted into a sewage pumping station and artist studio. In the process, however, some technical installations were lost and, despite the monument protection granted in 1982, installations and considerable damage were also done to the house. After the house stood empty as a lost place for twenty years, overgrown with vegetation, with major vandalism damage, it was rediscovered in 2018 and has been lovingly repaired ever since.
A sewage treatment plant from the history of its origin is so rare today, worldwide, that together with the sewage treatment plant Stará Čistírna in Prague, which was nominated for the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List, of probably several hundred of these structures in all major cities in Europe and North America only two of the oldest specimens have survived in a respectable manner.
The Krefeld sewage treatment plant can experience the future as an extraordinary venue for art and culture and as a water museum. For this reason, access is only possible to a limited extent for the time being due to various repairs.
For the city anniversary [650 years of Krefeld] in September and October 2023, it will hopefully be able to open its doors to a broad public for the first time." [...]
(translated from www.klaerwerk-krefeld.org)
"Was nun, altes Klärwerk?
Das Klärwerk ist ein Baudenkmal, eine der ältesten erhaltenen mechanischen Reinigungsanlagen und wird seit 2018 bis 2025 aufwändig und schonend instandgesetzt. Es ist daher nur zu besonderen Terminen zu besichtigen.
Die 1909 erbaute Anlage der damaligen Samt- und Seidenstadt Krefeld stellte den Abschluss der modernen Stadtentwässerung, der unterirdischen Kanalisierung dar.
Abwässer verschwanden seit der Hochphase der Industrialisierung in einer unsichtbaren Stadt unter der Stadt und sorgten als erstes menschengemachtes Netzwerk für den zuverlässigen Transport von Krankheitserregern und Abfall, aber auch Produktionsrückständen der Industrie hinaus aus der Stadt.
Die dadurch unmittelbar an anderem Ort entstehenden neuen Probleme der Verschmutzung sollten durch Abwasser-Kläranlagen gemildert werden.
Das Krefelder Klärwerk wurde nahe des Vorfluters Rhein, aber noch unmittelbar vor der Stadt Uerdingen am Rhein auf deren Grund, fernab von Krefeld erbaut. Es war zuerst auf dem Stand der Technik, blieb aber erstaunlich unverändert bis 1962 in Betrieb und reinigte mechanisch, mit feinen Rechen, das Abwasser der Stadt Krefeld und auch der Industriebetriebe im 1906 eingeweihten Rheinhafen bei Krefeld-Linn, flussoberhalb von Uerdingen erbaut.
Das Klärwerk besteht aus der großen und hohen Klärhalle, diente zugleich als Hochwasserpumpwerk und elektrische Überland-Verteilstation und hat weitere angrenzende Gebäudeteile, die allesamt im damals neuartigen Baustoff Eisenbeton als stützenfreie Hallen, insgesamt im Jugendstil organisch gestaltet, als sogenannte Beton-Monolithen einzigartig geformt wurden.
Das Gelände der Reinigungsanlage ist als eine Parklandschaft ausgebildet, das eigens vorhandene Besucherportal erlaubt für Gäste den Blick in eine der damals modernsten Errungenschaften der Baukunst, öffentlichen Hygiene und des Umweltschutzes, schon bevor letztere beiden Fachwörter in den allgemeinen Sprachgebrauch übergegangen waren.
Durch Zufälle der Geschichte überlebte das Klärwerk fast unbeschädigt den zweiten Weltkrieg und blieb auch nach seiner Außerdienststellung 1962 erhalten. Von 1980-1998 wurde es umgenutzt als Abwasser-Pumpstation und Künstler-Atelier. Dabei gingen allerdings einige technische Einbauten verloren und dem Haus wurden, trotz des 1982 gewährten Denkmalschutzes, auch Einbauten und erhebliche Schäden zugefügt. Nachdem das Haus danach zwanzig Jahre als Lost Place leer stand, eingewachsen in Vegetation, mit großen Vandalismus Schäden, wurde es 2018 erneut entdeckt und seit dem liebevoll instand gesetzt.
Eine Kläranlage aus der Entstehungsgeschichte ist heute, weltweit betrachtet, so selten, dass zusammen mit der Kläranlage Stará Čistírna in Prag, die für die UNESCO-Weltkulturerbe-Tentativliste nominiert wurde, von vermutlich mehreren hundert dieser Bauwerke in allen größeren Städten Europas und Nordamerikas nur zwei der ältesten Exemplare ansehenlich überliefert sind.
Die Zukunft kann das Krefelder Klärwerk als außergewöhnlicher Veranstaltungsort für Kunst und Kultur und als Wasser-Museum erleben. Deswegen ist der Zugang vorerst, aufgrund verschiedene Instandsetzungen, aber nur eingeschränkt möglich.
Zum Stadtjubiläum [650 Jahre Krefeld] im September und Oktober 2023 wird es hoffentlich erstmalig seine Pforten einem breiten Publikum öffnen können." [...]
(www.klaerwerk-krefeld.org)
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"Saluting Admiral Couple
At the request of the city of Antwerp, the Antwerp artist Guillaume Bijl created the artwork Saluting Admiral Couple for the fifth anniversary of the MAS. The work gives the monumental building a playful and surprising touch.
For this artwork, Guillaume Bijl was inspired by the area of the port with its multitude of (cruise) ships. The Saluting Admiral Couple appears to have become lost during a walk around the city and have accidently landed upon the shoulder of the MAS. Passers by can see the couple out on the 8th floor from below.
Saluting Admiral Couple, 2016 (unique work)
Figurative, two human figures. (height 185 cm and 175 cm)
Approximate weight: 100 kg per figure
Painted bronze
Artwork on the shoulder of the MAS
Ever since the concept phase of the MAS, it was the wish of Neutelings Riedijk Architects to realise art integration. The ‘shoulder’ of the MAS on the 8th floor – a cove in the architecture next to the promenade – was the perfect place for this artwork.
[...]
About Guillaume Bijl
Guillaume Bijl (°1946) is an Antwerp artist with an impressive international career. After his notable debut exhibition in 1979 (Driving Z arena Z), he broke through interntionally (1988 Belgian Pavilion Venice Biënnale, 1922 Documenta 9, Kassel, 1992 Biënnale Sydney; 1993 Biënnale Lyon; 2007 Sculpture Project Kassel; 2016 Manifesta Zürich). His installations can be seen all over the world. From 2001 to 2011 he was the professor of sculpture at the art academy Münster. In 2012 he won the quadrennial oeuvre art prize from the City of Antwerp. He is concerned with the fate of aspiring artists, and is one of the driving forces behind the artists organisation NICC vzw.
For more than 30 years, Guillaume Bijl has been transforming museum spaces and art galleries such as Driving (1979), an Atomic Bomb Shelter (1985), a Stemhokkenmuseum – voting station (2000), and a Mattress Discount (2003). In these three-dimensional still lives, there is not usually a precise reconstruction of the subject, but a stereotype. Bijl’s artistic form is so realistic that the viewer can often not tell if it is fiction or reality. This creates a moment of alienation. It exposes our leisure and consumerism as an empty decor culture.
The artist recently began to make figurative sculptures. They are artisan made and manufactured in bronze or aluminium. Just look at his image Festive Series (2014) on the Europaplein at the Rai (Zuidas Amsterdam), or Ein neuer erfolgreicher Tag (2008) in Wuppertal (Germany)."
(mas.be/en/page/saluting-admiral-couple)
Notice how the curved glass panel has distorted the body dimensions of the figures.
In the background, between the museum and the river Scheldt, you can see the harbour pilot building with its distinctive tower.
Tags: Navy Saluting Admiral Couple 2022 distortion glass façade Flamen raindrop Antwerp Regen Regentropfen Loodsgebouw artwork raindrops deck Kunstwerk Figur art Bronze pilots' building Museum by the Stream Marine Flanders Lotsengebäude Verzerrung glass Uniform Neutelings Riedijk Architects Glas Kunst Antwerpen Museum am Strom Museum figure MAS Museum aan de Stroom Guillaume Bijl Glasfassade rain River Scheldt Schelde
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Not the hottest architecture shit anymore but still highly attractive for an Antwerp newbie like me. I do like the building!
"The Museum aan de Stroom (known as MAS; Dutch for: Museum by the Stream) is a museum located along the river Scheldt in the Eilandje district of Antwerp, Belgium. It opened in May 2011 and is the largest museum in Antwerp. [...]
The 60-metre-high (200 ft) MAS was designed by Neutelings Riedijk Architects. The façade is made of Indian red sandstone and curved glass panel construction. It is an example of postmodern Art Deco architecture. The MAS houses 470,000 objects, most of which are kept in storage. The first visitor's gallery is the "visible store", which contains 180,000 items. The building is located on the spot where the Hanzahuis used to stand. International merchants worked and resided at the Hanzehuis. In the nineteenth century a fire destroyed the building.
Collection and exhibitions
The central focus of the MAS is Antwerp and its connection to the world. The MAS collection ranges from maritime objects which document international trade and shipping, to the history, art and culture of the port city of Antwerp and to art and culture from Europe, Africa, America, Asia and Oceania. The MAS develops thematic exhibitions which connect local and global culture, art and history. The museum is committed to informing the public using new media and immersive presentations. [...]"
(Wikipedia)
Tags: Sandstein 2022 Architektur Postmoderne Antwerpen sandstone Museum by the Stream glass façade Flamen Museum am Strom Flanders River Scheldt Museum aan de Stroom postmodernism bollard Antwerp glass Glas Fassade Museum Neutelings Riedijk Architects MAS architecture facade Glasfassade colour-keying Schelde Poller Belgium
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The last night of an inspiring vacation in Tuscany
Old Church of Gorfigliano (Chiesa Vecchia di Gorfigliano),
seen from Lake Gramolazzo (Lago di Gramolazzo)
Apuan Alps, Tuscany, Italy
Tags: Nacht illumination 2022 tricolour nightshot church Apuanische Alpen Blaue Stunde Nachtaufnahme Trikolore Beleuchtung Kirche Lake Gramolazzo Gorfigliano blue hour Apuan Alps night flag Flagge Gramolazzosee Lago di Gramolazzo Lucca Tuscany Italy
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Hermitage of Calomini
Tuscany, Italy
Photo in Explore 18.05.2023
Tags: Toskana Eremo di Calomini Tuscany Apuanische Alpen monochrom Toscana monastery Hermitage Eremitage Apuan Alps Kloster 2022 monochrome b/w s/w Lucca Italy
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