dk nkf - Nordisk Konservatorforbund Danmark

Fig. 2: Design study for the main entrance by Bruno Moehring (published in: Bruno MOEHRING [1903-1909]: Stein und Eisen)
where he had seen a modern pavilion intended for
the Gutehoffnungshütte (GHH). He now decided to
abandon the traditional architectural approach and
have the engine house at the Zollern colliery – the
power house of the colliery and hence a building
of key importance on the site – constructed as a
contemporary steel skeleton framework, the panes
filled with bricks. This sober, purely functional
method of construction had been in existence for
around two decades and, till then, was mainly used
for less important buildings like coal wash plants,
boiler houses etc. Hence it tended to be disdained as
nothing more than an “engine shell”. There has been
much speculation as to the reasons for this sudden
194
change of attitude [5]. The most likely seems to have
been the time factor: the building needed to be put
up quickly because output quotas in the Ruhr mining
area were soon to be redistributed.
The building retained the style of an exhibition
pavilion and was further upgraded by generous areas
of stained-glass windows and additional design
elements and contemporary decorations. For this, the
company hired the well-known Berlin “Jugendstil”
architect, Bruno Möhring [6]. He was the man
who had designed the GHH exhibition pavilion in
Düsseldorf along with the chief constructor at GHH
in Oberhausen, Reinhold Krohn [7].