dk nkf - Nordisk Konservatorforbund Danmark

Fig 10: 1:1 mockup as a trial for recreating the stained glass
windows (N. Tempel, LWL-Industriemuseum, Dortmund, 2008)
monument of this kind means that we have to find
a balance between safeguarding the authenticity of
the monument, redeveloping it for new usages and
deciding on the best way to conserve the building
on a long-term basis. The building is in a vulnerable
state and we have to develop effective, constant and
durable methods of care and maintenance in order
to ensure its long-term preservation.
The scope and complexity of
the challenge
The engine house spans an area of around 2000 m²
(Length 96.47 m, width 22.14 m, height of the eaves
14 m, top of the roof 20.3 m). Unfortunately the
cellars, where the engine foundations are laid out,
are very damp. This is a typical Jugendstil building
not only because of the dialogue between different
building materials such as steel, brick and glass;
but also because the façade may be considered as
a semi-permeable membrane. Unfortunately the
building structure itself has turned out to be semipermeable
in the negative sense of the word: the
specific Jugendstil building design is responsible
for the poor quality of construction.
As late as the 1970s damage to the building had
reached such an extent that it was necessary to
conduct a comprehensive corrective maintenance.
This included repainting the interior according to
the taste of the time, despite the fact that it was
on the whole even then possible to recognize and
deduce what the original appearance had been. The
198
changes were – as most of them before that – in no
way documented systematically [11].
Before we began the current process of comprehensive
restoration, we submitted the building to
a thoroughgoing programme of examination with
regard to its constructional history, the building
construction and static, hazardous substances in the
building and its technical equipment [12], and how
it had been painted over the years.
As a result we established that the following major
interventions were inevitable:
- Checking and partly renewing all the column
bases, the major load-bearing elements and the
sheet plates of the steel trelliswork.
- Roof repairs (the membrane and parts of the
wooden rafters, rain gutters and down pipes)
- Repairs to all window constructions
- Dampproof insulation work on the exterior
wall of the cellar, the installation of a drainage
system and the lowering of the groundwater
table.
This work involved:
- opening up the exterior walls in the substructure
area and cladding the interior substructure
which consisted of the remains of the original
marble panels, plastering and other substitute
materials
- Opening up the wall in the area where the
steel trelliswork had to be repaired, in order to
create the necessary working space. This also
involved the loss of the great majority of the
plasterwork on the interior wall, most of which
was damaged anyway [13].
New usages for the museum
and their effects
Before the engine house was closed for restoration
work it was open to the general public for a long
time (1985-2007) for occasional major exhibitions
during the summer months, and other special events
some of which used their own heating arrangements.
During this period we were able to gather a lot of
knowledge and experience. It is clear that the climatic
conditions in the engine house have been exceedingly