dortmunder u CENTRE FOR ART AND CREATIVITY

14
THE VISUAL ARTS rePLACE
THE ART OF brewING
Prof. Dr. Falk Jaeger
THE ARCHITECTURE FOR THE TRANS-
FORMATION OF THE STORAGE TOWER INTO
A CREATIVE PLACE
A cracked, rather unattractive block, a solitary figure
in the middle of an uninhabited industrial wasteland,
impressive and also slightly scary; inside, eight moderately
well lit, uniform storeys – it was certainly no
easy task, to build a Centre for Art and Creativity into
this problematic and unconventional relic of Dortmund’s
brewing tradition.
The architect Professor Eckhard Gerber from Dortmund
and his colleagues won one of two Second
Prizes in the architects’ competition (a First Prize
was not awarded) and were able to win through with
their design at a later stage of the process. Their
work was different from that of their competitors
principally in the way they proposed opening up the
building. While musea and media people are not
exactly unhappy with limited daylight from small
windows, because they like to work with controlled
artificial light anyway, visitors and also architects
like light, air and an impression of space. Many
competition entrants planned therefore to knock
light shafts through the building, which would on the
one hand provide extra light, and on the other hand
create a spatial connection between the building’s
floors. But the openness desired by these designs
had no chance of being realized, because the floors
were to be used by different institutions and because
such shafts would have contravened safety and fire
considerations.
Gerber Architects found another way to enable a
whole-building experience. They suggested taking
out the first section of ceiling along the east side of
the building on all levels, thus creating an atrium
of the building’s full height between the outer wall
and the floors. This “vertical art space” would open
up the building and enable visitors to experience
the historical building’s dimensions and aura. At the
same time the atrium creates an optical and physical
connection between the floors and their institutions,
a prerequisite for the desired synergy effect and the
multifunctional use of the building. This vertical art
space, along with the connection between the spaces
in the building and the annexe as well as the large
sky-lit hall, that Gerber Architects offered to create
on the 6th floor, were the decisive factors for the
decision to entrust the task to the Dortmund office.
After the façades and the roof pergola had been
renovated and the roofs had been renewed in accordance
with listed building guidelines, at the beginning
of 2008 the work could begin. The rejuvenation
treatment took effect. By removing traces of annexed
buildings and previous conversions and through the
renovation of the façades the building’s original quality
and dignity could be seen to its best advantage.
Fundamental to the conversion design are also the
brave additions to the seemingly impermeable old
building. They signal new subject matter and the
openness of the Centre for Art and Creativity vis-àvis
the city. They bring more light to the interior and
they offer space for particular functions: whether
it’s the glass porch on the ground floor, that acts as
Two-floor atrium, connecting the Museum Floors 4 and 5 © Gerber Architects, Photo: Hans Jürgen Landes
a draught excluder and as an entrance hall; or the
narrow, three-storey-high glass oriel on the western
side; or the VIP-Lounge, which sticks out of the façade
as a lookout on the 4th floor; or the two-storey
Library protruding on the 5th floor. They all signal to
the outside world that a new spirit with new substance
has taken up residence inside the old walls.
Immediately after crossing the blood-red porch and
entering the atrium, the visitor has an impression of
the whole building’s interior. The vertical art space
opens up above, the eye is pulled magically upwards.
Escalators offer a comfortable way of exploring
the upper storeys. But first the path leads straight
ahead into the ground-floor hall: a foyer, marketplace,
orientation point, but also a first art venue, where the
projections of a series of panorama pictures by Adolf
Winkelmann put you in the mood for the contents of
this cultural storage space. To the left is a hall, the
RWE Forum, which serves both as an events room
and as a cinema and which houses the International
Women’s Film Festival Dortmund | Cologne; to the
right is a cloakroom; straight ahead is the bistro/café.
The space on the west side in front of the café is
named after Emil Moog, the architect of the brewery
storage tower.
The journey up from the foyer on the escalator is
a special architectural experience, taking place in a
sphere between an outer wall which strives upwards
right to the top floor, and the modern floors
carried by strong concrete pillars and joists. The
First Floor is reserved for Dortmund’s universities.
The TU Dortmund University and the University of
Applied Sciences and Arts are represented here by
their media-specific institutes. Two central halls of
flexible usage are surrounded by offices and seminar
rooms. Like the outlying rooms the central media
room also has glass walls which give it contact
to what’s going on in the event halls. The Second
Floor of the Centre for Cultural Education, which is
currently divided up with temporary structures, is
planned to have a similar interior structure, with a
large internal room and a lecture hall in the middle
as well as outlying office and conference rooms;
whereas the Third Floor, belonging to the Hartware
MedienKunstVerein will remain mostly free of dividing
walls and will be fitted with temporary compartments
and media installations. The higher, almost
six-metre high rooms on floors 4 and 5 now house
the Museum Ostwall. Its entrance is a two-storey
high atrium on the south side of the tower which connects
both floors and enables visitors to easily orient