552 Pure Invention? – The Lamella Halls of the Aviation Pioneer Hugo Junkers <strong>2015</strong> ¥ 6 ∂ 17 Lamella structure reused as a pointed barrelvault hall: conference space in roof of “Leipziger Volkszeitung” building (condition in 2014) 18 Opel building in Leipzig: lamella construction for additional storey on roof, 1929 (condition in 2014) 17 Not far from this site, in Allach, Munich, are another two halls. They represent the last vestiges of the Junkers research department and motor works, which were established there after being expelled from Dessau. In Dessau itself, four of the 15 former halls are still in use. Another two are marked by having stood empty for many years. An early version of the all-metal form of construction, dating from 1929, extended some years later and used for industrial purposes until 1996, is the last surviving structure of the former calorifier works of Hugo Junkers and the steel construction department that were located there. After 2010, despite protests from notable organizations, the municipality removed these factory buildings, which, up to then, had survived largely in their original form. A small listed hangar from the neighbouring town of Köthen was removed in 20<strong>12</strong>, taken apart and the individual elements stored on the open site of Dessau’s Museum of Technology. An unusual form of the load-bearing structure still stands in Leipzig. In 1949, the intact elements of a partially ruined pointed barrelvault hall were re-erected on the flat roof of a publishing house. When the building complex was refurbished in 1996, the steel structure was rediscovered beneath the tim- ber cladding. Restored and enclosed within a glass skin, it now houses the impressive conference rooms of a newspaper, the “Leipziger Volkszeitung” (ill. 17). The lamella roof of the Opel building, dating from 1929 and also located in Leipzig, was erected to increase the height of a multistorey reinforced concrete structure. Used originally as a prestigious showroom for cars, it possesses a wonderful view, but is an almost forgotten garage today (ill. 18). One example outside Europe is in São Paolo: a station hall erected in the 1930s (ill. 15) and still used for its original purpose. Even if no trains now stop directly beneath the lamella structure and the roof has been reduced to roughly half its original length, it nevertheless forms the central entrance hall to the present-day urban station of Brás. In 2006, the hangar of the old airport in Liverpool was converted into the headquarters of a mail-order firm. In Skyways House, the almost 80-year-old structure curves over a modern open-plan office, creating a surprisingly up-to-date and spacious atmosphere beneath the diamondshaped grid (ill. 4). Unfortunately, examples of this kind of listed refurbishment are exceptions. The structural simplicity and astonishing lightness of the lamella halls that have survived, however, are reminders not only of the exceptional allround engineer Hugo Junkers. Their relevance in terms of building technology and history are reason enough to take decisive steps to halt the ultimate destruction with which many of them are threatened. In this way, the disappearance of one of the most significant witnesses to an age of industrial architecture and the early years of aviation could be prevented. 18 Joram Tutsch is a research assistant in the Department for Structural Planning of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Technology, Munich. There, he is in charge of the research project to develop a concept to rehabilitate the Junkers halls in Oberschleissheim. Sven Tornack is an architect who works in Leipzig. He is chairman of the society Industrial Culture Hugo Junkers. Professor Rainer Barthel is head of the abovementioned faculty of architecture.
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