This museum exhibit extends and modernises the entrance to a prominent a steel forge in Northern Germany, re-housing a listed 1890s steam engine for public display.
The listed steam engine – the only operational example of its kind – was formerly located in an industrial building scheduled for demolition. It was decided that this engine should form part of an ‘open-air museum’ of industrial heritage, which Stahlwerk Augustfehn created by placing decomissioned forges around the semi-public areas of the company yard, thus elevating them as art objects.
To showcase this intricate piece of industrial machinery, the architects’ solution was to design a light-weight glass and steel annex as a visual foil to the existing building. The materials of the extension - steel, glass, and ceramic tiling – are a reference the ferro-vitreous typology of early industrial machine halls.
The steam engine is suspended over an open pit, housed in a ‘vitrine’ which sits on a cantilevered fair-faced concrete plinth. The fine detailing of the envelope and structure transform a piece of industrial heritage into a museum artefact. The flush glazing allows maximum visibility with minimal transoms at top and bottom whilst the exposed stainless steel columns, only 80mm in diameter, give the impression of being 'stretched' in order to dematerialise the structure and weight of the roof.
The listed steam engine is a twin cylinder design. The second, smaller cylinder, used the exhaust steam of the primary cylinder to increase the engine’s power and efficiency. This unusual design drove 16 open dye forging hammers. This steam engine generated electricity for lighting throughout the factory, which in this remote rural region was something of a novelty in the late 19th century.
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