| Simone Andrea Mayer |
LEIPZIG, Germany (dpa) – Europe’s quaint old cities look great on postcards, but affluent people are rarely willing to actually live in those damp, draughty buildings that hark back to bygone ages.
Converting a run-down former industrial building, for example, into a chic, loft-style dwelling is a technically daunting prospect.
But some Germans are not easily put off. Even when the dilapidated object of desire is little more than a ruin, the enthusiastic renovators will roll up their sleeves and seek ways to insert mod-cons between the ancient walls.
The main attraction is the price: In many German cities, old factories can be bought for a song.
Former factories and workshops are often transformed into cavernous double-height living spaces with free-flowing open-plan designs demarcated by structural metal poles and even old machinery from the former owners.
This old brick factory in the eastern German city of Leipzig has been turned into a spacious residential building comprising four loft-style apartments
One multi-family home in the eastern city of Leipzig is a good example of the enormous effort needed to soften the look of an industrial building while retaining its character.
The brick facade of this edifice is time-worn. A steel girder sticking out of the building is the remnant of an old crane used to winch in supplies. From outside the only clue to the new residential use comes from the generously sized windows which admit a large amount of light.
The interior of the Leipzig building has retained features of its former life. The former vestibule and stairs blend into the new design and individual walls have been left with old bricks exposed on the inside.
Not everyone would feel comfortable with the redundant belt-drive components hanging off the walls on the ground floor, but that gritty look is the way the owners like it.
“The place was full of this stuff and that contributes to its appeal,” said architect and part owner Hauke Herberg.
The moth-balled plant has been divided up into three self-contained private apartments and one rental unit. Timber flooring throughout brings warmth. Where men and women once toiled for a living, residents relax by cooking or playing the piano.
When Herberg and his associates bought the property, it was virtually falling apart. Only the outside walls were intact. Renovators faced the challenge of not only turning this space into a home but complying with stringent German building regulations at the same time.
German rules demand a high level of insulation to avoid wasting expensive energy and heat in winter time. That means a renovated building has to comply with the same standards as a brand-new building.
Insulation in a cooler nation like Germany is a problem in buildings which were never designed to be residential homes. Packing on exterior foam insulation would ruin the building’s appearance, whereas insulating the walls from the inside might cause the masonry to become moist and mouldy.
Herberg and his team chose an unusual but effective solution. They came up with a house inside the house. Installed behind the facade is a wooden construction anchored to the inside walls with steel ties. This ensures that the historic brick exterior is properly ventilated, while inside the house the level of warmth actually exceeds regulation requirements.
An upright piano (left), big windows and a kitchen (right) inside the factory-turned-residential building. PHOTOS: DPA
Other ancient buildings have very thick walls, which means that supplementary insulation is not required but the buildings are hard to alter.
A property owned by Regina Schineis in the old artisan’s district of the city of Passau, on the Austrian border, is actually part of the city’s old defensive wall and it goes back to 1800.
It used to house student garrets and some of the smaller rooms have very low ceilings of only 1.7 metres. Kitchen facilities were cramped and tiny and there were no proper bathrooms. The toilets were located outside in the garden.
“People used to take a shower in the kitchen,” said the architect.
Schineis wanted to keep the look and feel of her house and came up with the idea of opening up the internal walls of a series of little rooms in line with each other to create an illusion of more space and an entirely new perspective.
The view extends right through the set of rooms, rather like in a museum.
The only generous space in this cramped old building was under the roof and this has been replaced to create new quarters.
Probing the crumbling walls, Schineis discovered windows that had been walled up and put glass back into them. She found a niche that may have once been a little household shrine.
She believes the main issue when looking for an old building to renovate is whether or not the structure has previously been tampered with.
“Many old buildings in Germany have been spoilt by their so-called renovation, particularly in the 1970s”, she said.
“You also cannot turn an old factory into an ultra-modern dwelling,” said Schineis, who believes in renovating a house with warts and all. It’s best to accept the disadvantages and dub them part of the charm of the place.
The local authority gave her permission to modernise the frontage of her Passau home, but she decided against doing so.
“It would have changed the structure of the house entirely.”
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