Page 152 - AIT0617_E-Paper

BAR HOTEL RESTAURANT INNERE WERTE • INNER VALUES
Historische Innenansicht der Schwimmhalle • Historic inside view of the indoor swimming pool Als Volksbadeanstalt wurde das Stadtbad im Jahr 1902 eröffnet. • The city bath was opened in 1902
1 Eingang • Entrance
2 Vorderhaus • Fronthouse
3 Schwimmbecken • Swimming pool
4 Ehemaliger Männertrakt • Former male tract
5 Ehemaliger Frauentrakt • Former woman tract
6 Wasserturm • Watertower
4 original form as revolving door with ventilation lamellas, mainly with a new wooden
6 frame and covered with glass as sliding door. The hotel rooms are distributed over diffe-
2 rent levels in the front building, the former bath and shower cubicles in the men’s and
1 3
2 5
Grundriss Erdgeschoss • Ground plan
Längsschnitt • Longitudinal section
152 • AIT 6.2017
dishes integrated into the wall system can be used as pen trays. For larger seminar
rooms, the partition walls between the cubicles were removed and the wall stubs built
of clinker were faced with U-steel profiles. Since the partition walls are only 2 metres
high, the connection to the ceiling was provided with glass elements, thus creating fully
enclosed seminar rooms without losing the original spatial effect. Doors required for fire
protection and functional reasons were installed in the corridor walls as glass-and-steel
doors, while the original wooden doors with ventilation lamellas, which were too nar-
row, were maintained alongside and covered with glass elements. The no longer required
wooden doors were reused in the hotel rooms as bathroom doors: partly pure in their
women’s wing as well as five newly inserted levels in the “water tower”. Owing to the
building structure, they are all unique and often show height differences in the ceiling
and the floor. Considering the connection to the language centre, all hotel rooms were
equipped with comfortable workplaces. The execution planning of the rooms and bath-
rooms was particularly elaborate because each wall had to be considered individually.
In the attic of the front building, two apartments for eight respectively four people were
laid out. Two lifts were positioned in a staircase converted back to its original condition
in 1936; the one with a three-sided insulation glazing runs across the roof and provides
access to all hotel rooms in the front building as well as the men’s and women’s wing.
Events with up to 800 people are again possible
The centrepiece of the project was and still is the swimming pool on the ground floor.
Originally constructed as a public pool with a length of 20 metres, it was extended to 25
metres training length under the Nazi government. The stairways as a typical access at the
time of construction were maintained. In the course of the recent restoration, the original
length of 20 metres was reconstructed to additionally create a storeroom in the basement
as well as a gathering space in front of the pool in cases of emergency. Due to the cracks
in the old basin and the level base plate required for the lifting technology, the complete
pool was newly constructed and “placed” inside the old basin. The granite pool edge sto-
nes were repositioned to allow their reuse, and the overflow channel was newly installed
in the old basin according to specifications. The colours of the original tiles could not be
precisely determined because only black-and-white photographs from the time of con-
struction exist. In collaboration with the monument preservation authority, colours in
green-turquoise shades were worked out and fired in the historically predefined shapes.
This room already served as an event location when the building was abandoned; in view
of its dilapidated charm it was regarded as typical for Berlin after the turnaround in the
Prenzlauer Berg District. This use was continued during the planning phase, and the clients
regretted that it would no longer be possible in the future as it would be too expensive to
drain the water for each event hosted in the refurbished indoor pool.