In \u015aL\u0104SK 03.\/2019 issue a text \u201cUthemann Yesterday and Tomorrow\u201d treating on Uthemann Zink Plant Office Building located in Katowice-Szopienice was published. The remnants of the Plant are being transformed into office-service-storage building according to ATELIER PS project. Marek Skwara writes about historical inspirations of the architects Emil and Georg Zillman, former and future life of the object and current artistic events which take place in the building. Some, large format graffiti photographs accompany architectural pictures.<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The design of the Hall and the Management of Uthemann Zink Plant obtained a building permit in 1911. Today, together with the water tower, it is one of the last remaining buildings of a huge industrial complex of a zinc smelter operating on an area of 150,000 m2, built by the Georg von Giesche's Erben mining and metallurgical concern at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in Szopienice, today's district of Katowice. The hall was originally the seat of the company's management board, it served as a meeting place for employees, it housed the production and design offices of the steelworks, and laboratories. It was included in the multi-level spatial layout of the steelworks, connected by railroad flyovers, organized along the north-south and east-west axes.<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The design was developed by architects Emil and Georg Zillman, born in Mi\u0119dzyrzecz, in today's Lubuskie Province, in the early 1870s. Educated at the Royal University of Technology in Charlottenburg near Berlin, they founded a joint design office in 1902. After designing the reconstruction of the manor house in Za\u0142\u0119\u017ce in Katowice in 1905 and in 1906 the Metallurgical Hospital in Ro\u017adzie\u0144, they became its court architects. Authors of, among others, famous housing estates in Giszowiec and Nikiszowiec in Katowice and the Szombierki heat and power plant in Bytom, reminiscent of brick, medieval fortified castles in Pomerania.<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The construction of the hall of the hall was completed in 1912, i.e. the monumental Centennial Hall by Max Berg in Wroc\u0142aw, similar to the reinforced concrete structure, was built. Architects, however, could have drawn direct inspiration from a different building. It was the Market Hall in Wroc\u0142aw, which was built according to the design of Richard Pl\u00fcddemann and Heinrich K\u00fcster in 1906-08. Its structure is made of reinforced concrete parabolic arches with dimensions comparable to the Szopienice building: support spacing 20.65 m and a height of just over 17 m. All these objects - of which the Huta Uthemann hall is somewhat forgotten, are among the first structures of this type in today's Poland. What's more, they are pioneering engineering achievements of reinforced concrete construction in the world.<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n
W\u0142a\u015bcicielem obiektu od kliku lat jest firma Silesia Jeans. \u017bmudne prace prowadzone od lat maj\u0105 na celu przywr\u00f3cenie obiektu wsp\u00f3\u0142czesno\u015bci, gotowego na przyj\u0119cie wsp\u00f3\u0142czesnych funkcji biurowo-us\u0142ugowo-magazynowych, ekspozycyjnych i restauracyjnych. Obiekt docelowo w spos\u00f3b modelowy pokazywa\u0107 ma jak mo\u017cna prowadzi\u0107 konstruktywny dialog przesz\u0142o\u015bci z tera\u017aniejszo\u015bci\u0105, by wzbogaca\u0107 ustanowiony na \u015al\u0105sku Szlak Zabytk\u00f3w Techniki i dzisiejszy krajobraz regionu nie tylko o wyremontowan\u0105, ogl\u0105dan\u0105 wy\u0142\u0105cznie w ramach Industriady skamielin\u0119 postprzemys\u0142owego skansenu, ale w funkcjonuj\u0105cy pe\u0142nowarto\u015bciowo i wsp\u00f3\u0142cze\u015bnie obiekt \u015bl\u0105skiego przemys\u0142owego dziedzictwa. By jednak nie czeka\u0107 na ten moment z za\u0142o\u017conymi r\u0119kami, to ju\u017c w trakcie prowadzenia prac renowacyjnych odbywa\u0142y si\u0119 w nim koncerty, imprezy rave, akcje performance, wystawy i happeningi z udzia\u0142em profesjonalnych artyst\u00f3w, a \u015blady ich dzia\u0142a\u0144 w postaci wielkoformatowych graffiti pojawia\u0142y si\u0119 na chwil\u0119 w jego wn\u0119trzach i …. znika\u0142y. Czasem jednak udawa\u0142o si\u0119 je zanotowa\u0107 na matrycy aparatu fotograficznego, by uchroni\u0107 je od ca\u0142kowitego niebytu i zapomnienia.<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n