Engine shed in Mannheim, Germany

A place between two his­tor­i­cal railway build­ings becomes a living centre in the newly de­vel­oped Glückstein Quarter near the main railway station of Mannheim. The engine shed and work­shop built in the 1870s are among the oldest parts of the old railway station and are now being re-ac­ti­vated as part of the mod­ernised dis­trict’s mixed util­i­sa­tion concept. While the work­shop build­ing will become a restau­rant, the ar­chi­tect Matthias Jarcke already set up his firm in the re­stored engine shed in 2018. Prior to this, his firm had been com­mis­sioned with mod­ernising and reded­i­cat­ing the listed build­ing.

In its form as a simple hall, the engine shed stands out by its façade of even masonry con­sist­ing of mottled sand­stone. The long side walls are clearly struc­tured by sand­stone pi­lasters. On the north side, two in­ter­posed windows open up the view to the Mannheim railway station. There are is entered by three larger former en­trance and exit gates below both gables, with a sym­met­ri­cally po­si­tioned round window placed above them. On its verge, the gable is dec­o­rated by or­na­men­tal steps. The visible roof struc­ture with its large number of wooden beams pre­serves the charm of an old in­dus­trial build­ing even after its ren­o­va­tion and reded­i­ca­tion. The long sky­light near the roof ridge pro­vides the rooms with day­light.

The engine shed has its roots in the ear­li­est days of Mannheim’s railway history. Orig­i­nally, thee steam lo­co­mo­tives were ser­viced here on stands with a length of 50 metres. Railway tracks led through the elon­gated hall. The oblong, brick-lined troughs, where ser­vic­ing work could be carried out from below, are still recog­nis­able today. For entry and exit of the lo­co­mo­tives, the large steel gates below the gables were opened. The shed was one of the first build­ings in the suburb of Lin­den­hof, which was then still rel­a­tively un­de­vel­oped and where now the con­struc­tion of the Glückstein Quarter is in full swing. In those days, it assumed some very or­di­nary every­day func­tions for the rapidly in­creas­ing number of the young suburb’s in­hab­i­tants, in ad­di­tion to its tech­ni­cal role. Since there was no water supply system at the time, the Lin­den­hof cit­i­zens had to fetch their drink­ing water once a week from the well in the engine shed.

In their reded­i­ca­tion of the build­ing, the ar­chi­tects wanted to pre­serve the pro­tected cul­tural mon­u­ment, which was of such great sig­nif­i­cance for the neigh­bour­hood, as much as they could. On the one hand, there is, of course, a piece of in­dus­trial con­struc­tion history at stake. On the other hand, the ar­chi­tect also wanted the best pos­si­ble place for his firm. He found the con­trast between modern in­te­rior design and the “old, rough shell” of the engine shed just the right setting to create an in­spir­ing place for cre­ative work. His concept orients itself on the open hall char­ac­ter of the ex­ist­ing build­ing and in­te­grates the in­dus­trial core of the orig­i­nal ar­chi­tec­ture with its visible roof and wooden support struc­ture on pillars.

The team around Matthias Jarcke spent two years on cau­tiously re­vi­tal­is­ing the engine shed. The sand­stone masonry and the wooden beams were care­fully cleaned, so that the entire sub­stance could be pre­served. The huge iron gates at the en­trances to the engine shed were also re­stored. But in spite of all their metic­u­lous care to pre­serve the ex­ist­ing pro­tected build­ing, it was nat­u­rally also im­por­tant for the ar­chi­tects as new users of the house to meet all modern re­quire­ments for a con­tem­po­rary office build­ing. For example, the im­pres­sive sky­light in the roof struc­ture was re­placed by modern patent glazing, thus bring­ing fil­tered light into the rooms, which is par­tic­u­larly pleas­ant to work in.

A sus­pended ceiling built into parts of the build­ing, which pre­serves much of the orig­i­nal free space at its centre, pro­vides ad­di­tional office space. Jarcke Ar­chitek­ten now has a total of 800 square metres of ef­fec­tive floor space at its dis­posal.

As for handles, which are modern in terms of form and tech­nol­ogy, yet har­monise well with the style of pro­tected build­ings without dis­rupt­ing them, the ar­chi­tects chose the model FSB 1244. In sand-blasted and black an­odised alu­minium, it has been in­stalled as window handles, bath­room fit­tings, framed door fit­tings, door handle sets and as glass door fit­tings on the new glass doors in the im­pres­sive large en­trance gates.