Skjern River Pump Stations / Johansen Skovsted Arkitekter

Curated by Julio Effa
INFRASTRUCTURE • RINGKØBING-SKJERN, DENMARK
Architects : Johansen Skovsted Arkitekter
Area : 570 m²
Year : 2015
Photographs : Rasmus Norlander
Manufacturers : Metsa Woods, Superwood, Leca, Polyglas
Collaborators : Søren Johansen, Sebastian Skovsted, Laura Boelskifte, Phoebe Cowen In collaboration with : Bertelsen & Scheving Arkitekter ApS
Engineer : Ingeniørgruppen Vestjylland ApS
Contractor : Hansen & Larsen A/S
Client : Ringkøbing-Skjern Kommune
Project Funded By : Realdania – Stedet Tæller, and LAG-Ringkøbing-Skjern
City : Ringkøbing-Skjern
Country : Denmark

Textual content description supplied by the architects. The undertaking is a conversion of three pump stations initially constructed within the late 1960s in reference to the big land reclamation undertaking the place Skjern River was straightened out. A lot of environmental issues had been related to this alignment of the river, resulting in the river being restored to its unique run in 2002. On this manner an unlimited and wealthy pure space reappeared with many guests.

The unique pump stations contained underground water chambers, massive halls for the pumps, storage rooms and excessive voltage rooms. The unique pumps within the pump corridor had been basically taken out of operation and there was established a brand new kind of pumps situated within the underground water chambers. On this manner, the higher a part of the building was now not in use. A framework for the brand new lifetime of the realm has been supplied with the rebuilding and extension of the over floor elements of the three pump stations, within the type of exhibition areas, indoor and outside viewpoints to look out over the panorama, rooms for various sorts of occasions, and accessibility for disabled.

Typically, the unique pump stations are detailed alike however completely different in dimension and form. In the identical manner the brand new additions to the three pump stations are each the identical and completely different. The extensions and the brand new inside building components are primarily easy picket constructions and reiterate the scale and rhythm of the unique pump stations’ concrete reduction. This creates a direct hyperlink between the outdated structure and the brand new, whereas including a brand new materials and one other texture that’s pleasing to the contact. With this element, the cladding and the primary structure turn out to be one, lowering the complexity of the building, which is mirrored within the funds in addition to the ultimate expression.

Myhrwold and Rasmussen engineered the unique pump stations to be unsentimental and uncooked of their materiality, and the vertical reduction of the concrete façades reminds us of the encompassing ploughed furrows of the fields, and profiles of the soil that management the run of the river. Within the conversion of the three pump stations the goal has been that the person pump stations would nonetheless seem as a united entire, to problem their huge and heavy character and improve their determine within the panorama, and so as to add a human scale and materiality.

The undertaking exemplifies how the transformation of ”the destructive heritage” can fill the aim of mediating between a repressed previous and modern life.

Robinson Adey

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