2021-03-19
Construction work, as at 19 March 2021
A year ago, there was still a large excavation pit at Wilhelmstrasse 1. Now the building that has been erected in the meantime is going to have part of its lid put on. A few days ago, the construction workers were able to complete the first roof section for the upper floor. In order to process enough cement at this height in as short a time as possible, a concrete pump with a spectacularly long boom and a reach of 63 metres was used. It propelled 285 cubic metres of concrete on to the museum roof, which was then spread to make a ceiling that is approximately 50 cm thick. Depending on the span, the concrete ceilings in the construction are between 25 and 50 cm thick; to reduce the load with a large span, Cobiax plastic balls were also used here again. We already reported on this innovative process here.
(You can click horizontally on the images in the gallery below.)
The entire structure should be standing in the building frame by mid-May. Because the structural calculations are aligned up to the height of the parapets – the upper end walls – only then can the supports be removed in the floors below. In the smaller rooms of the museum, there are still countless telescopic columns; for the much higher rooms that extend over two floors, entire load towers have been built for stabilisation purposes. What passers-by along Wilhelmstrasse find particularly eye-catching is the 150-tonne supporting structure made of red steel girders. These too can only be removed from the building when the work at the crown of the roof has been completed.
While this now heralds the last stage of the shell work, the first connections are being undertaken in parallel. The ESWE is taking care of the supply of drinking water, telecommunications and district heating, which is why one lane of Wilhelmstrasse is closed to traffic. Platforms, steps and ladders are currently being produced to be installed in the basement in a few weeks. Roofers have started sealing the inner courtyard and will attend to the main roof from the end of March. Work on the façade will start at the end of April. And on 7 May, Tony Cragg’s sculpture will be winched into the museum building. (More information about this art project here)
Behind the successful progress of the last weeks and months are many committed people who are responsible for executing the plans in Wiesbaden that have been drawn up in Tokyo. And just as the art in the Reinhard Ernst Collection comes from a great many different countries, the team on the construction site is also a multinational outfit. By way of example, we would like to briefly introduce three of them.
Michael Müller is often stuck to the phone (“I’d like a seven with wood, to swap and use with a crane”) and coordinates the deployment of various tradesmen in his building container. The tall northerner, born in Jever, makes his way from Biebergemünd in the Spessart to Wiesbaden, a distance of 100 kilometres every day, in order to monitor the deadlines and quality of the workmanship on the shell. He cannot make head nor tail of abstract art (yet) – Michael needs specific instructions, which is certainly not the worst thing in his job. Non-specific paintings or sculptures leave him baffled. What fascinates him instead is the museum’s architecture: barely one wall is standing on top of another, but he is impressed by the projecting structural elements and the particular heights of rooms. Michael is able to relax away from his stressful construction job in his orchard or when hunting.
Salman Kholmi and a co-worker from Montenegro are responsible for the logistics on the building site. The 29-year old was born in Afghanistan; when he was two years old, his family fled to Iran. His mother and brother still live there today. As a disenfranchised foreigner, however, he was denied schooling and training in the Islamic Republic and there were no opportunities for him on the job market either. For this reason, he set out for Europe in 2007. In Italy he trained as a pizza maker and kneaded dough for four years. Finally, he made his way to Germany, where he has worked on building sites for several years. Salman’s alarm clock goes off in Offenbach at 5 am, so he can get to the state capital in good time by 7 am. But when he gets home in the evening, his work still hasn’t finished. Salman attends German courses from 7 pm to 9 pm, swots up on vocabulary for his B1 qualification, plus he is also having lessons to get his driving licence. His four-year old child has been diagnosed with autism, so Salman hopes his family will be allocated a kindergarten place soon. His wife could therefore take some time out from her exhausting responsibilities as a caregiver at home.
Dzenan Mehmedovic came into this world in Novi Pazar. This town lies only a few kilometres from the border with Kosovo. To be safe from the war, Dzenan’s family moved to Berlin. The young Serb attended school there as a teenager. When he returned to his peaceful homeland after four years, Dzenan completed his apprenticeship as a motor mechanic. He then decided to emigrate to Germany. He visits his homeland every year to be close to his parents and siblings and he is at present happy to accept the mandatory quarantine. The first German building site where Dzenan was able to prove his skills as a tradesman 15 years ago was in the Dern’sche Höfe in Wiesbaden – the renovated old police headquarters. While he worked as a formwork setter at the time, today the 35-year old now has responsibilities as a site foreman. He checks the attendance of 40 to 50 workers who work on the museum shell every day and divides them into groups. For this Muslim, the fact that so many people of many different backgrounds, countries of origin or religions can work together well, goes entirely without saying. “People are people” – that is his philosophy. After all, you spend more time with your co-workers than with your family – which is why you have to get along well during this lengthy period, to be constantly respectful and enjoy working together. While the museum has been under construction, Dzenan has been especially amazed at the large steel mounting parts – until now, he was only familiar with them in high-rise buildings and bridges. Even more experienced construction workers would not have seen anything like this in 40 years. He realised no later than at this point that with the Reinhard Ernst Museum he was dealing with a very special building.
P.S.
If you are interested in the exact description used by experts of formwork, exposed concrete and logistics, the Gemünden construction company recently filmed a building site inspection with the Mainz University of Applied Sciences (department of technology, specialising in civil engineering), in which the special features of the museum building are described in greater detail for the students. But a warning: a lot of technical German language is used in the video, including terms such as centre hole bracing, formwork vibrators, pressure cells, drill chucks, stay braces or 6/25 supports.