Old slaughterhouse (Bielefeld)

Former administration building of the old slaughterhouse

The old slaughterhouse in the Dr. Victoria-Steinbiß-Straße in Bielefeld's Mitte district is a partially listed building complex. The partial structures were built between 1882 and 1965. The former use as a slaughterhouse has meanwhile been replaced by various uses.

Building description

The slaughterhouse's production, administration and auxiliary buildings were located on the 13,500 square meter property. One of the administrative buildings and a restaurant are under monument protection. All buildings are made of brick and concrete ceilings.

Building history

The slaughterhouse was closed around 1965. A large part of the building volume subsequently remained unused.

In 1996 the redevelopment area Ravensberger Park was proclaimed, which also includes the slaughterhouse site. The main goal of the redevelopment plan was to create living space near the city center in an area that was primarily used commercially at the time. In 1998 the project developer and architect Michael Kluckhuhn bought the slaughterhouse. In 2000 the demolition of several post-war buildings began. In May 2001, a development plan became legally effective, the content of which was based on an urban planning competition for the area that was advertised in 1996. A mixed use of apartments and commercial settlement was planned. This failed, however, when the private medium- sized university of applied sciences, intended as the anchor tenant, finally decided to move to another location.

In the new concept designed in 2002 and submitted for funding, multi-generational living took on the decisive role, despite the fact that it was retained as a mixed area. In addition, the planned demolition of the former slaughterhouse was waived. First, however, a discounter was established in 2002 and the new main customs office was built on the part of the site at the Dr. Victoria-Steinbiss-Strasse. In 2005 Kluckhuhn sold the area to Josef Müther, but continued to work on the area as a project developer and planner.

In February 2006, construction work finally began for multi-generational living in the part of the site facing away from the street. For this purpose, new buildings were built and the listed administration building and the former boiler and cold store were converted. Cuts were made on the south side of the facade to create outdoor seating. Additional window openings were created in various places on the ground floor. An outer arcade was created to access the apartments on the upper floors and the roofs were renovated. The interior conversions were essentially limited to moisture barriers to the ground, the division of larger interior spaces with lightweight walls and the furnishing of the apartments. Asbestos removal was necessary in the boiler house. This resulted in 76 barrier-free apartments (19 in old and 57 in new buildings) with 47 to 100 and a total of 4600 square meters of living space as well as an administrative unit with common rooms. The slaughterhouse was divided into two floors by a false ceiling. The ground floor now offers space for a day-care center, the upper floor four apartments for disabled people. Publicly subsidized social housing made up 90 percent of the stock and privately financed apartments made up the rest. The German Red Cross Bielefeld took over the residential complex as the general tenant. The first tenants moved in at the beginning of 2007, and construction work was completed in February. At this point in time, all apartments were rented. The area is marketed under the name Denkwerk . The total investment was around 30 million euros and was subsidized with funds from the social housing subsidy of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

As a result of the redesign of the slaughterhouse site, new buildings were also built in the surrounding area or existing buildings were converted, among other things into a residential group for people with dementia and student apartments.

literature

Federal Institute for Building, Urban and Spatial Research (Ed.): Conversion of non-residential buildings into residential properties - Documentation of the case studies, 2015, PDF version