Bocholt water tower

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The Bocholt water tower 2004

The water tower Bocholt was commissioned in 1913 and served until October 2004 as a drinking water reservoir for drinking water supply of the city of Bocholt . The owner is BEW (Bocholter Energie- und Wasserversorgung GmbH), a subsidiary of Stadtwerke Bocholt. The building was designed by the architect Alfred Hensen and has been a listed building since 1984 . Around the turn of the millennium it was rebuilt twice and is now used as a classroom by the Albert Schweitzer Realschule and as an event room by the vocational college at the water tower .

description

The tower is 42.57 m high, its diameter is 15.25 m in the base area and 16.60 m at the top of the wall. The cylindrical structure is made entirely of masonry from brick . The container rests on a wall ledge at a height of 32.05 m. It is a loft container that is open at the top. It is composed of shaped steel plate elements that are connected by hot rivets . The container consists of two nested vessels that can be filled and emptied individually. The total volume is 1000 m³, i.e. 1,000,000 liters. The height of the water level is 38.00 m.

This type of construction was quite common around the turn of the century, the water tower in Mülheim a. d. Ruhr-Styrum z. B. has a very similar structure. Water towers of this time differ both in terms of their containers and their external appearance. The Bocholt water tower is unique in its shape and formal design.

history

Until well into the industrial age there was no central drinking water supply in Bocholt, the population used wells . In 1901, an investigation showed that out of 34 wells in the city area, only five had drinkable water. As a result, work began on a central, public drinking water supply in 1906. In 1912 a waterworks was put into operation in the district of Mussum , and in 1913 the water tower. The tower was designed by the architect Alfred Hensen from Münster. Executing companies were the iron construction company H. Behrend from Dortmund and the company August Vallée from Bocholt.

The tower roof was rebuilt between 1913 and 1945, probably due to leaks . The work included a new, conical roof made of reinforced concrete , the lining of the upper blind windows at boiler height and the walling of the openings below the boiler. Since the historical plans in the Bocholt city archive were burned during bombing in 1945, the old tower roof is only documented in a few photos.

On July 4, 1984, the water tower was placed under monument protection, the entry reads: A three-storey cylindrical water tower made of brick masonry designed by the Münster architect Alfred Hensen. The simple structure with pilaster strips made of imitation cuboids and slotted windows on the lower floors. The upper floor is set off as a mezzanine by a cornice . The gently sloping conical roof is concealed by a concrete ring anchor , underneath a cornice made of straight arches, again imitating a square. The water tower is an essential focal point on the northwest corner of Benölkenplatz .

In 1988 and 1996 the facade of the tower was repaired. In 1988, a complete scaffolding was carried out for new pointing and waterproofing of the masonry. As part of this construction work, the first cell phone antennas were installed. Just eight years later, the masonry was renovated again .

Rebuilt in 1998

There have been considerations for some time about using the lower floors of the tower. In the spring of 1997, the Pfeiffer Ellermann Preckel architects' office was commissioned to draw up a report on a new use. At the same time, the city was planning to expand the adjoining Albert Schweitzer Realschule by four classes. The planning of this project was stopped in favor of the suggestion to set up the missing classrooms in the water tower and to be able to reassign the tower with an obvious and sensible use. " In December 1997 the BEW came to the conclusion that the tower could continue to be used profitably for the water supply. In order to make the conversion possible, the central lines in the tower had to be relocated to the outer wall.

The contract from the city of Bocholt was awarded directly to the Pfeiffer Ellermann Preckel office , as the architects had extensive experience in dealing with architectural monuments . The office represents the claim and demand that measures that we are carrying out today are clearly identified as measures of our time. (Quote Herbert Pfeiffer) The building application was submitted in September 1997, the approval was given in December.

The development was housed in a separate tower next to the water tower. The shape and the materials used make the new structure stand out from the existing structure. It is a white plastered, cubic body with a square floor plan. Reinforced concrete catwalks connect the access tower to the water tower on each level. This connecting element is completely glazed and forms a clear joint between the existing and the new building. The external appearance of the water tower remained largely unchanged, only a few glass blocks in the lower area were replaced by insulating windows in order to be able to adequately light the classrooms .

A reinforced concrete composite structure was installed inside, which forms an independent supporting structure . The required steel parts had to be inserted through the existing openings and assembled by hand. Four classrooms are located on two new levels (1st and 2nd floor). Consideration was given to using the ground floor as a multifunctional room, but no concrete plans were initially made. The rooms are heated by underfloor heating and a temperature control system , the heating lines of which are laid under plaster in the area of ​​the windows. The inner walls of the tower are painted white, the partition walls between the classes and the vestibule are made of lightweight plasterboard. The floor covering is carpeted for noise protection reasons . The new access tower is a solid construction made of reinforced concrete and sand-lime brick .

After seven months of construction, the classrooms were put into operation in August 1998.

Expansion of the first floor in 2002

Various uses had already been considered for the ground floor , but the rooms were too small for most uses. Finally, in 1998, the idea was to use the room as a multifunctional room for the “Vocational College at the Water Tower”. The interior design was created by Dipl.-Ing. Klemens Hüls from Münster. Three different usage variants were planned: as a stage, as an exhibition room and a conference room.

The building application was submitted on September 18, 2000, construction will begin in August 2001. The construction management was done by the architects Schönborn + Wiedenbrück from Hamminkeln. The costs were shared by a development association, the city of Bocholt as the owner of the building and the district of Borken as the sponsor of the school. The inauguration took place on January 30, 2002.

The main room can accommodate up to 99 people. Two side rooms contain a ventilation system and storage space. No new openings were used, so that the room is only artificially lit. The ventilation takes place exclusively via the ventilation system, for which new openings had to be drilled in the historical shell. A new breakthrough to the access tower built in 1998 serves as a second escape route .

Shutdown in 2004

Residential areas or high-rise buildings with over 38 meters had to be supplied with pressure boosting systems. Outlying districts also had to be supplied with additional pumps because friction losses caused pressure loss over long pipe sections. This infrastructure of the drinking water network was further expanded, so that finally speed-controlled pumps provided pressure in the drinking water network throughout the city.

Since 2000, the network has been operated during the day without the tower. It only served as a drinking water reservoir, no longer as an expansion tank. It was only connected to the network at night to exchange the water. Since renovating the boiler of the water tower would have been very time-consuming and costly, the operator finally decided to shut down the water tower in October 2004.

literature

  • Elisabeth Bröker: From wells, from pumps and neighborhoods and from the first waterworks. In: Our Bocholt. Vol. 14, Issue 3, 1963, ISSN  0566-2575 , pp. 4-8.
  • Dietmar Wallisch: Drinking water for Bocholt. In: Our Bocholt. Vol. 32, No. 4, 1981, pp. 66-69.
  • Josef Simon: Structural development of the city of Bocholt in the 1st half of the 20th century. 2. Continuation. In: Our Bocholt. Vol. 39, Issue 1, 1988, pp. 41-48.
  • Josef Simon: Structural development of the city of Bocholt in the 1st half of the 20th century. Enough. In: Our Bocholt. Vol. 39, 1988, No. 4, pp. 18-30.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b http://www.bbv-net.de/public/article/162222/Wasserturm-ohne-Wasser.html  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.bbv-net.de  
  2. ↑ Thomas Wieckhorst: Newly used water towers. Meininger, Neustadt an der Weinstrasse 1996, ISBN 387524-112-6 .
  3. ^ Dietmar Wallisch: Drinking water for Bocholt. In: Our Bocholt. Vol. 32, No. 4, 1981, pp. 66-69.
  4. ^ Elisabeth Bröker: From wells, from pumps and neighborhoods and from the first waterworks. In: Our Bocholt. Vol. 14, Issue 3, 1963, pp. 4-8.
  5. ↑ Object 37 (List A - No. 48) List of monuments; Planning Office / Lower Monument Authority City of Bocholt.
  6. ^ Fritz Lindenberg: Old Bocholt - City and Country. Temming, Bocholt 1965.
  7. ^ Oskar Spital-Frenking : Architecture and Monument. Dealing with the existing building structure: developments, positions, projects. Publishing house Alexander Koch, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2000, ISBN 3-87422-640-9 , p. 154 f.

Web links

Coordinates: 51 ° 50 ′ 35.9 ″  N , 6 ° 36 ′ 49.7 ″  E