Zatra house

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The Zatra house in 2011, Oststrasse side

The Zatra-Haus is an office building in Düsseldorf's Alexanderstraße with house numbers 36 and 38.

history

The building was built by Paul Schneider-Esleben in the years 1951–1952 on a rubble site. The client was the company Zatra, which designed transport systems ( e.g. conveyor belts , hoists and elevators ) for larger plants and held a leading position in the transport rationalization industry in Europe in the early 1950s. The name Zatra is a word formed from the beginnings of the last names of the founders: Za hang and Tra ppen . The original facade design, which also included a large wall mosaic designed by Georg Meistermann on the gable side on Oststrasse, has not been preserved.

“The Zatra house stands on concrete pillars that are clad with gray-blue glass mosaic. On top of it sits a concrete box, which is covered with gray and white mosaic. On the gable side, this mosaic cladding merges into a large, abstract mosaic picture, which, in place of an advertising wall, symbolizes the purpose of the company, namely the planning and sale of conveyor systems of all kinds. The creator of the mosaic picture, which is very effective at this point, is Prof. G. Meistermann. "

- König : (1955), p. 128

The functionally designed building had a basement and five floors above ground, with the top floor being set back so that a terrace was formed, the balustrade of which consisted of a steel railing with wired glass elements . The roof structure was clad with white mosaic. The individual axes of the building were only 1.2 meters wide, a measure that resulted from the average office desk width at the time. The ground floor was glazed so that the concrete pillars supporting the building were just as visible as the ceilings that were carried outwards. In addition to the concrete already mentioned, the materials used were white Detopak glass (window parapets), anodized aluminum (connections between the individual window axes) and steel (window frames and railings). The interior consisted of gray terrazzo floors and the stairs in the stairwells were black.

Light colors dominated the facade design:

“In an environment of gloomy and sullen-looking houses, it is really suitable, with the harmony of the white mosaic exterior, with the light blue of the window frames, the white opaque glass of the parapets, the silver color of the vertical aluminum strips and the reflective clarity of the window surfaces, but above all that beautiful mosaic picture, not only to please the passers-by, but even more to increase the creativity of the workers there and, last but not least, to make the customers happy and ready to go. "

- König : (1955), p. 128

Heinrich Klotz describes the history of the house:

“At the corner of Oststrasse and Alexanderstrasse there was a bombed-out ruin with a dozen storey-high steel double T-pillars on which the house had stood on a very narrow piece of land along Alexanderstrasse that was no more than 7 to 8 m deep. Therefore it was only enough for a one-hip office division. The existing steel supports were covered with white mosaic over a round casing. The entire glass facade consisted of steel profiles with single glazing, because double glass or aluminum profiles did not exist back then. The property widened towards Oststrasse. The closed office end side area at this point was given a large mosaic - designed by Meistermann - that slightly aroused the citizens. In the meantime, new owners have torn out the entire facade of this house and the mosaic by Meistermann and 'modernized' the new house.
This 'modernization' completely destroyed the earlier architecture of the building and deproportioned it with very rough facade parts, so that nothing is reminiscent of the former appearance. "

literature

  • H. König: The Zatra House in Düsseldorf. In: Architektur und Wohnform, interior decoration , 63rd year 1955, issue 3, pp. 123–128.
  • Three country houses, an office building, a church. In: Bauwelt , 46th year 1955, issue 29, pp. 564-572, especially p. 571.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ König (1955), p. 125
  2. ↑ König (1955), p. 126
  3. ^ Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Landschaftsschutz (Ed.), Jörg Heimeshoff : The architecture of the fifties of the 20th century in Düsseldorf. Profane buildings without schools and bridges. (= Rheinische Kunststätten , issue 360.) Neusser Druckerei und Verlag, Neuss 1990, ISBN 3-88094-671-X , p. 19.
  4. ↑ König (1955), p. 128
  5. ↑ König (1955), p. 128
  6. ^ Heinrich Klotz : Paul Schneider von Esleben. Designs and constructions. Hatje, Ostfildern 1996, p. 58.

Coordinates: 51 ° 13 '12.1 "  N , 6 ° 47' 2.8"  E