Concrete for dreams
Wastewater treatment plant becomes an original park hotel
For some time now it has been possible not only to look into the pipes in Ottensheim, directly on the Danube just before Linz in Upper Austria, but also to stay overnight in them. In the context of the Cultural Capital Ruhr.2010, five Park Hotel 'rooms' by the artist Andreas Strauss are to be created in Bottrop-Ebel as well. A room in the new park hotel at the former Bernemündung wastewater treatment plant has a diameter of 2.40 metres and weighs about eleven tons.
Visitors to the Cultural Capital Ruhr.2010 are to stay overnight in gigantic sewer pipes. For the artist the three metre long concrete pipes fit outstandingly well into the industrial culture of the Ruhr district. The joint initiator of the Park Hotel is the Emscher Cooperative. At a total cost of five million Euros the site of the effluent treatment plant, which was shut down in 1997, is to be converted into a park. The two settling basins are being reshaped by landscape artists and a lighting installation puts the complex in the limelight. The renaturation work at the former effluent river has been going on for some years at great expenditure. The same concrete pipes, which serve now as a place to sleep for those passing through, are being processed in their thousands.
For the 'hotel', the rear wall of the concrete pipes is closed and a door is built into the front wall. A skylight is installed in the ceiling. Hence the moon of Wanne-Eickel, which also shines in Bottrop, will shine into the pipe. There a double bed and a bedside lamp await the hotel guest. Electricity and an Internet connection are likewise present. The room can be booked over the Internet. An access code is sent by e-mail, which is then entered into the keypad on the door of the room. There is neither a reception nor hotel staff. The guests themselves determine the price for the overnight stay and leave the money in the room. The search for a shower or bath in the concrete pipes is in vain. The sanitary facilities are housed in the main building of the old wastewater treatment plant. In searching for suitable concrete pipes the artist found what he was looking for in Datteln. He decided on the somewhat rougher concrete, as he found the surface of the smoother pipes too lifeless. The floor, which is curved in the radius of the pipe, is also retained. It is not straightened, so that the visitors have the feeling of being able to set the pipe in a swinging motion by simply shifting their weight. However, in view of the weight of the pipe this is doomed to failure.
Back For the 'hotel', the rear wall of the concrete pipes is closed and a door is built into the front wall. A skylight is installed in the ceiling. Hence the moon of Wanne-Eickel, which also shines in Bottrop, will shine into the pipe. There a double bed and a bedside lamp await the hotel guest. Electricity and an Internet connection are likewise present. The room can be booked over the Internet. An access code is sent by e-mail, which is then entered into the keypad on the door of the room. There is neither a reception nor hotel staff. The guests themselves determine the price for the overnight stay and leave the money in the room. The search for a shower or bath in the concrete pipes is in vain. The sanitary facilities are housed in the main building of the old wastewater treatment plant. In searching for suitable concrete pipes the artist found what he was looking for in Datteln. He decided on the somewhat rougher concrete, as he found the surface of the smoother pipes too lifeless. The floor, which is curved in the radius of the pipe, is also retained. It is not straightened, so that the visitors have the feeling of being able to set the pipe in a swinging motion by simply shifting their weight. However, in view of the weight of the pipe this is doomed to failure.