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Frankfurt Gasworks Buildings
Schielestrasse 18 - 28, Frankfurt
1910 - 1912
This complex of several buildings made of read and yellow brick, designed by Peter Behrens, is located in the Frankfurt eastern port.
The ensemble consists of office and production buildings. It is to be regarded as an outstanding example of the architectural
transformation process from historic castle like factories to the functional building in the style of classical modernism.
Remarkable is a detail of an inverted corner in masonry at the entrance, which remembers an earlier version
of Mies van der Rohe's famous corner detail on his later IIT buildings.
With the conversion to natural gas the plant was abandoned in 1969.
Today the complex is quite neglected, and only two of the originally four silos remain. The partial destruction is a severe
disturbance of the composition. Even though the complex is considered to be one of the most important industrial monuments in Frankfurt.
The complex is now a listed building. Nevertheless, only the sections which were in danger of collapsing were rehabilitated in 2004-2006.
It is now used as storage space and accomodation for the indigent.