Restoration Schocken Department Store, Chemnitz

Project Report

Photo: Michael Jungblut 2

Faithful in every detail

The façade of the former Schocken department store in Chemnitz, Germany, was equipped for its conversion to a museum with SCHOTT TIKANA® Restoration glass. The façade glass fulfills the requirements of conservation of monuments and historic buildings, and allows at the same time modern construction solutions.

The background floor comes forward as a bay window, in such a way that the former appear- It is a piece of German company his- which is divided by horizontal bands of ance of the building was retained in tory: In only 30 years, the Schocken windows. light of Mendelsohn’s purposes. On company developed into the fourth the street-frontage, this concerned the largest department store chain in Undoubtedly, Mendelssohn founded historically correct renewal of the Germany with numerous subsidiaries, a new type of department store. Today, bands of windows in the upper floors, among them, in Cottbus, Stuttgart, the former Chemnitz Schocken depart- and the window fronts of the lateral Nuremberg, and Chemnitz. ment store is one of the most impor- stairways. At the same time, solar tant buildings of the classical modern protection and heat insulation had For the conversion of the Chemnitz age in Saxony, and, since 1980, be- to be integrated. ­department store, originally completed longs to the historical monuments in 1930, which was used as such until of the town. The name Schocken is in The appearance of the historical façade 2001, the Schocken Brother owners use to this day by the population of had been disfigured over the 70 years used the architect Erich Mendelsohn those towns in which there had been in which the building had been used again. He was one of the most impor- a Schocken department store. as a department store, by numerous tant architects of the 20th. Century, rebuilding and multiple renovations, and had already planned the Schocken The challenge including the bands of windows. department store in Stuttgart. Mendel- Today the former Schocken department sohn planned a 9-storey building store is a hub of the state museum for with triangular cut-outs in Chemnitz. archaeology in Chemnitz – briefly Characteristics are the dynamic cur­ “smac”. Before “smac” could be housed vature of the main façade, as well as in the building, it had to be rebuilt, at the restored upper three floors with first extensively – but also in an appro- flying roof and rail-like balustrade. priate manner for monuments. The The main building above the ground challenge was to carry out the changes

Photo: Laszlo Farkas Photo: Michael Jungblut 3

The solution ways; contemporary construction The company glasfaktor Ingenieure For the authentic glazing for the histor- functions, like integrated solar protec- GmbH from Dresden performed the ical bands of windows of the former tion, are easily realizable. structural analysis of the glass assem- Schocken department store, the archi- blies on the basis of the European tects and engineers decided to use In Chemnitz, an innovative insulating Technical Approval ETA-12/0159 for ­TIKANA® restoration glass from SCHOTT. glass was integrated into the bands of SCHOTT Fourcault glasses. The colourless, machine-drawn glass windows. This consists, for example, conforms to historical window glasses. of a 6 mm (1/4”) thick outside pane TIKANA® is drawn using the Fourcault Thus, the glass has, for example, a simi- with solar protection coating, a 16 mm method, a procedure which the Belgian larly slightly irregular surface like the (0.63”) wide spacer, as well as an 8 mm Emile Fourcault patented in 1902. In windows during Mendelsohn’s time. (5/16”) thick interior float glass pane. the construction era from 1920 to 1960, This is not by chance; SCHOTT devel- In the areas where the insulating glass machine-drawn glass was THE material oped restoration glass especially for the should protect against burglary, lami- for window and façades glazing. Today, glazing of buildings from the classical nated security glass was used instead its characteristics are technically pro- modern age and the Bauhaus construc- of float glass. Spaces are filled in both duction-controlled. Thereby, restoration tion style. TIKANA® shows the typical cases with argon. glass is fine-tuned by SCHOTT to match drawn streakiness of window glasses precisely the desired original glass of from this design era. The historical existing single glazing Mendelsohn’s time. in the lateral stairways gave way to a Other advantages of the special glass: TIKANA® – insulating glass, with matte 91 percent of the light passes through, sandblasting and 8 mm (5/16”) thick and has 100 % colour-rendering. spacers. For heat insulation, the space Hence, it is well suited for the glazing of the panes was filled with krypton. of museum windows. Not only this: TIKANA® can be processed in various

THE MATERIAL

• TIKANA ® | 4 mm and 6 mm (5/32” and 1/4”) thicknesses in insulating glass • with a sun protection coating • with matte sandblasting • various insulating glass con- structions

Photo: Roland Halbe SCHOTT North America, Inc. 5530 Shepherdsville Road Louisville, KY 40228 USA Phone +1 (502) 657-4417 info.architecture@us.schott.com www.us.schott.com/restoration

PFLY_0038_OM ENGLISH/US 06/2020 kn/odd Printed in Germany