The mining museum in Oelsnitz / Erzgeb. is a mining museum located in the former “Karl Liebknecht” coal mine in the Erzgebirge town of Oelsnitz and will be reopened in 2024 after extensive renovation.

In addition to the buildings in museum hands, the mine area in the hinterland included other structures, of which the city of Oelsnitz/Erzgeb. has already been able to put some new uses to use in recent years.

A building that had not yet been developed was Hall 18, a listed three-aisled facility that was unfortunately in a severely damaged condition due to the long period of vacancy, which no longer allowed for adequate subsequent use.

In close cooperation with the monument preservation department, a joint concept was developed to dismantle the hall shell, but to secure, restore and reinstall the protected steel structure with the various crane systems. At the same time, the conceptual possibility was opened up to build a hall construction within this structure that plays with the old cubature and in which an artistic light installation by the American artist James Turrell with the necessary installations is inserted. This project is part of the Purple Path flagship project of the European Capital of Culture 2025 in Chemnitz.

The dismantling work on site was completed in the first half of 2024, and the reconstruction work on the steel structure is taking place in the workshop of the commissioned steel constructor. Civil engineering and shell construction work has been ongoing since November 2024.

More about the design and the project will be published here in January 2024 - together with the official opening of the European Capital of Culture 2025 in Chemnitz.

Halle 18 | James Turrell
Transformation of Hall 18 as part of sustainable urban development

Category: Public, Industrial, Indoor, Open Space
Client: City of Oelsnitz/Erzgeb.
Design: Hendrik Heine | Matthias Lanzendorf

Services: Property planning phase I + II, phases 1 – 9; Structural planning phase I, fire protection, sound insulation, thermal insulation, SiGe
Project partners: cdf sound insulation, Schälzky civil engineers, engineering office for occupational safety Rolf Sattler, Lanzendorf landscape architecture, Bochmann Langenstrass engineers, planning office Nürnberger, engineering office Roch & Partner

Start of service phase I: Nov 2023
Start of service phase II: February 2024
Phase I construction begins: Jan 2024
Phase II construction begins: Nov 2024