Section of upper floor and basement with steel supports

  

Haus aus Schlacke
2019 Goethe Institute and ICA-D,
Institute of Contemporary Art
Dunaújváros, Hungary

A 3.5 m high, 2.4 m wide and 3.8 m deep object in the form of a house made of blast furnace slag used as bricks with two facades and a gable. The walkable house with a weight of 6 tons stands centrally in the room, whose ground is likewise covered with slag stones (15 cm high). The slag, originally a waste product of the local steel production, is a particularly resistant recycling material and a new building material due to modern processing techniques.
In order to achieve an exact shape of the walls, roof and smooth surfaces of the walls, an inner and outer wooden casing was specially built, into which cement mortar and slag similar to a casting mould were placed. A steel reinforcement inside the walls allows the roof shape and the complete opening of the building on both sides.


 

Material: Slag for the house: 2.8 m depth x 3.5 m height x 22 cm wall thickness = 19, 6 sqm = 4.31 cubic meters of slag, wooden boarding, steel reinforcement, cement slag floor area: 86 sqm, room length approx. 10 m x room width approx. 8.6 m 16 cm slag height on the ground = 14 cubic metres of slag



The project was realised as part of the initiative “Ortsgespräche” (“Local Calls”), which, under the direction of the Goethe-Institut Budapest, is dedicated to the themes of Europe, structural change and cultural promotion in the periphery.

Germany must also deal with the consequences of structural change. To illustrate this parallel, the second part of the exhibition juxtaposes photographs (60 cm x 70 cm format) of the Völklinger Hütte, Saarland, with the Schlackehaus. On the one hand, the photographs show the aesthetics and architecture of the facilities, which have elevated the steelworks to the rank of a world cultural heritage site. On the other hand, they illustrate the decline and transformation of the coal and steel industries.

Cooperation: Goethe Institute Budapest, Hungary
Partner from Dunaújváros, Hungary:
Statics: M. Eng. Tibor Tóth,
Wood formwork construction: János Szöllösi,
Steel reinforcement: László Bazsó,
Partner from Germany:
Statics consultation: Dipl. Ing. Walter Schachl, Munich
and Dipl. Ing. Mathias Widmayer, Stuttgart, Germany