Following our recent feature about buildings clad in weathered steel, here's an archive in Essen, Germany, that is clad in Corten.
Designed by German studio Scheidt Kasprusch Architekten, the four-storey building contains a public archive for the city's historical records and documents.
The steel panels create stripes across the facade, interrupted by angled recesses concealing narrow windows.
The Corten-clad block is an extension to a former school building, which was refurbished by the architects to provide administration rooms, a library and an exhibition area for the city archives.
Other Corten-clad buildings from our recent feature include a winery in the south of France and a see-through church in Belgium - see all our stories about weathered steel here.
Photography is by Deimel & Wittmar.
Here's some more text from Scheidt Kasprusch Architekten:
Haus der Essener Geschichte
Conversion and rebuilding
The project comprises the reconstruction of the listed Luisenschool to be used as a library, an administration and an exhibition area and also the new construction of an archive building.
The accurate design of the new building and also the sensitive handling of the old building were of paramount importance.
By doing so The Luisenschool turns into focus of education and history.
The overlapping utilizations of school-library-archive-exposition demonstrates a special quality and offers new opportunities.
The corten steel tables, which cover the new archive, are made of a material that constantly alters and protects itself by corrosion.
It communicates the change of time, appears protective and alludes to the background of the City of Essen.
Awarding authority: City of Essen
Concept and development: Ahlbrecht Felix Scheidt Kasprusch Architekten
Competition: 2005, 1st award
Completion: 2010
Gross floor area: 5500 sqm
Location: Essen, Germany
Materials: new archive building: corten steel tables