Cheminer
TUEindhoven, the Netherlands.
Cheminer
French verb : translated by “to stroll”. It is the act of having a slow walking journey. This word is the same pronunciation as “cheminée” which means “chimney”.
The industrial legacy from a landmark to an other,
journey through the city of Eindhoven.
From the industrial revolution until today, cities have been evolving fast. How can they keep a trace of their history and traditions when buildings get replaced one after the other?
For her project “Cheminer”, Celine Lallau studied what was left of Eindhoven’s heritage and decided to enhance the industrial past of the city by creating urban installations where factory chimneys used to stand.
The aim of her project is to propose meeting places around historical spots for tourists and locals to reconnect with the city’s past. On several spots in the city where chimneys used to stand she designed installations inspired by their specific characteristics. The width and thickness of the vanished chimneys is used to create benches. In the center of the installation, an interactive map is displaced. An image printed on the map can be read with an AR App and make a digital chimney appear on the smartphone’s screen.
What once disappeared can now become a digital testimony, while the installations become memorials of Eindhoven’s history.
Locations: where the chimney used to stand.
Few technical information.
- The base of a chimney is approximately 1/10 of its height.
- Inside every chimney there is a second little one called the shield. It is about 1/3 of the total height. It is meant to avoid temperature shock between the inner part and the outer layer.
- The brick patterns help to strengthen the structure as well as keeping it flexible to adapt to the climate. The patterns change depending on the thickness of the wall.
- The brick are called “radiale steenen” in dutch. They allow to get a perfect circular construction.
- The bricks had a recognizable red color, they were mostly produce in Venlo, Netherlands.
If those urban installations would be build for the long term, they would be made with the red bricks.
Those technical details lead to major aesthetic choices to reveal the base of the chimneys as close as possible from the original one.
Different installations would be possible to adapt to the nowadays context. From benches for the parks to flat surfaces for the streets and parking lots.
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Few examples of where the installations could take place in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
- 1. In front of the Townhall.
- 2. Close to the Paradijslaan.
- 3. At the Design Huis.
As this project simply reveals the foundations of the past chimneys, it could be applied to other types of structures and be adapted in order to respect to the actual locations.
Presentation of the graduation project @DesignAcademyEindhoven.
Eindhoven research project-Cheminer.2018-ongoing