Control room and converter station of the North power station (Schaltwarte und Umformerwerk am Kraftwerk Nord) (1928)

An industrial building that is one of the first modern buildings in Leipzig by the architect Hubert Ritter.

Description

The building consists of three main parts. The middle building compost of two storeys and houses the corridors. On the north and south sides are two higher buildings designed as cubes with the control room and the transformer station. Long, vertical ribbon windows allow plenty of daylight to enter the interiors. The roof is flat, the masonry most probably made of brick. The building is plastered and has decorative bands of clinker, typical for the architect Ritter. The northern cube of the building is crowned with a railing.

History

In February 1928, the power station announced to built a new control room. Hubert Ritter was commissioned. He once revised the plans to erect the current building. It seems reasonable to assume that Ritter was already able to implement flat roofs and ornament-free architecture in industrial buildings. He was able to realise paradigm like this for residential buildings, like the Rundling, only from 1929.

The building no longer serves its original purpose, it is empty, but has been preserved. During the last modernisation, it was given an original finish with plaster and white colour.