Bijgebouwen, Deelen/Vrijland-Noord Arnhem

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

Introduction

Building I A stands detached to the east of the access road to Vrijland-Noord and on the north-west side of the central east-west road, roughly between buildings 15(a) and 8. The large structure with its segmental arch-shaped roof extends with its greatest length from east to west and this length is perpendicular to the current access road. Building I A is an aircraft hangar created in 1941, a relatively large one, and is at the macro level part of a large military airfield structure from the years 1940-45, at the meso level of a sparse complex of buildings arranged in a rectangular-geometric structure, and forms at the micro level part of some relatively solitary buildings placed in direct connection with that spatial structure. The hangar, the only example still existing on Vrijland-Noord from the German occupation period, is a so-called 'Junkershalle', named after the design firm: aircraft manufacturer Junkers. What is special about the Junkers system is not only the shape of their hangars, but especially the method of construction: the roof trusses executed as large links or segments could be brought in by truck or by train, assembled on site and erected and stabilised without a crane, after which a hangar could be disassembled and possibly also be provided with extensions. The Junkershalle was the most important hangar of the 'Fliegerhorst Deelen' during the German period and was known as the 'Werfthalle'. After the war, the Junkershalle, meanwhile a scarce type on a European scale, was reused in the same function. But a few years before the turn of the century, the building lost its function and was left to its fate, which led to rapid degradation of especially its two extensions.

Description

Large AIRCRAFT HANGAR for repair purposes on a predominantly rectangular floor plan (roughly 50 x 60 m in area) and largely covered by a roof covered with bituminous material and executed as an arch segment; on the north, south and west sides over the full length and width of the hangar approximately 50 cm thick brick extensions under gently sloping lean-to roofs. The eastern façade / main façade is provided with six large rectangular metal doors, rolling on rails top and bottom, with above (in the façade top otherwise closed with metal plates) a stepped light reserved between the doors and the roof line, the glazing of which is set in vertical metal bars. The upper rails are extended by means of iron portals to outside the segmental arch. Left and right of the doors masonry with in the extensions two window openings under a roller course and with concrete sill, in which above four-pane casement windows and below double wooden inward-opening four-pane casement windows, both below the sill provided with sheet-steel shutters with a list motif painted in green and white. The west façade is entirely taken up on the ground floor by the brick extension; above this is a light comparable to that in the east façade. The basement extension is in turn provided on the left with a small extension with power supply and further contains 15 window openings under roller course and with brick drip sills, some of which were later used for the installation of air ducts; the remainder (12) contain double wooden windows with six-pane glazing bars. Roughly below two of the reused windows (3rd and 4th from the right) a brick staircase to basement level. Further there are two wide arched access openings under rooster comb, in which vertically boarded wooden doors with partly curved hinges. In the north façade of the extension a presumably later introduced access opening under concrete lintel with large wooden door. On the roof of the western extension two brick chimneys. The south façade (of the southern extension, which only merges with the hall with a 'fold' in the roof) contains roughly in the centre a comparable access opening and further left and right of this six window openings under roller course and with concrete sill, in which above four-pane casement windows and below double wooden inward-opening four-pane casement windows, all below the sill provided with sheet-steel shutters with a list motif painted in green and white; the short west façade has four relatively small windows with double four-pane windows. In the corner of western and southern extension a small brick space with double doors was later added. The likewise north façade is provided with comparable window openings, but lacks an access opening. The west façade of this extension contains on the left an arched and on the right a rectangular access with fanlight and vertically divided in five-pane window, both with a door boarded in herringbone motif; asymmetrically between these two a window opening under roller course and with concrete sill, in which above a four-pane casement window and below double wooden inward-opening four-pane casement windows, and below the sill provided with sheet-steel shutters with a list motif painted in green and white. On the roof a brick chimney. The interior consists primarily of a large undivided and approximately square central space which is spanned by arch trusses composed of four profile-steel lattice segments, placed approximately 10 metres apart and connected to each other several times by means of lattice beams. Purlins are placed above this which carry a wooden covering, on which the actual roof covering is laid. The trusses merge into the inner walls of the northern and southern extensions and ultimately find support in profile-steel and concrete or brick structures in and below those extensions respectively. The roofs of the three extensions are and were carried by wooden truss systems, but much of this has meanwhile collapsed. Despite this, an important part of the interior is reasonably intact and contains components and details characteristic for the period of construction, such as part of the heating system, tilework, doors, door posts and painted wainscoting.

Valuation

AIRCRAFT HANGAR, of general interest as a very rare and readily recognisable component of an army camp dating from the Second World War and set up by the German occupier as part of a large military airfield, by reason of: architectural-historical, urban planning, technical-historical, military and cultural-historical and complex and ensemble values, which can be demonstrated among other things in the use of materials and (prefab) techniques in a form new and patented for that time, in the components and details characteristic for the period of construction, in the artificially created and strongly aligned geometric settlement structure with the spatial organisation already existing beforehand and the camouflage carried through to the detail within this—at least insofar as was reasonably possible in the three large extensions of the main volume—, in the coherence of and with the total military airfield concept and the spatial main lines and components of the camp, and in the mutual affinity of the forms applied herein.