Grimshaw

Horno 3 Steel Museum

Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw

HORNO 3 STEEL MUSEUM

Grimshaw

ARCHITECTS
Grimshaw

PHOTOGRAPHS
Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw

YEAR
2007

AREA
6500 m²

LOCATION
Monterrey, Mexico

CATEGORY
Museum

Horno³: Museo del Acero (the “Furnace #3 Steel Museum”) in Monterrey, Mexico, comprises a restoration of derelict 1960’s blast furnace and a new wing providing additional gallery space and museum facilities.

Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw
Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw
Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw

The museum chronicles the industrial history of this northern city, which for much of the 20th century was renowned for its steel production.

Prior to its conversion to a museum, the abandoned blast furnace had stood as a poignant 80m high reminder of the hard working past of this city which has since moved on to embrace high-tech industries.

The architectural challenge was to balance sensitive historic preservation against the requirement for a dynamic new symbol in its changed context, the surrounding steelworks having been converted recently into a public park.

Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw
Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw

The new building needed to be inclusive and one that the older generations who worked at the former plant and their children and grandchildren would feel represented their proud history while looking forward to the future.

Many Grimshaw buildings include a central circulatory or atrium space - a kind of "mixing valve" for the building's users.

Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw
Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw

It becomes an active hub: a gathering place that embodies the spirit of the building and allows visitors to engage with one another.

At the Museo del Acero, this role is played by the main element of the original structure - the blast furnace itself - re-energizing the historical heart of the foundry.

Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw
Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw

The building contains a historical steel gallery, contemporary steel gallery, “Furnace Show” exhibit, teaching rooms, an archive, restaurant and museum store.

The restoration included the steeply inclined iron-ore elevator, now retrofitted with a pair of custom fabricated funicular cabs.

Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw
Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw

The funicular soars 42 meters allowing visitors to stroll around the original high-level exterior catwalks which meander among the furnace’s pipes and stoves.

This vertiginous tour provides visitors with unique close up views of the historical skeleton and spectacular panoramas of the nearby mountain ranges.

Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw
Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw

The rich patina of the original structure has been kept throughout. During the renovation the steel was lightly sand-blasted to remove loose rust and flaking paint. A clear protective coating was then applied to ensure longevity.

Both the refurbishment and new build respond strongly to the site’s history as a steelworks.

Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw
Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw

This is made most explicit in a series of structural elements which advance the limits of modern steel fabrication.

The tessellated roof over the Steel Gallery demonstrates how, with today’s computer-aided technology, sheet material can be transformed into structurally rigid forms by complex faceting.

Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw
Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw

Thus the columns and roof shell of this space are constructed entirely from ½” thick steel plate, without requiring any conventional steel framing.

Similarly the design of a helical steel stair relied on extensive computed stress analysis to allow the optimization of its coiled stringer and cantilevering treads to the engineering limits of structural steel.

Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw
Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw

Horno³ surpasses International Energy Code requirements (ASHRAE 90.1). The two largest spaces, the Steel Gallery and Cast Hall, benefit from displacement ventilation.

This makes use of natural stratification by supplying cool air at low level and extracting warm air at high level, thereby increasing comfort and reducing energy consumption. An ice storage system reduces energy costs by producing ice overnight which is then used to cool the building during the day.

The building’s cladding is self-shaded by a range of exterior louvers and screens that block solar heat and diffuse natural light into the internal spaces.

Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw
Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw
Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw

The original ‘Cast Hall’ structural skeleton was re-clad completely and enveloped in a skin of incrementally tilted louvers which change across the façade and within each vertical cladding bay to respond to the glazed or solid nature of the weather wall behind and also to changes in the building’s geometry.

The louver façade is a contemporary performative solution that elicits a memory of the blast furnace’s original corrugated iron cladding.

Inside the hall, the blast furnace was emptied and is now brought to life in a public Furnace Show that simulates the process of making molten pig iron.

Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw
Horno 3 Steel Museum
© Paúl Rivera & Grimshaw

Visitors can actually enter the hollow shell of the blast furnace – an experience that is believed to be unique.


Horno 3 Steel Museum
Sketch
Horno 3 Steel Museum
Sketch


Horno 3 Steel Museum
Section
Horno 3 Steel Museum
Plan
Horno 3 Steel Museum
Plan
Horno 3 Steel Museum
Plan

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