ABANDONED PLANT BECOMES MUSEUM OF STEEL

The site is situated in Monterrey, capital of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon and industrial center of the country. Quite naturally the new museum institution called the Museo del Acero Horno, is built exactly in this place. The project includes renovation of many industrial structures in cultural institutions. Museum of the steel, which partially adapts existing structures and includes also new construction, was assigned to the British architect Nicholas Grimshaw. 90 m high steel furnace - the third and newest in the company Compania Fundidora de Fierro y Acero de Monterrey, has worked in the period 1968 – 1986. After the bankruptcy of the company it remains unused for a long time. In responding to the call of the Patronato Museo del Acero - non-governmental organization created specifically to work on the project, the local architectural bureau Oficina de Arquitectura partnered with the famous London studio Grimshaw Architects and received the contract for renovation in 2005 - only 24 months ahead of time for completion, which is supposed to coincide with the opening of the World Cultural Forum in Mexico in 2007. In order to create the museum, the architects adapted the hall for metal casting, the furnace itself and the adjacent infrastructure, and also add 3 000 sq m of new space for additional exhibitions, archives and educational purposes.

The challenge of this project is to preserve part of the original fabric of historic, museum or engineering significance in order to present the history of the project, while the new architectural program will be implemented. Reserved items such as Metal Casting furnace, working paths of metal workers and much of the original steel structure are treated against corrosion, the oxidised parts are removed, the steel is sealed with a mixture based on epoxy resin and then covered with a transparent slightly opaque polyurethane. Steelworks furnace became the organizational center plus other discrete elements such as a new entrance wing, circle "Steel Gallery, a massive "Foundry Hall”, offices and a cafeteria located in the former service rooms and control room dispatcher. Above the lobby for visitors a lift iron ore rises turned into a visitors' elevator that leads to a  network of initially existing trails for metalworkers in which tourists can walk and enjoy views of the city to nearby mountain Sadal, Sierra Madre mountain chain in the distance, and to see from high the inside of the museum building.