Project description
The Unterlinden Museum is located in Colmar, in the Alsace region. Housed in a 13th-century Dominican convent and a 1906 former public baths building, it features a large collection of local and international artworks. It officially opened its doors to the public in 1853. When the need appeared for the museum to gain more space, the city of Colmar decided to add supplementary buildings: the adjacent, Neo-Baroque former baths building was transformed into an annex of the museum, and a new building was added. A renovation project was designed by the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, using an architectural language that integrates into the old city, but also reveals its contemporary character. Werey Stenger Plâtre & Staff have conducted the entire range of plaster works required by the project, from drywall, ceilings, traditional plaster to fibrous plaster. It is the traditional and fibrous plaster works that make the project particularly extraordinary.
Contractor
WEREY STENGER PLATRE & STAFF
The Group Werey & Stenger is a leading plaster and drywall contractor, and a manufacturer of fibrous plasterwork in the Alsace region and beyond. Founded in 1971, they are member of the Club entreprises Placo since 1997, and they are quasi-participating in each edition of the Placo Trophies. They work with both restoration projects and new builds, or building extensions. The restoration of historical monuments is one of their specialties.
Key Achievements
- The material « plaster » allowed for implementing an ambitious design of the architect, with fantastic visual results.
- The use of modern techniques & processes (3D modeling and prefabrication), in the framework of a historical project, and on behalf of a traditional craft, was key to the success of the project.
- Facing up to this extraordinary project, requiring know-how in various domains demonstrates the contractor’s exceptional capacity and experience.
Key Challenges
- A huge and comprehensive project: huge in terms of plaster surface area (more than 14000 m² of plasterboard and 6400 m² of plaster /82 tons); comprehensive, since a large range of plaster works were required (drywall, ceilings, traditional plaster, machine applied plaster, hand applied plaster, fibrous plaster)
- Complex shapes designed by a world renowned architect (a lot of curves, helical staircases, transitions, alcoves and ogives)
- Recreate the render used in the old parts of the museum and get it approved by the architects of the Historic Monuments service
- A building extension and renovation project in one