Forst (Lausitz) – the city on the Lusatian Neisse River - presents itself, even today, as Eldorado of the architectural heritage of the once vivid textile industry. In the urban landscape dominate diverse factories, power plants and factory workshops from the late 19th and early 20th century. With the initiation of the NWWK-Project the Municipality of Forst had gone on the offensive and wanted to preserve a very important textile industry ensemble: The C.-H.-Pürschel-Factory on the Mühlengraben in the Northeast part of the city. The conversion project pined hopes not only on the extern investors, but also looked for the endogen potential of the city and the German-Polish environment. The cultural and scientific organizations, the library, research institutes, parts of the textile museum, archive and an innovation and technology center are spread throughout the city. In 2004 the idea was to combine them in a common domicile. Instead of a new building, a sensitive conversion of historic listed industrial ensemble was intended. In the long term the operating costs should be reduced and the municipality owned organizations more efficient used.

Management: Prof. Markus Otto / Dr. Lars Scharnholz
Period: 2004
Organization: INIK GmbH
Cooperation: Museumsverband Brandenburg e. V.
Customer: Stadt Forst (Lausitz)
Topic: Conversion of redundant factories, Museum and Research Site