Our place is called HET ARCHIEF because the name, well, was rather obvious.
More than one hundred and seventy years ago, this building was constructed to house the books and archive material of the Province of Antwerp. The facade is sober and unobtrusive. The interior is sober as well, yet at the same time very striking. This place contains a pioneering and boundary-pushing vision.
The unknown metal book tower
Everyone knows the iconic Boerentoren, fifty metres from here, designed by the trio Van Averbeke, Vanhoenacker and Smolders in 1931.
Everyone also knows the Boekentoren, more than fifty kilometres away in Ghent, designed by Henry van de Velde in 1930.
But almost nobody knows the metal book tower you are sitting in now. One of the first, if not the first, metal book towers on the European mainland. A design by engineer Théodore Lebens from 1850.
It is time to change that obscurity.
You are sitting in an interior made entirely, from top to bottom, of cast iron. You are in a hidden gem that, apart from one exceptional period of five years, remained closed to the outside world for more than a century and a half. You are sitting in one of the most impressive metal buildings in Europe.
Pioneers in cast iron
The Crystal Palace in London, built for the 1851 World's Fair, was constructed in the same year as this archive. It was one of England's first buildings to rely entirely on cast-iron parts and became known around the world.
In England, cast iron had long been used for greenhouses and bridges. Melting and forging iron, and designing complex structures, was a craft the English mastered like no one else. They became pioneers and masters of their trade. Engineers and architects from the mainland crossed the Channel, acknowledged and valued that knowledge, and brought the art and skill of iron architecture to continental Europe.
Examples nearby and further away
Think of the historic suspension bridge in Antwerp's Stadspark, designed by Eduard Keilig, a German landscape architect with a soft spot for England. The iron suspension bridge dates from 1867, when this Archive had already existed for almost twenty years.
Think also of the Eiffel Tower, whose construction began another twenty years later, in 1887.
You do not have to go that far. The monumental Sint-Felix warehouse from 1863 on the Godefriduskaai at Het Eilandje also rests on cast-iron pillars, less than half an hour's walk from here. The book depot of the city and heritage library on Hendrik Conscienceplein, built around 1880, is also a jewel of cast iron. So is the gallery of the evocative Nottebohm Room. They are close by.
Craftsmanship from Liège
That does not mean cast-iron constructions in Belgium came about without problems. Not here either. Casting and assembling the many parts of this archive caused delays and complications. These were eventually solved by the cast-iron manufacturer Galler in Liège. Wallonia and metallurgy: a duo with a long history.
The renowned Galler company was, until recently, also located on the Italiëlei, not far from here.
A small fact in between: the top stair of this Archive, on the highest floor, could only be formed by Atelier Galler once the full staircase had been installed, on 20 July 1852.
Designed against fire
That this Archive is made of cast iron is, of course, no coincidence. Fire safety was the decisive reason for the commissioners. An archive with wooden shelves and floors was not an option. That is why the building was originally designed as a freestanding structure, to reduce the risk of fire.
Only the ground floor is made of brick. That is where the heating room was located. The four upper floors are fully cast iron: floors, stairs, pillars, bolts and connecting pieces. The central spiral staircase has a hollow metal shaft that, brilliant Théodore, also functions as a stove pipe. Thanks to the cast-iron structure, heat is naturally conducted throughout the building.
More than one kilometre of book racks
All book and archive racks were also made of cast iron. If we placed all modular wall racks one after another, the metal path would lead you from our front door to the MAS, the Museum aan de Stroom. There is more than one kilometre of book shelving here.
This building is protected heritage. Nothing structural may be changed in this archive. We respect that protection. More than that: we honour and value it.
Light, air and metal grilles
We may cover the metal floor grilles, with their large openings that catch every heel, with carpet. That is allowed. But by doing so, we also make a small infringement on the genius of the designer.
Gas lighting was deliberately avoided because of fire risk. Thanks to the open metal grilles, daylight could reach every floor through the windows, drifting and filtered. Too much light and too many windows were undesirable as well. Light makes paper yellow. The archive and archivist wanted to avoid that. That is why all windows have carefully made metal internal shutters.
A building that remained standing
There is much more to tell about this building. You could write a book about it, so to speak. We will not do that.
What you may still like to know: at the end of the Second World War, this entire corner was flattened by a V2 bomb. The Archive remained standing, thanks to its cast-iron internal skeleton. The facade was damaged, and in the shaft of the central spiral staircase the cast iron shows cracks and fractures here and there. One of our hypotheses: the bomb that destroyed this neighbourhood in December 1944 also shook the staircase a little.
During the war years, the archive was emptied and the books and materials were housed elsewhere. The building then stood empty for decades, closed off with heavy metal doors and shutters.
The Geefs family
Another small fact. Geefsstraat, where HET ARCHIEF has house number 5, is named after the artistic Geefs family, which counts no fewer than eight sculptors.
One of them is Willem, or Guillaume, Geefs (1805-1883), maker of the statue of Pieter Paul Rubens on the Groenplaats.
