During the extensive renovation work at Neuschwanstein Castle, the historic stone floors and mosaics were also restored in great detail. In order to protect the historic stone floor in the best possible way, the Kempten State Building Authority decided, after extensive consultation, to lay the flooring with the dry adhesive Neuschwanstein Castle is one of the most visited palaces and castles in Europe. Every year, around 1.4 million people visit the […]

During the extensive renovation work at Neuschwanstein Castle, the historic stone floors and mosaics were also restored in great detail. In order to optimally protect the historic stone floor, the Kempten State Building Authority opted to lay the flooring with dry adhesive after extensive consultation.

Neuschwanstein Castle is one of the most visited palaces and castles in Europe. Every year, around 1.4 million people visit King Ludwig II of Bavaria’s fairytale castle in Schwangau in the Allgäu region. In summer, more than 6,000 visitors often stream through the rooms every day – quite a strain on the flooring of the walkways. It is exposed to soil, small STEINs, salt and moisture from countless visitors’ shoes all year round.

During the extensive renovation work at Neuschwanstein Castle, the historic stone floors and mosaics were also restored in great detail. The floor coverings in the highly frequented entrance and corridor areas were then renewed. In order to optimally protect the historic stone flooring, the Kempten State Building Authority decided, after detailed consultation, to lay the flooring with Uzin’s Sigan 1 dry adhesive on a decoupling mat and stainless steel sheet.

“In renovation projects, old stone or parquet floors are often used as subfloors,” explains Uzin specialist consultant Robert Weckerle. “If a new floor covering is to be bonded here and the existing floor is not to be damaged, we recommend laying with the Sigan 1 dry adhesive on patented micro-perforated special film.” The double-sided high-performance adhesive has the advantage that coverings can be laid quickly and dust-free on existing floors. They can be used again immediately.

Thanks to the special adhesive technology, the flooring can also be removed without leaving any residue even years later. The original floor can then be used again or serve as a substrate for a new floor covering. This was expressly requested by the Kempten State Building Authority as the client. Robert Weckerle says that the construction has already been used successfully in the renovation of the flooring in Linderhof Castle.

The high-performance adhesive technology on foil backing is available for different substrates. Sigan 1 is used for laying textile and elastic coverings on metal, which is equipped with the appropriate adhesives on both sides of the film. For optimum adhesion, a thin primer coat of the special Planus primer is applied first. The substrate must be firm, even, dry, crack-free and clean.

After a two-hour drying phase, the supplied tape is applied along the walls and projections to increase the adhesive strength. The Sigan-1 sheets can then be applied butt-jointed in the direction of the floor covering to be laid or the overlap of the sheets can be cut back butt-jointed and the acclimatized floor covering fitted.

The covering is folded back on one side and the protective paper of Sigan 1 is removed flat and straight up to the folded back floor covering. The floor covering is then pushed onto the Sigan 1 film carrier flat on the floor without flash-off time and rolled on. Proceed in the same way with the second half of the floor covering. The floor covering can be walked on and used immediately after bonding.

Philipp Merbeler has spent the last five months as an intern at Adjaye Associates in London. Philipp spent most of his time in the home office and to escape his own four walls, he found a simple solution: a new racing bike. Equipped with it, he rode around the city for the Baumeister and discovered Hyde Park, among other places […]

Philipp Merbeler has spent the last five months as an intern at Adjaye Associates in London. Philipp spent most of his time working from home and found a simple way to escape his own four walls: a new racing bike. Equipped with it, he rode around the city for Baumeister and discovered Hyde Park and beautiful routes along the Thames, among other things.

My stay in London is slowly coming to an end. And the closer I get to the end, the more I think back to the beginning and the unusual start in March. Before starting my trip, I wanted to take a closer look at London’s iconic subway stations. St. Pancras, King’s Cross and Tottenham Court Road are just a few of the hundreds of hubs where you can experience the city’s rush hour on weekdays – the real London. At least that’s what I thought at the time. When the pandemic hit England in March after Spain and Italy, I quickly realized the consequences. Closed stores, empty streets, locked pubs and restaurants. I was able to cross the tube stations off my list of places to visit.

And so, even before my first salary, I invested in a racing bike to discover the city on two wheels. Fortunately, second-hand bikes are rarely in demand in London, which means you can get hold of usable bikes cheaply on “Gumtree” – the British equivalent of eBay classifieds. Although Londoners like to complain about the few and poorly developed cycle paths, I had a positive impression of the cycle network. With the new cycle lanes and pop-up cycle paths created as a result of the coronavirus, London has become even more bike-friendly.

My excursions took me to all areas of the city. A particular highlight was a two-hour tour to Richmond Park in the south and a long tour in the hilly north towards Hampstead Heath.

My tours are mainly extended by spontaneous stops where I briefly lock the bike (always with two locks) to take a closer look at buildings or parks. On my way to Highgate Cemetery, I happened to pass Coal Drops Yard. The impressive Heatherwick conversion of two coal sheds made the former industrial site with its gas tanks famous.

Trips like these always make it clear to me that the best way to get around London and discover the city is by bike. When I return to Berlin in a few weeks’ time, I want to make more intensive use of my bike to get a better feel for the architecture. I’ll explore the busy subway stations another time.

All pictures: Philipp Merbeler

The Baumeister Academy is an internship project of the architecture magazine Baumeister and is supported by GRAPHISOFT and BAU 2019.