The ‘John, Krebs and Company’ factory in Lodz – a unique reinforced concrete structure and the history of its destruction

Abstract

With the so-called political transformation that took place in Poland after 1989, numerous new threats to historic buildings emerged. This was particularly true of industrial construction. The collapse of many industries resulted in the bankruptcy of numerous plants. This problem also affected Lodz – once the most important centre of the textile industry in Poland. A particularly drastic example in this case is the foundry (machine) hall of the John, Krebs and S-ka works, later known as the Fakra works, with its unique reinforced concrete construction, built between 1913 and 1914. A private investor purchased the site of the works and decided to demolish the buildings there to build a shopping and entertainment centre. Despite the fact that the foundry hall was entered in the register of monuments by the Lodz Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments Wojciech Szygendowski, and despite the protests of the local community of art historians, architects and lovers of historical monuments, the investor – citing the decision of the General Conservator of Monuments Piotr Żu-chowski removing the hall from the register of monuments – demolished it, leaving only a ‘witness’ in the form of three bays of the reinforced concrete structure. Polish architecture suffered an irreparable loss, losing one of the most interesting monu-ments of early modernism architecture.