Waschkaue Emscherweg

Down the shaft

Read this venue the way the pit was worked

Scroll and the page descends. The gauge on the left reads the live depth in metres; each level of the old shaft carries one part of what you need to know about the building above it.

Schacht Emscherweg I · 0–528 m

1. Pit bank · Depth ±0 m

   The room where a shift began

   Men arrived here in their own clothes, hoisted them to the ceiling on a chain, locked the chain, and walked out as a shift. Twelve hours later they came back the other way. The building is a hinge between two lives, and you feel it before anyone explains it.

2. First level · Depth 120 m

   Dinner for 240 under the chains

   Round tables of ten fit the bay spacing exactly, which is why 240 is the honest number rather than an optimistic one. Service moves along the two side aisles; the central aisle stays clear because it is also the escape route.

3. Second level · Depth 265 m

   The tiles are the acoustic problem

   Glazed tile from floor to eleven metres gives a 3,4-second reverb: magnificent for a brass quintet, hopeless for a keynote. We hold 180 m² of hanging absorbers and a delay-line PA design for exactly this room, and we will tell you at the site visit which of the two evenings you are planning.

4. Third level · Depth 400 m

   Nothing is fixed to the chains

   The hooks and pulleys are protected fabric. No lamp, no drape, no cable tie goes on them, and no production ever gets an exception. Lighting hangs from a free-standing ground-support grid that we survey into place, and the ceiling stays exactly as the last shift left it.

5. Shaft bottom · Depth 528 m

   Day rate and what is in it

   A dinner or conference day starts at €9,200 and includes the hall, heating, our chair and table stock, the catering base next door and site management. The acoustic package, the ground-support grid and cleaning after a standing event are quoted as line items so you can see them.