valentin Loellmann

Originally the former municipal gas factory of Maastricht was built in 1912 to replace an earlier gas factory build in 1858.

The original building was designed in 1912 as a steel structure by a german company called Kloenne from Dortmund.
But for cost and safety reasons, a concrete construction was finally chosen in which the originally designed iron construction was copied almost exactly.
At that time, N.V. Industrial Company F.J. Stulemeijer from Breda was one of the first in the Netherlands to engage in “The New Construction” with reinforced concrete. Lead by their engineer and architct Jan Wiebenga they converted Kloenne's design into reinforced concrete.

The building was taken into use in 1912. The gas factory consisted of a distillery, bunker building, coal shed, washing, changing and cooking rooms. The distillery was extended in 1914.

In 1928, the city council of Maastricht adopted a proposal to purchase cheaper coke gas from the State Mines in the future. In 1930, the relatively small, and therefore expensive, municipal gas factory was closed.

The building and its surrounding ground were occupied by two companies in 1932: timber trade 'De Maas' and 'NV Bataafsche Rubber Industrie' (later rubber factory 'Radium', now 'Rubber Resources'). A number of renovations took place in the period of 1946-49. For example, the coal shed was adapted to serve as a raw material hall and the bunker building was made suitable for staffing the Radium factory. The distillery was extensively renovated, the washing, changing and cooking rooms were demolished. Also the factory chimney disappeared in 1948.

From about 1970 the buildings of the coking plant were only used for storage or remained empty.

Due to years of vacancy and the absence of any form of maintenance, the building's technical condition has become very poor. For example, concrete rot has occurred in many places, partly due to the use of the 'new construction method' at the time, which has not yet been perfected.