PS.Speicher, Einbeck

PS.Speicher is an exhibition at an old granary in Einbeck, a picturesque town of timber-framed architecture in Lower Saxony. Here, more than 6,500m2 of exhibition space present around 300 historic bicycles, motorcycles and automobiles.

Left idle for many years, the lovingly restored building complex of the former granary is now a listed structure which recently opened its doors to new life. The former silos, once used to store the grain supplies of the Einbeck Granary Co-operative, now house rare contemporary exhibits of personal motorised mobility. The building no longer stores the fodder to power horses but instead examples of historic horsepower. ‘PS.Speicher’, therefore, literally means ‘horsepower store’. The well-preserved building recaptures the atmosphere of bygone days. A separately accessible exhibition on the historic granary addresses the architecture, the turbulent history of the building, and the workings of the partly well-kept historic storage and filling facility.

PS.Speicher is a project undertaken by Kulturstiftung Kornhaus, a charitable foundation set up by German businessman Karl-Heinz Rehkopf in 2009. A passionate collector of historic vehicles, Rehkopf was sixteen years old when he bought his first motorcycle, a 1938 100cc Victoria, for 100 Deutschmarks. Sixty years have passed since then, and today his collection of German historic motorcycles is one of the world’s most significant of its kind. Then, a number of years ago, came the idea to take it a step further. “My desire was, and still is, to fascinate visitors permanently with a modern and dynamic exhibition concept and to share my enjoyment of the collection with other technology enthusiasts.” Rehkopf therefore sought and found like-minded aficionados and in 2009 set up the charitable Kulturstiftung Kornhaus foundation, to which he contributed his collection as endowment capital.

Exhibition architecture: wheeled transport authentically staged
The interior design, the exhibition concept and the route guidance systems were developed by design and interior specialist agency Ö-Konzept from Zwickau. The structural conditions in the former granary coupled with the requirements as a listed building presented the exhibition team with particular challenges for the interior work. On the six former granary floors, the exhibition takes visitors on an intuitively accessible and interactive journey to explore the economic, political and social conditions in which wheeled transport has been used for the past more than 130 years.

Historic bicycles, motorcycles and automobiles tell exciting stories: A streetscape from the Roaring Twenties, a milk bar from the 1950s or a disco scene from the 1970s set the vehicles against contemporary backdrops for an authentic experience. The scenes depicting different eras perhaps stir memories, but definitely emotions. A Time Tunnel gives visitors a view of conceivable visions of the future shape of mobility and wheeled transport which to some extent today may still seem a little utopian.

Consistent use of Cantax LED spotlights
The lighting concept uses track with spotlights from the same product range. With the exception of a few peripheral areas, the whole interior is illuminated with the warm white light of ERCO Cantax LED spotlights. The plain and simple design by Naoto Fukasawa blends inconspicuously with the technoid character of the exhibition. All black spotlights recede completely into the background leaving the focus entirely on the exhibits. The sole exception is the bright, open foyer, where white Cantax spotlights were used. The multifunctional room additionally utilises RGBW Cantax spotlights with a DALI control system to produce coloured effects.

Cantax LED spotlights are efficient lighting tools that enable differentiated lighting solutions for the various exhibits with Spherolit lenses which are easily replaced without tools. Light distributions ranging from spot through to flood as well as asymmetrical oval flood solutions and wallwashing can all be achieved with the same spotlight. Most spotlights are fitted with LED 12W, only a number of areas requiring brighter light because of high ceilings feature LED 24W spots.

The meticulously installed lighting system in the PS.Speicher meets all the requirements of modern and efficient exhibition scenography. Lamp replacement is no longer necessary for the large number of spotlights used, as LED luminaires have an exceptionally long life of 50,000 hours, thereby eliminating the need for maintenance.