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You have arrived to the iron removal room or the filtering station. This is where the magic happened: before running through the locals’ taps, the water extracted from groundwater reservoirs went then through aeration, prefiltering and filtering processes. If you thought the UFO was spectacular and full of stories, wait until you find out the story of this building!
Th iron removal room was executed between 1913 and 1914, with a series of completion works in the following two decades. The designs dating back to 1913, identified in Aquatim’s archives, bear the stamps and the signatures belonging to the architect János Lenarduzzi and to an unidentified engineer, countersigned by Stan Vidrighin acting as city engineer.
In the metropolitan area of Timisoara, the groundwater contains iron and manganese salts, so before running through the consumers’taps, it had to go through iron and manganese removing filters. Here the water arrived from the group of fountains located on the premises of this plant, but also from two other fountain sites located in Giroc. There were two filtering stages, the first one takes place upstairs (for iron salts filtering) and the second one, in the basement (for manganese salts filtering).
The T-shaped building is laid out as a view endpoint over the main alley accessing the historical building. With simple volumetry, the building has two separate volumes, one on a raised floor.
The symmetrical facades also fall under Secession style. The main façade features an impressive stone-like gateway, same as a castle entrance, with a wooden door beautifully decorated with geometric patterns and green glass.
Actually, the gate was a fake entrance, because it did not serve as an access point for the staff but there was a technological opening behind it. That is a space used in order to bring filters, machineries and installations into the building, or any other item needed for the operation of the industrial process. People’s access to the building was made using the right and left side doors.
The rehabilitation project introduced a new pedestrian route, by inserting a disability-friendly glass deck crossing over the filtering room. This allows visitors to have a different perspective over the space, giving them the freedom to see in details the filtering equipment. At the end of the deck, there is a spiral staircase connecting you to the 1st floor.
As a result of completion of new wells and increased need for water supply, between 1932 and 1934, the iron removal room II was built, behind this building, with the same purpose.
Water treatment began at the last floor of the building where the story goes on. See you there!