Once upon a time, no one even bothered looking at them, but today the sheer size and quality of Beringen’s mine buildings leave visitors stunned. The storage for the minecarts and the space for the miners’ clothing lockers required a structure measuring 21 by 127 metres! That colossal ‘shed’ now houses the free kindergarten and primary school Straf! The renovation by a2o and AAC serves the school’s educational project with admirable simplicity.

As amazing as the size of this building is its finish. The ground floor is an open plateau, covered by a massive concrete slab supported by sturdy beams and columns. A brick volume rises on top, decorated with motifs in glazed bricks. Large window openings and ‘turrets’ at the corners and centre enliven the ensemble. Those turrets, in particular, seem intended only as decoration. Such an architectural frivolity, combined with the knowledge that concrete was particularly expensive in 1907, are proof of how powerful and wealthy mining companies were. It is also proof of how well the managers of the mine realized that they had to honour the miners.