Gashouder Westergasfabriek
Nineteenth-century industrial gas holder reborn as a pillar-free circular concert hall and the birthplace of Amsterdam techno.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Gashouder Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam starts with a gas holder built in 1902 to contain coal gas under pressure, and how it sat rusting and forgotten after natural gas made it obsolete in 1967. It follows promoter Rocco Veenboer, who went looking for a proper home for European techno and found this pillar-free iron dome instead, and the Easter weekend party he built around it in 1997. Listen for how the building's engineering, meant for storing gas, turned out to suit a different kind of crowd.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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