The relaunch of the Battersea Power Station has been long awaited – but some 30 years and a couple of attempts on, and now the much loved London architecture landmark is ready to open to the public again. Architecture studio WilkinsonEyre is behind its industrial architecture's refresh and reimagining into a mixed-use hub with extensive public spaces for all to enjoy. The building is set to throw open its doors to visitors for the first time in decades on 14 October 2022. 

The project, a power station originally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and built between 1935 and 1955, sits at the heart of one of London's largest redevelopment areas, featuring designs by global names in architecture, such as Frank Gehry's Prospect Place. But as the area surrounding the industrial building was being built, the station itself was also getting a significant makeover. While aiming to keep the Grade II*-listed building's historical elements and overall character, WilkinsonEyre transformed this piece of London infrastructure into a complex of commercial, retail, public and residential space. Battersea Power Station’s first homes were released in May 2021, but the wider public has not yet had the chance to peek inside its repurposed, vast halls. 

‘Battersea Power Station holds a very special place in many people’s hearts, particularly members of the local community, and after numerous failed attempts to redevelop the site before our shareholders took over the project in 2012, trust and the belief that the building would be restored to its former glory was low. Rebuilding this trust has been one of the biggest challenges in the project outside of the construction elements, and as custodians of one of the UK’s most loved landmarks, we have taken this responsibility seriously and ensured we deliver to the very highest level quality,' says Simon Murphy, CEO at Battersea Power Station Development Company (BPSDC). He adds that the company actively tried to engage the local community in this large-scale and significant scheme in their neighbourhood. 

Battersea Power Station forms part of the overall district's Phase 2 construction plans (there are seven more phases, including, for example, SimpsonHaugh and Partners and De Rijke Marsh Morgan in Circus West Village's Phase 1, and Foster + Partners and Gehry Partners in Electric Boulevard, which is made up of Battersea Roof Gardens and Prospect Place as Phase 3). WilknisonEyre took the lead with the power station in ensuring that the existing building's heritage remains intact and is celebrated, while making this a modern, 21st-century piece of architecture, which fully serves its new purpose. 

The architects are deft hands at the restoration and redesign of historical structures, which fed into their approach here. ‘A clear analogy is the New Bodleian Library at Oxford, another 1930s building by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, which we restored and reordered in 2006 as the Weston Library,' says Jim Eyre, founding director at WilkinsonEyre. ‘This was the job that put us in prime position to take on Battersea Power Station. Situated on a prominent site in the centre of Oxford, the building, like the power station, fuses stripped classical and modernist elements in a loosely art deco manner. Also, in the spirit of Battersea Power Station, [the library] presented rather fortress-like elevations to the outside world and was essentially a secret space dominated by its principle function of book storage. In a similar way, a private building has become a public one.' 

Sustainability played a key role in the reimagining of the power station, as Murphy flags, while explaining that this truly mixed-used scheme will form a new 15-minute neighbourhood for London. ‘We have tried to reuse as much of the existing fabric within the power station as possible. An example of this is the steel trusses in Turbine Hall A, which were strengthened rather than replaced. We have also sourced many of the new materials here in the UK to help reduce the carbon footprint, such as the 1.75 million bricks that were needed to rebuild the building, which came from the original brickmakers in Gloucestershire and Shropshire.' 

Battersea Power Station is a building of significant scale, comprising two grand halls (the former turbine halls, each with its own architectural character); several old and new entrances; new offices and homes within the existing fabric, and a range of penthouses placed in new structures above the original roof line; as well as, of course, its iconic chimneys (which, for safety reasons, had to be dismantled and painstakingly rebuilt to the original specifications). The north-west chimney will now offer a unique lift experience, leading up to 360-degree panoramic views of London’s skyline. The complex demands of handling listed, historical fabric, slotting in a new design, the combination of public and private aspects, and making sure everything merges harmoniously, while the building performs at the highest level when finished, meant that the project was full of challenges for the architecture and engineering team. 

Sebastien Ricard, director at WilkinsonEyre, recalls a point where the building made them rethink their approach, adjust to an unexpected turn of events, and call upon previously never-used technology to tackle a problem: ‘Our philosophy from the outset was to retain as much as possible of the existing fabric where we could. Our initial response to the Boiler House – where new windows were needed for the offices behind – was to cut them into the existing east main wall (the west wall had been demolished and needed rebuilding). After reviewing the state of the wall, it was registered as a dangerous structure and we concluded we had to rebuild this wall rather than restore it. For the building to retain authenticity as a heritage asset, we used a very innovative prefabricated concrete panel system in which a combination of existing and matching new replacement bricks were set into the panels in the traditional pattern.' 

This marriage of time-honed and innovative techniques, old and new elements and material, past and present, quite neatly represents the celebrated building's new chapter. Now, Battersea Power Station, with its mixture of private and affordable homes, office space and modern retail, indoor and outdoor plazas, is ready to properly welcome the 25,000 people who are estimated to be living and working on site – making it one of London's largest new hubs of activity, and breathing new life to the much loved cultural icon.

INFORMATION

batterseapowerstation.co.uk

wilkinsoneyre.com

An industrial restoration has resulted in the newly refreshed home of eyewear market leader Luxottica in Italy. The project, the brand's Digital Factory, was designed by Milan-based architecture studio Park Associati, and effortlessly blends minimalist architecture, swathes of glass, and 21st-century manufacturing and workspace. 

The building is located in the city's trendy via Tortona area, and used to be occupied by General Electric. When Luxottica decided to move in, the company reached out to the architects for a redesign, bringing the complex to contemporary standards but at the same time, maintaining its feeling of history and utility, and sense of space and light throughout. Park Associati kept the original volumes and configuration, focusing on sharpening existing shapes and lines, while upgrading facilities and sustainability elements.  

Indeed, an eco approach towards sustainable architecture was key in the spatial reinvention, and the team followed a LEED quality and sustainability protocol – aiming for a Gold certification. A strong connection to open-air areas with gardens (such as the ground floor's green patios), as well as planting inside, also ensures there's a strong presence of nature throughout. 

Transparency played a key role in the redesign – both in physical terms (the building is an ode to glazed expanses, connecting vistas inside and out, and bathing the interior with light from almost all directions), as well as symbolically, in particular with the ground level's public aspect. Luxottica's showroom and further commercial spaces are located here, while the Digital Lab – a high-tech innovation centre – is situated on the first floor.

Apart from creating a sophisticated, modern workspace for Luxottica, with interiors composed in collaboration with Storagemilano, the Digital Factory also helps activate its wider neighbourhood, bringing a green element and considered retail to this corner of Milan, adding to its vibrant suburban environment. 

INFORMATION

parkassociati.com

Located some 20km from the historical site of the Forbidden City, Shangri-La Shougang Park was inaugurated just as the recent 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing kicked off. Impressively designed by Milan-based architecture studio Lissoni & Partners and in particular the firm's Lissoni Casal Ribeiro department that focuses on masterplans, architecture and landscape design, the new hotel offers a refreshing take on Beijing architecture, constructed within the remnants of an abandoned 20th-century industrial building, taking advantage of the reimagined urban landscapes and industrial ruins created by China’s economic reforms of the 1990s.

Bridging eras, the five-star hotel is composed of a mix of the site’s existing industrial architecture components and new additions that, the architects explain, form ‘a series of interconnected structures’. These are broadly divided into two areas: the Main Building, which takes on the more social and communal roles of the hotel, and the Guestroom Building, which houses its 282 rooms.

The Main Building is enveloped in an elaborate glass façade that acts as a ‘transparent skin’. It wraps around the original industrial components, such as concrete walls and steel roof trusses, which are left exposed in all their utilitarian glory. This juxtaposition of old and new materials is highlighted by a significant green element, ‘almost as if nature is seeking to take possession of these once-abandoned buildings,’ the team notes. The plants both illuminate and help regulate the internal climate with their presence. 

Lissoni & Partners worked with the existing industrial scale and arranged the layout across two floors in the Main Building, taking advantage of its striking internal height of 20m. As a result, the ground level contains a large sheltered square, filled with bars and restaurants that spill into the outside and encourage visitors in. On the other hand, a second floor features the hotel reception and an extended lounge area crafted within a bespoke wooden structure described by the architects as an intimate ‘nest’. In contrast, a wellness area, which includes a pool and a gym, is wrapped in glazing and nestled separately within the industrial structure.

A new-build extension to the Main Building creates a dedicated, multipurpose event space. Here, intricately crafted black ceramic bricks clad the façade, making this part of the complex stand out against the nearby glass exterior wall and the smaller volumes of the Guestroom Building.

Here too, industrial elements, such as the large ventilation pipes, are exposed throughout as part of the architects’ conceptual referencing of the building's history and context.

An elevated bridge connects the Main and Guestroom hubs. Juxtaposing the industrial imagery of the Main Building, the architects created a softer atmosphere in the bedroom areas, both through the overall scale (the volumes are more compact and feature smaller, vertical openings), and through subtler visual references to the site's former life. 

The façade is made of brickwork and sustainable materials for optimal thermal and ventilation performance. Muted tones and ornaments referencing local tradition adorn the rooms.

Lissoni & Partners explains its overall approach: ‘To give balance and proportion to the structure, the façade is visually divided into three different horizontal layers: the ground floor with terraces and cantilevering canopies that detach the building from the ground giving it an air of lightness; a second and more compact layer; and finally a large canopy that floats above the roof, sheltering it from direct sunlight and concealing the MEP [mechanical, electrical and plumbing] areas.’

Traditional craftmanship and local culture are ever-present at Shangri-La Shougang Park, through bespoke furnishings and contemporary Chinese art. Installations drawing on the site's industrial past are displayed across the building, carefully selected by Lissoni & Partners and Hong Kong art consultants Debut Studio. 

On the whole, Shangri-La Shougang Park brings together seamlessly the old and the new, carefully layered and thoroughly reimagined. The story of the building conjures the fantastical with its weaving of eras, materials, proportions and functions, which all come together to create a vessel of the future.

Lissoni & Partners builds upon careful design gestures that work with a historical architectural ruin, nodding, perhaps, to the way the great, late Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill composed his famed Cement Factory – an architecture that is not about concealment, but rather a celebration of a repurposed industrial building.

INFORMATION

lissoniandpartners.com

shangri-la.com

debutstudio.hk

Studio Saar has just completed a contemporary industrial facility in India's region of Gujarat; welcome to Indian multi-national electronics manufacturer Secure Meters outpost in the city of Sanand. The architects, based between Frome, Somerset (UK) and Udaipur, Rajastan (India), have crafted a modern space that ticks the boxes for the state of the art production its function requires, while also providing a work environment that promotes wellness for its employees and sustainable architecture, through a strategic eco approach. 

Indeed the user's experience was placed at the heart of the design process with this project by the young studio, which is headed by partners Ananya Singhal and Jonny Buckland. This means that the factory campus encompasses – beyond the main manufacturing facility, reception building and utility bay – a canteen and recreation centre for the employees to use. Spread across a lushly planted green site, the four buildings are connected by open air walkways that are sheltered by a white, geometric canopy structure. 

The campus is further enhanced by a seasonal lake (which 'fluctuates between one to three acres in size to allow for rainwater harvesting,' the architects explain) and will have an additional 2,000 trees planted on the estate in due course. The presence of greenery and water is a nod to the site's previous life as a former lakebed, which has recently been repurposed and earmarked for industrial development. Meanwhile, solar panels take care of some 50% of the overall energy demand, and clever insulation and an integrated floor-cooling system help manage the temperature inside naturally. 

The complex's overall aesthetic is clean and utilitarian, putting function at its core and alluding to its industrial use. Swathes of glazing brings light in, white plaster surfaces, concrete and grey natural stone complete a fairly restricted but effective and calming material palette that compliments the various uses housed within. Inside, high ceilinged, bright, open plan spaces are far removed from the conventional image of a hectic working factory, bringing the typology to the 21st century. 

'We were keen to demonstrate to our client how factories should and can be inspiring places to work and bring joy to the people that use them. By placing the canteen at the centre of the development, we have been able to provide a place for workers to relax and unwind. This project has not been without its challenges, but through close collaboration with the project team and efficient engineering we have been able to create a series of buildings that are genuinely adaptable to meet the everchanging needs of the teams to ensure its longevity for future years,' says Singhal. 

INFORMATION
studiosaar.design

The hallowed, industrialist halls of Berlin’s Kraftwerk have seen a great deal over the years, but, until now, they have never experienced the work of acclaimed Light and Space artist Robert Irwin, and it turns out they’re quite the match. 

Formally the Berlin-Mitte thermal power station, Kraftwerk was built around the same time as the Berlin Wall in 1961 and served as the then-East Berlin power station until 1997. In 2006, after lying abandoned for years, it was resurrected as techno club Tresor. 

The American artist is currently saturating this vast arena with Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin), his largest installation in Europe to date, on view until 30 January 2022. The project was commissioned by Berlin-based LAS (Light Art Space), a non-profit art foundation working at the intersection of art, new technology and science. Though nascent, the foundation is rapidly securing a reputation for technology and science-rich projects staged within iconic spaces, most recently with Berl-Berl, Jakob Kudsk Steensen’s VR ode to wetland ecosystems at Berlin’s Halle am Berghain. Elsewhere in the city, Irwin is staging a solo show at Sprüth Magers (on view until 26 March 2022) featuring ethereal lighting artworks and monolithic sculptures.

Shortly after LAS was founded, co-director Bettina Kames travelled to the US to meet Irwin who was invited to conceive a new commission in Berlin. ‘Without an exhibition or a single project in [LAS’s] portfolio, Irwin accepted the invitation and took the plunge!’ explains Amira Gad, head of programmes at LAS and curator of Irwin's show. 

Irwin is a central figure of the radical Light and Space movement which emerged in 1960s California. This futuristic wave of art, characterised by light experiments, science-infused optical manipulations and the reimagining of environments, sought to challenge human perceptions, and utilise the new array of materials and technologies that emerged in the mid-20th century. 

Irwin’s seminal contribution involves site-conditioned artworks that use the effects of light to expand, warp and saturate the senses. As the artist said in 1986: ‘My ambition is, in a sense, to make you see a little bit more tomorrow than you saw today.’ The movement – past and present – is currently being explored in-depth at Copenhagen Contemporary, featuring work by Anish Kapoor, Ann Veronica Janssens, Bruce Nauman, Helen Pashgian, James Turrell, Judy Chicago, Larry Bell, Olafur Eliasson and Robert Irwin. 

Irwin began his Light and Space series in 2007, characterised by fluorescent light tubes arranged in rhythmic yet cryptic patterns. This new iteration at Kraftwerk involves several firsts: it’s Irwin’s largest to date, staged on a monumental freestanding wall measuring 16m x 16m. The work uses blue fluorescent lights in combination with the artist’s traditional white, and, in another diversion from convention, Irwin’s piece for Kraftwerk is double-sided, allowing the space to be saturated in light from all angles. ‘The design of the concept had to be fit for a building that is iconic, of that scale,’ Gad continues. ‘It had to be an installation that would feel monumental but also feel embedded within the architecture. In a way, it's about giving “power” back to the former power station.’

INFORMATION

’Robert Irwin: Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin)’, until 30 January 2022. lightartspace.org

Irwin’s solo show at Sprüth Magers Berlin runs until 26 March 2022. spruethmagers.com

ADDRESS

Köpenicker Str. 70
10179 Berlin

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The opening of the Manufacture des Saignoles in Le Locle marks the latest update in the famed Swiss watchmaker’s campus in the Jura region. The project, designed by Lausanne-based architecture studio Kuník de Morsier architects, has just been completed and brings a brand new production space, a state-of-the-art Audemars Piguet factory, to the brand's rural headquarters complex. 

Built low and following its hilly location's curves, the building aims to blend discreetly into the green landscape. This fits within its architects’ overall approach, which favours respect and the environment. ‘Our approach is resolutely contextual, by setting up spaces that promote exchange, cohesion and connection with the environment in the broadest sense,' say the architects.

The structure was also designed to bring together the robustness and practicality of industrial architecture and the elegance of fine watchmaking. The manufacture contains research and development units, machining, decoration, assembly, and administration and office space. The overall building's volume is broken down into different glass-enclosed wings, jutting out seemingly weightlessly into the green surrounds to ensure all areas get plenty of natural light and views. At the same time, orientation was key for an operation as delicate and precise as haute horlogerie, so careful consideration meant that floorplans place the workshops towards the ‘calm northern light', and the office desks towards the ‘dynamic southern light'.

The heart of the new Audemars Piguet factory hosts a central, high-ceilinged communal area – named the ‘Piazza' – for users to gather, take a break and relax. It can be used for informal meetings and exchange but also for receiving customers and partners of the brand.

‘The architecture of the manufacture has been developed around the comfort and wellbeing of the craftsmen and the experience of users during their visit, while anticipating the future challenges of the industry and work habits,' say the architects at Kuník de Morsier. ‘In this way, the manufacture combines the needs of the most advanced industry with the desire for creativity and social emulation of a company resolutely turned towards the future.'

INFORMATION

kunikdemorsier.ch

‘Power House: the architecture of data centres’ is a London exhibition (3 November 2021 – 28 February 2022) about a critical and increasingly commonplace type of building, albeit one that remains out of sight for the vast majority of the world’s population. The data centre is now utterly integral to modern society, emerging as a crucial piece of infrastructure and industrial architecture that serves up everything from official secrets to selfies. As computing shifts decisively into the cloud, we are effectively untethered from hardware thanks to our reliance on these colossal structures and data centre architecture. For the end user, it all remains very abstract; we have no idea where our data is stored, let alone what kind of building houses the servers required to host it. 

Data centre architecture explored

Contemporary data centre architecture comprises colossal structures, shaped by the need to provide space for thousands of pieces of equipment, together with the security, cooling, and redundancy measures required for smooth, seamless operation. These buildings are also extremely energy intensive; one of the stark statistics cited by the exhibition curators is that ‘a single Bitcoin transaction has the equivalent impact of watching 91,624 hours of YouTube’. They add that the internet generates around one billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year, thanks in part to the rapid spread of these new architectural archetypes. 

Depending on its scale, a data centre can draw up to a hundred times more power than a comparatively sized office building, which is why ‘lights out’ centres are becoming more popular; remote, dark facilities that can run without any human intervention except for maintenance, to make for more sustainable architecture.

Clearly, we’re going to need more data centres, not fewer, so their visual and environmental impact is of paramount importance. ‘Power House’, on show at the Roca London Gallery, considers the evolving physical design of these decidedly non-human spaces. Curated by author and Walllpaper* contributor Clare Dowdy, the exhibition also has a focus on London’s data centres, overseen by Dezeen's Tom Ravenscroft. In big cities, these structures are often ‘hidden in plain sight’, with a corresponding absence of aesthetics. All too often, they’re the epitome of business park blandness, whether it’s for reasons of security or sustainability. 

There’s no such coyness in many of the exhibits, which include completed structures, projects underway and conceptual ideas. ‘Data centres power modern life and yet they're rarely considered as pieces of architecture,’ says Dowdy. ‘As they mushroom across the globe, it's time we thought of data centres as a peculiar, and peculiarly challenging, new building typology.’

INFORMATION

‘Power House: the architecture of data centres’ runs 3 November 2021 – 28 February 2022, Roca London Gallery, rocalondongallery.com

ADDRESS

Roca London Gallery
Station Court, Townmead Road, London, SW6 2PY

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‘Everything starts here,' says Glenmorangie CEO Thomas Moradpour, talking about the whisky brand's headquarters in Scotland, with a smile – and he has good reason to be pleased. The Glenmorangie Company has just completed major works to its Highland home, including a thorough revamp of its facilities and the creation of a research laboratory to promote innovation and future thinking. Created by Paris architecture studio Barthélémy Griño, the refreshed Glenmorangie Distillery is set to be a pivotal step towards crafting the brand's future, Moradpour explains. 

Glenmorangie single malt whisky is only ever produced in its main distillery in Tain, a 45min drive north of Inverness. As whisky needs to be aged (to a range of durations, depending on the product – from three to ten years or more), forward planning is central to the brand’s development and future success. ‘We need to be creative and have the flexibility to innovate and experiment,’ explains Moradpour. 

At the same time, estalbished in the 19th century, Glenmorangie is steeped in tradition and has carefully planned methods to produce its delicious product, also boasting the tallest stills in Scotland, which help give the drink its unique flavour. So blending this rich heritage with a view towards the future is a balance to be carefully preserved. 

Enter Barthélémy Griño, the Franco-Uruguayan architecture practice behind the design that sought to refresh the whole site and add a strategic component to the Glenmorangie equation – the brand new research and innovation lab, in the shape of a gleaming glass tower that glows at night. 

Barthélémy Griño has not designed a distillery before, co-founder Philippe Barthélémy points out, but it has worked with the client in the past (The Glenmorangie Company is owned by LVMH and the architects have created works for other brands, such as Berluti, Dior and Louis Vuitton, for the group before). For this scheme, the architects won the commission through a shortlisted competition and jumped into action, researching and working closely with Moradpour and the whisky brand’s experts to perfect their concept. 

Glass-wrapped tower for Glenmorangie Distillery

With the existing 19th century complex receiving the appropriate restoration works where needed, the team focused on adding just the right amount of drama with the new element – the shining new tower, which the team refers to as the Lighthouse. It contains the brand’s famous tall stills, and the lab at the top. 

‘We wanted to establish a new relationship between the historic distillery and take advantage of the beautiful scenery,’ says Barthélémy. ‘We also wanted to balance tradition and modernity in the materials and construction, so the new tower is wrapped in glass and with timber construction. This way it also celebrates the stills, which can be seen through the façade.’ 

Finding the right scale for the tower was a challenge. ‘It needed to act as a symbol but also we didn’t want to impose something big to the old distillery,' says Barthélémy. But now, the result gently peeks out from among the green grass and rolling hills surrouning the site. The Lighthouse includes a sensory lab and testing room, which spills out to a large terrace that visually expands the facilities into the surrounding Scottish countryside and the water beyond. 

In the same forward-thinking approach, the scheme was concieved with key sustainability elements too. For example, the tower will be fully powered by bio-gas, which comes from the distillation process and is produced on site – adding an important element of circularity to the scheme. 

The result is now ready and operational, and while it’s not open to the public, its glowing beacon offers a mark of innovation and positivity for the brand and the wider area. ‘It is a building dedicated to experimentation,’ says Moradpour. ‘It’s a place for our master distiller to be innovative and envision what whisky might taste like in a few years. And the building being taller than the rest of the complex makes it a symbol of looking to the future and looking far.’

INFORMATION

barthelemygrino.com

glenmorangie.com

The Wondrous Brewing Company’s new headquarters in Emeryville, San Francisco Bay Area, is a minimalist brewery that celebrates craft beer. Completed by multidisciplinary firm Garcia Tamjidi Architecture Design, the project is a contemporary mix of large stainless steel brewing tanks, refrigeration areas and grain grinding zones. Originally an empty industrial warehouse, ‘the change in use to a brewery required a seismic upgrade of the building and all new concrete floor slab to support the weight of the extraordinarily heavy tanks’ explains the American architecture practice's principal Farid Tamjidi.

The project came about after an investor had introduced Garcia Tamjidi Architecture Design to master brewer and founder of Wondrous Brewing Company, Wynn Whisenhunt who needed a new home for his growing business. ‘Brewing is a very precise and complicated process with a lot of moving parts. We built a level of expertise and then engaged the right team of consultants to execute the project’ states Tamjidi.

The majority of the scheme consists of a large brewing facility but also offers a sleek front-facing taproom. ‘We agreed to avoid having this room look like a pub or a bar. It was a place to taste the varieties of beer. In early discussions about the overall design of the project, the pure simplicity and practicality of Japanese design resonated with us all’ explains Tamjidi. The unadorned spaces employ a raw material palette where clean concrete, refined stainless steel, and rich plywood are complemented by the exposed ceilings and lofty interiors.

Over the last twenty years, Garcia Tamjidi Architecture Design has worked on a wealth of commercial, retail, and residential projects worldwide. ‘Projects like this keep our work interesting and we’re always eager to try new ideas’ states Tamjidi. The firm prides itself on creating timeless design that is meticulously detailed. For their latest project, ‘the primary goal was to build a safe, functional system to support and facilitate the creative process of crafting beer. In the case of the Wondrous Brewing Company form truly followed function.’ 

INFORMATION 

garciatamjidi.com

In the early 16th century, the aristocratic family of Thurn und Taxis bought a 45-hectare parcel of marshy land on the then-outskirts of Brussels. They had been appointed postmasters by Philip the Fair, the Duke of Burgundy, and held a similar position for the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. Their acquisition would become the centre of Europe’s first international postal service, a Thurn und Taxis enterprise connecting the Spanish Netherlands, Burgundy and Spain with the rest of Europe. The road that crossed the site’s collection of industrial buildings and horse-feeding pastures took the family name, translated into French as Tour et Taxis, giving birth to the district of Tour & Taxis.

By the beginning of the 20th century, it had evolved into a busy logistical ecosystem; goods arrived via train and canal and from there, they were dispatched. Everything passed customs and registration at the Gare Maritime, the complex’s central station. Unfortunately, with the arrival of the EU Customs Union, and later the Schengen Area, customs gradually became irrelevant and the operation obsolete. Tour & Taxis remained disused for 20 years until it was bought by local private developer Extensa in 2001.

Since then, Tour & Taxis has been undergoing something of a reimagining, swapping logistical revolution for sustainability as it seeks to reinvent itself as an eco-friendly district. The area, situated by the Brussels canal and just to the north-west of the Belgian capital’s centre, currently mostly consists of large converted warehouses and offices of brick, iron and glass next to the magnificent, historic, castiron-frame freight station. Extensa’s vision is anchored in the refurbishment of the existing historic buildings to ‘return Brussels’ heritage’ to its inhabitants, as well as a few new-builds. The first renovations and completions started opening in 2005. The aim is to create an eco-led, mixed-use district by restoring as many existing buildings as possible and introducing renewable-energy and energy-saving technologies.

The district’s industrial heritage means that most of the existing buildings are characterised by large volumes, so are well suited to become event spaces and offices. One of the first buildings to open in 2005, the Sheds – a sawtooth storage warehouse designed in 1903 by Ernest Van Humbeeck and reimagined for Extensa by local studio Archi 2000 – has four event spaces, accommodating 10,000 guests each, while Maison de la Poste – a 1904 Frédéric Bruneel building renovated by architects Altiplan in 2019 – is now a conference centre consisting of 15 event spaces that showcase its carefully restored industrial architecture. There are galleries in the refreshed Hôtel des Douanes (a 1907 building also by Van Humbeeck) and more are to come, repurposing the remaining historic buildings in the area. Meanwhile, the few new-builds on site include offices by Neutelings Riedijk (a project that is currently the largest Passivhaus scheme in Belgium), Cepezed, and Samyn and Partners.

The district’s flagship building is the Gare Maritime, whose architectural works were completed in autumn 2020. The retail and food hall within are scheduled to launch in September 2021, marking an important landmark in the area’s redevelopment. At around 45,000 sq m, it was Europe’s largest freight train station at the beginning of the 20th century. The building has now been refreshed, and 12 new cross-laminated timber (CLT) pavilions have been added within.

Gare Maritime is the area’s commercial heart, housing hospitality, shops and offices. It has been carefully restored and redesigned by a team consisting of architects Neutelings Riedijk, Bureau Bouwtechniek and JDMA, and engineers Ney & Partners and Boydens. One of the key design drivers was adherence to the circular economy, salvaging existing materials but also making sure that all interventions are both light-touch and demountable. It boasts the largest CLT structure in Europe and the building is energy neutral. Gardens, designed by landscape architects Omgeving, help regulate the internal temperature and are watered using the rainwater harvesting system.

Additionally, the site uses geothermal heat and 17,200 sq m of photovoltaics on the roof, marking the biggest move to solar energy in the capital. The developers are even bringing a tram line to the area by creating a new bridge over the canal (the water created a barrier that had so far been an obstacle in bringing public transport to this part of town). This, and the fact that many of the streets in Tour & Taxis are pedestrianised, means car use will be discouraged, although there will be underground parking space.

A number of apartment buildings are currently in construction. They are the start to what Kris Verhellen, Extensa’s CEO, hopes is a whole new residential neighbourhood, called Park Lane. Verhellen is acutely aware of the inevitable gentrification of the neighbouring area of Molenbeek, which has a sizable Maghrebi immigrant population. He talks about the scheme’s tax contribution and the state’s responsibility to create an economic system where immigrants aren’t priced out. While the scheme’s sustainability credentials are undeniable, one wonders whether more could be done to ensure links are created to existing communities.

It is true that some of the residential offerings will be rent-capped so that they remain affordable, while future plans include a school and a retirement home. A nine-hectare publicly accessible park, currently in construction, will include a community farm and a garden in an expanse of green that connects the site to the canal, making it one of the biggest parks in Brussels.

Do these interventions go deep enough into the fabric of the existing local community to engage them with the scheme in a meaningful way? Could more be done? One thing is for certain; if Tour & Taxis does deliver, it will provide a precedent of reuse and eco-friendly redevelopment that can be used in other historic settings. Which is exactly why it is important to ensure that social balance takes the same priority as environmental, as it has become increasingly clear that they are inseparable in the quest for sustainability.

INFORMATION

tour-taxis.com

Jan Christian Vestre is on a quest. He wants to create the world’s most sustainable furniture factory – and he is taking his goal suitably seriously. The young CEO of Vestre, a Norwegian outdoor furniture specialist, has been leading this relatively small, family-owned business since 2012, after his father’s passing (Jan Christian is the third generation at the helm), and he has clear plans for it. They include being recognised as the greenest furniture maker on the planet, starting with an exemplary flagship production facility in the middle of a Norwegian forest, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG).

‘It’s a tool to change the world,’ says Jan Christian. ‘We don’t want to be another company just pushing products to the market.’ The factory is critical in that respect; it’s the first step in promoting a wider shift towards greener practices. ‘People can share life ideas there, have a sense of belonging. It’s about bringing people together. We can create new, enjoyable, profitable jobs and stop climate change; we can do both. We want to prove we can build a factory that can not only meet, but surpass the Paris Agreement measures.’

It’s a tall order, but Jan Christian’s enthusiasm is palpable and his architects share his passion and concerns. ‘Interestingly, the two most sustainable projects we’ve ever done are factories: the CopenHill power plant in Copenhagen, and this,’ says David Zahle, a Copenhagen-based partner and architect at BIG. ‘Coincidence? Not necessarily. Factories are where many environmental problems start and where people can change things directly through their daily job.’

Vestre has form when it comes to architecture: its first factory, designed by David Sandved in 1959, was once described as ‘one of the most beautiful industrial buildings imaginable’; a second factory in Torsby and its Oslo HQ are by none other than Snøhetta. Jan Christian approached BIG directly for this latest commission, having seen its past work and admired its playful approach. He first met Ingels at the opening of another BIG project in Norway, the Kistefos Museum (W*242). ‘We wanted bold ideas and a sense of humour,’ he says. BIG famously does both, from CopenHill’s power-plant-cum-ski-slope, to its Lego House in Billund, which looks like a stack of the beloved bricks, and the Danish National Maritime Museum, whose sunken courtyard resembles the hull of a ship.

Making a building that would be sustainable in every aspect, from its materials to its building methods and future life, is just as hard as it sounds. Many processes are still fairly uncharted territory and the reality of challenging everything in design and construction is certainly not easy – not least because it’s all happening during a pandemic. ‘We had to develop new methods to make things work. There is a lot of glass, for example. We have more than 2,000 sq m of windows [which could have resulted in poorer heat control], but we dealt with thermal bridges, insulation and a façade that has never been done before. We tried to make no compromises,’ explains Vestre. Following the project’s completion, the team intends to share publicly all the technologies they developed and used, for all to see and make use of freely in order to accelerate the transition to green technologies.

The factory, called The Plus, is a low-lying structure that takes its name from its cross-shaped plan. Spanning 130m on each side and with 7,000 sq m of floor space, the building is relatively modest, but uses its space with extreme efficiency, making the most of its outdoor spaces, too. Goods go in at one end, then are split through to the wood factory and the colour factory. Product gets assembled together in the fourth wing and then shipped out on the other side.

‘It’s essentially a big conveyor belt,’ explains Zahle. At the heart of the building, set inside an internal roundabout, is a sunken open courtyard wrapped in glass. The parts of the building that are not glazed will be clad in charred wood. Materials were chosen to be environmentally friendly and hard-wearing, so that the building will need as little maintenance as possible in the future.

The outdoor areas were of critical importance, as the space will be open to all. The public is welcome to visit, walk and rest around the building, or on its planted, accessible roof. There is no fence and it will be available 24/7. ‘It was very important that the people inside could look out into the forest, and people from the outside could look in – so there’s total transparency,’ says Zahle. ‘There are even windows on the roof so visitors can look into the offices.’

The surrounding nature will be part-outdoor showroom and part-playground, filled with playfully stretched, twisted or oversized furniture from Vestre’s catalogue. It will be a bit like an installation within nature, a folly of an urban square inserted into the forest. Meanwhile, the ramp up to the roof and the central staircase inside the courtyard will be painted in various colours representing the 300 colourways in which Vestre produces its furniture, creating a cascading rainbow.

The Plus is due to be completed and operational by the end of 2021; it will then open its doors to visitors in 2022. At the same time, Vestre is improving more parts of its business to reach its sustainability goal. This drive will hopefully be complemented by business growth too. ‘There is a wide range of things that we are doing, and even more that we can do in the future. We are growing fast,’ says Jan Christian. ‘Not that growth in itself is the goal, but this way we can do more.’

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This article appears in the August 2021 issue of Wallpaper* (W*268), on newsstands and available for free download

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Crawshaw Architects has given a new twist to traditional library architecture with this re-invented out-building in Dorset, UK. Adjoining a Grade II-listed Georgian farmhouse and water mill, the new library is housed within a transformed former cowshed and farm equipment store. Architect Aidan Crawshaw, the London-based studio’s founder, was commissioned to transform a substantial portion of this long brick building into a library and office space, with the intention on creating a home for a substantial collection of historic books on Palladian architecture. 

Crawshaw, working with his colleague Pandora Dourmisi, chose to preserve the proportions and form of the original farm building. The library is based around a long central arched nave flanked by a pair of aisles containing the book stacks, a modern interpretation of classical proportions. These not only reference the Palladian book collection but were constructed using carpentry and metal-working methods that hark back to the building’s days as part of a working farm.

The internal volume was increased by removing a few original trusses and replacing them with new equivalents, as well as digging down to increase the ceiling height. Three new roof-lights allow daylight to cascade down into the stacks and modulate the depth perception of the room.

At one end, the new office retains the original pitch of the roof, while a perfectly symmetrical French door with arched fanlight sets up a vista back down the length of the library.

The solid oak arches and columns used throughout are slender and elegant, with the vertical columns forming part of two reading desks and a low bench. The oak is paired with black steel external windows and simple white painted walls. A new kitchen has been added adjacent to the entrance hall and the detailing throughout is meticulous but modest, with new joinery paired with antique fixtures and fittings from the client’s collection.

From the outside, the cowshed retains its original character, offering little hint of the treasures contained within. This is a small jewel of a building, with its emphasis on minimalist craft, natural materials and perfect geometry evoking the grandeur and atmosphere of a much larger space.

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The first section of Battersea Power Station is now complete, and residents have moved into Grade II* listed building Switch House West. Once the location of the Power Station’s main switch gear, laboratory, battery and assembly rooms, it has now undergone a complete restoration by lead architect WilkinsonEyre.

The functional and the domestic merge in a space which maintains as many original features as possible. Remaining faithful to the building’s industrial history while rethinking the structure, the addition of three new floors added to the top now contain three-bedrooms apartments complete with private terrace. Studios and two-bedroom apartments, complete with the original brick and steel, are in the original building, with outside space to be found in both the two internal courtyards and a garden on top of Turbine Hall A. Interior architects Michaelis Boyd have configured the layouts of the apartments which centre around the riverside views offered from the Crittall floor to ceiling windows.

The interiors nod to Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s original vision in two parts: the first phase of the Power Station, Battersea A, completed in 1933, is reflected in design details including the herringbone flooring in Control Room A. The second phase, Battersea B, was completed in 1955 and inspires the stripped-back industrial aesthetic of the building as a whole.

‘This is a key milestone for us in the long project to restore this beautiful building,’ says Sebastien Ricard, project director at WilkinsonEyre. ‘This celebrated industrial architecture, its epic scale complemented by refined contemporary details, now accommodates dwellings all slightly different in proportion, views, and configuration of indoor and outdoor space, including spectacular private terraces. The offer is unique both in terms of the Battersea Power Station development and the wider London market.’ Adds Simon Murphy, chief executive officer at Battersea Power Station Development Company (BPSDC): ‘The completion of Switch House West is a huge achievement and one of many key milestones in what will be the most transformational year yet in the regeneration of Battersea Power Station.’

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When we featured them back in 2001, Fearon Hay had been running for just three years. Set up by Tim Hay and Jeff Fearon, the studio started out in Auckland, although it now has an outpost in Los Angeles. We were drawn by their exquisite residential architecture, which more often than not was paired with the equally beautiful New Zealand landscape, creating far flung retreats that tempted in every way.

This recent project, Fabric Warehouse 2.0, reflects the practice's approach to commercial projects. These have often required redevelopment and re-use, integrating their refined modern approach within the context of an existing storage warehouse. Located in downtown Auckland, the project creates two clear spaces – office and warehouse – with bold, installation-like connections, like the metal-wrapped internal stair and balustrade. 

The architects describe the exterior as deliberately mysterious – it's more Donald Judd than big box store. That artistic focus extends to the client's collection of art and objects, which are scattered throughout the space, alongside internal courtyards for work and meetings.

The entire building is also designed to be self-sufficient, with the ability to harvest rainwater and solar power – elements that Fearon Hay have explored with their more off-the-grid and out of the way private projects. As well NZ and the US, the practice has also worked on hospitality projects in China and Sri Lanka and won numerous awards, including for the vineyard building at the Brancott Estate on the South Island. 

MORE FROM WALLPAPER* ARCHITECTS DIRECTORY 2020

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You wouldn't expect to find industrial architecture in a forest, yet this is exactly where the new factory for urban furniture manufacturer Vestre will be located, when it completes in a few years' time. Worry not; the manufacturing facility will not be at odds with its natural surroundings. As its architects, the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) explain, this is set to be ‘the world's most sustainable furniture factory.' 

Titled The Plus, the building is conceived as a village, guided by principles such as sustainable architecture and high-efficiency production. The Vestre community will operate within, creating its product using carbon neutral fabrication methods. Meanwhile, the project will double as a public 300-acre park for hiking and camping. 

‘Vestre will be the world’s most sustainable furniture manufacturer,' says the company's CEO Jan Christian Vestre. ‘Building The Plus will be an important step in reaching this goal. By using cutting-edge technology and Scandinavian collaboration, we can produce faster and greener than ever. In that way we will ensure global competitiveness through our leadership in environmentally-conscious production.'

Materials were carefully chosen to fit the concept and include local timber, low-carbon concrete and recycled reinforcement steel. Here, automation will meet nature, as accessible green roofs (where employees and public are invited to stroll and hike) blend with smart robots and digital technologies inside. 

The building's layout is designed to facilitate workflow. There are four branches - the warehouse, the colour factory, the wood factory and the assembly – all of which connect at a central hub. In this are the logistics office and an exhibition centre.

‘With Vestre we have imagined a factory that is simultaneously front of house and back of house,' says Bjarke Ingels. ‘The beauty of the factory is the clarity of its organization. Conceived as the intersection of a road and a production line it forms a large plus connecting everything to everything. The radical transparency invites visitors and hikers to enjoy the whole process of manufacturing while providing the workers the thrill of working in the middle of the forest.'

The Plus is set to become the first industrial building in the whole Nordic region to achieve BREAM Outstanding, which is the highest environmental certification of its kind.

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Back in the summer of 2012 The Macallan – makers of luxury single malt scotch whisky since 1824 – launched an international competition for the design of a new and architecturally audacious project. Incorporating a new factory, HQ and ‘Distillery Experience' for visitors, the proposed building was to be situated on an existing field within 485 acres of The Macallan Estate and the listed Jacobean manor, Easter Elchies House, aka The Macallan’s spiritual home.  

The client set architects and engineers a rigorous brief for a design-focused brand home that would project the vision and direction of the leading single malt whisky marque into the future. With the barley field site of the new building at the edge of Scottish countryside designated as an ‘Area of Great Landscape Value’ – a land corridor following the sweep and contours of the River Spey integral to The Macallan Estate and The Macallan Fishing Beat – any competitive proposal would have to be brave, bold and audacious while remaining sensitive to the surrounding environment of ancient Scottish earthworks, long cairns, brochs and wells. The importance of the neighbouring ancestral house had to be respectfully acknowledged but the new distillery would also be required to increase The Macallan’s production of whisky by up to a third. Quite a challenge. 

Enter Graham Stirk of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, the London-based practice whose impressive portfolio includes One Hyde Park, the Leadenhall Building, NEO Bankside London and the Millennium Dome. Stirk provided a plan that mitigated the impact of the building; a response to the landscape as the primary context rather than the disparate nature of the existing built facilities and storage units.

But it was Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners’ projected roof design that offered the most compelling prospect. Said to be one of the most complicated timber structures in the world – 1,800 single beams, 2,500 different roof elements, and 380,000 individual components, almost none of them the same – the undulating canopy would be a beautiful, meticulously engineered, wood and steel wonder.

‘Whilst the roof design is described as a landscape response, the roof was never intended to disappear or be lost within the hillside,' explains Toby Jeavons, Associate Partner and Project Architect at Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. ‘As such, the roof is positioned on top of the retaining structure and not bound by it. This allows the upstanding depth of the roof structure to act as a balustrade to the grid line and to the Northern edge of the roof as it appears to meet the ground. As the roof "sails" above the retaining structures, it is freed from restraining ground pressures and loads.'

Eventually completed back in 2018, the roof structure consists of two principal parts, the primary tubular steel support frame and the rolling domes and valleys of the timber grid shell. The primary steel frame is laced through the centre of the timber beam structure and helps to resist the torsional forces. The timber domes act in compression and the interconnecting valleys are hung between the domes. All the roof beams are straight and all the cassettes are flat, double-skinned panels.

‘This provides the facetted appearance so important for the "engineered landscape",' says Jeavons. ‘Despite the highly repetitive and rotational roof geometry, the finished structure is constructed from over 380,000 components. All of the timber beams are vertical and a constant expressed depth of 750mm which allows for considered and neat interfaces with internal partitions as well as the solid and glazed facades.'

The changeable highland weather and uncompromising Scottish elements also proved a significant factor in the building’s material construction and profile. ‘The architectural concept of the distillery allows it to thrive in the Scottish elements by reflecting the very nature that surrounds it. The profile is low and hugs the ground. The roof structure anticipates severe snow loading, and the natural green roof coverings utilise a specific, low maintenance mix of Scottish wildflowers and meadow grasses suited to the location.'

To satisfy the proprietor’s desire for increased yield, practicality and an efficiently attractive, visitor-friendly space, the architects envisaged a facility that contained a rhythm of production ‘cells' which could be conceptually added or taken away to provide the required capacity.

‘A production cell is a combination of the required fermentation and distillation vessels which we have positioned in a circular arrangement. This is to increase the visibility of the beautiful production equipment. By situating the hand-made copper pot stills in an elevated central position the building celebrates the entire production sequence.'

‘The distinctive roof configuration is a reflection of the circular production cells beneath it and takes the form of a laminated veneered lumbar (LVL) orthogonal grid shell. The use of timber is in part a reflection of the particular importance that The Macallan place on wood during its whisky’s maturation process – a crucial factor which accounts for up to 80 per cent of the character of the single malt whisky. The roof undulates with equal rhythm over four process cells below and is then pulled higher to the South where the roof accentuates and highlights the Visitor Experience’s point of entry.'

For inspiration, Graham Stirk and his team examined historic plans for the original estate dating back to the early 18th century, notably a Thomas Whyte plan, which hangs in The Oak Hall in Easter Elchies House. This helped inform the setting of the building, in particular, the serpentine approach to the Visitor Experience entrance at the southern end of the facility.

‘It was always important to us that the two buildings were physically joined,' says Toby Jeavons. ‘The Experience is the reception – and not a separate area where one learns about the distilling process abstractly. It was important to deliver a clear view into beautifully co-ordinated production area. In this building, nothing is to be hidden away.'

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Making spirits is one thing; you find your raw material, turn it into alcohol, age it if necessary, then bottle it and release it to the world. But designing for a distillery is an entirely different matter. Drinks makers are hiring the best architects to design their distilleries, bringing grandeur and romance to what is essentially a spirits factory. Whether it’s building a site from the ground up or revamping an older facility, the right architecture can elevate a project into the limelight.

Turning distilleries into must-visit destinations is an important step for tourism too – as current travel restrictions start to lift in the not-too-distant future. Visitor numbers at Scotch whisky distilleries broke through the two million mark for the first time in 2018, highlighting the importance of creating an experience that stands out from the crowd. Environmental factors are also a key consideration, with renewable energy and sustainable building materials now featuring prominently in design briefs. Recovering heat from the stills and turning waste materials into cattle feed or fuel are becoming more and more common.

And then there’s the view. Whether it’s Speyside glimpsed from the windows of Glenrinnes, Islay from Ardnahoe or Skye from Raasay, magic can happen when a distillery celebrates its surrounding landscape.

The Macallan

What's most impressive about the design of The Macallan’s distillery on the Easter Elchies estate in Speyside, Scotland, is its invisibility. Blink and you’ll miss it as you approach the site from nearby Craigellachie. Part of the brief for architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners – the brains behind projects including the 3 World Trade Center building in New York, Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport in London, and the Leadenhall or ‘cheese-grater' tower in the UK capital – was for the £140 million distillery to blend into the landscape.

The distillery is cut into the hillside, with its undulating grass roof hailed as one of the most-complicated timber structures in the world, consisting of 1,800 single beams, 2,500 different roof elements, and 380,000 individual components, almost none of which are identical in shape or size. Lead architect Graham Stirk drew on historic plans for the estate – the brand’s home since 1824 – dating back to the early 18th century as inspiration for the project. Split into five ‘cells', each housing a different step in the production process, the site will not only allow The Macallan to increase production by a third but also creates a natural flow for tours from its visitors’ centre.

Dalmunach

Few ingredients are as essential to producing Scotch whisky as malted barley, with the crop providing architecture firm Archial Norr with the inspiration for the design of Dalmunach on Speyside. Viewed from above, the plan for the distillery echoes the shape of a sheaf of barley, providing an expansive and welcoming entrance for visitors. Built on the site of the former Imperial distillery at Carron, Dalmunach retains strong links to the past. Red bricks from Imperial’s mill were reclaimed and turned into a feature wall in the foyer, while wood from the original washbacks – in which the beer that forms the base for the whisky is made – was turned into a drum-shaped entrance and used to clad the gable walls.

Chivas Brothers said it didn’t want an ‘industrial shed' when it commissioned the designer, instead specifying that its 15th Scotch distillery should be open and transparent. Walking round Dalmunach, it’s easy to appreciate how the project met its brief, with the layout of the stills for making the whisky and the huge glass walls creating a sense of space. The combination of dark grey metal, white-washed walls and oiled timbers in its palette creates a crisp and classic finish.

Roe & Co

Think Dublin, think Guinness, the distinctive stout that’s become synonymous with Ireland’s capital. Yet beer isn’t the only drink to call the city home. Back in the 19th century, George Roe was at the heart of Irish whiskey’s golden age, with his distillery – one the largest in Ireland – covering 17 acres on Dublin’s Thomas Street. Guinness owner Diageo has now revived the name for its Roe & Co whiskey and has turned the brewery’s former power station into a distillery, at the heart of an urban regeneration project for The Liberties district.

With its red bricks and geometric Art Deco lines, the building, renovated by RKD Architects, cuts an imposing figure and is a distinctive landmark on the city’s skyline. Designed in the 1930s and constructed in 1948, the power station was decommissioned 40 years later. At the heart of the design was the desire to retain as much of the power station’s interior as possible, with only 25% of the building being used in its new guise, retaining the internal steel beams, concrete and bricks. The visitors’ centre offers views into the parts of the power station that remain derelict and into the new still room, housed in the former turbine hall.

Bombay Sapphire

Laverstoke in Hampshire, England, has been home to various mills since the Doomsday book was written, but the site rose to fame when Henry Portal began making banknotes there for the British empire in 1724. Renovation work began in 2012 to turn the collection of Georgian and Victorian buildings into a home for Bombay Sapphire gin. The most-striking aspect of the design by Heatherwick Studio – which scooped the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) Award for Sustainable Industrial Design – is the two glasshouses in which owner Bacardi has worked with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew to grow the ten plants used as botanicals in its gin.

Renovating the derelict site to create a distillery involved recycling bricks, tiles and other materials from some of the buildings that were demolished, as well as retaining the facades of many other structures. Solar panels, a hydro-electric turbine in the River Test and a biomass boiler powered by local woodchip and biproducts from the distilling process have enhanced the mill’s green credentials. Twenty-three of the 43 buildings on the sprawling development were preserved during the construction work, with new courtyards and gardens created to allow the river to be widened and create wildlife habitats.

High West

Built on the 3,500-acre historic Blue Sky cattle ranch in Utah, the design for the High West distillery celebrates the area’s heyday as a mining boomtown during the 1860s. The exterior wood panels and corrugated metal roofs echo the much simpler shacks that would have sat on top of the mines. Wood is a theme that continues inside the buildings too, with the aged grey cedar barn wood of the exterior giving way to a mixture of timber for the interior. The distillery’s high ceilings show off its exposed wooden beams, trusses and frames, made from rough-sawn douglas fir, while its floors are clad in broad, random width, white oak boards with a rich circular-sawn appearance.

Richly textured oak flooring is complemented by milled white oak on the window frames and some of the walls. Yet perhaps the most prominent use of oak is in the overhead display of whiskey barrel staves, which runs along the whole length of the entry hall and into the dining room. With so much wood on show, meeting fire regulations was one of the challenges that AJC Architects overcame when the firm designed the facility, which opened in 2015 following four years of planning.

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This elegant re-imagining of a former working barn finds new freedoms within a simple industrial framework. The architect Sandy Rendel has garnered plenty of experience of working within the planning constraints and social eccentricities that shape the modern English landscape, following up lengthy stints at the studios of both James Gorst and Tony Fretton before setting up his own office in 2010. In 2016, the studio’s South Street house in Lewes, perched on the edge of the South Downs, won an RIBA award and was shortlisted for the Manser Medal for best completed house in the UK.

This new project sits amidst existing gardens in West Sussex, a well-loved and much visited horticultural destination. The original structure was a derelict Dutch barn, a familiar rural form with open sides and a corrugated iron roof that no longer served a functional purpose on the site. Rendel and his team had to play a canny game with the planning authorities, invoking a clause that allowed the conversion of disused agricultural buildings into dwellings.

‘It was an exercise in trying to ensure the raw form and character of the original barn was maintained and not over domesticated,’ Rendel explains, with the key challenge being to preserve these qualities whilst also making a well-insulated, comfortable and spacious place in which to live.

The surrounding gardens have been developed over the past decade by the clients in close collaboration with the Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf. The converted barn adjoins them and certainly retains an agricultural form, with a ribbed zinc clad facade and the characteristic curved roof. Whether its rising above the planting or looming over the approach road at the edge of the site it appears for all the world like part of a farmyard. From inside the house, the emphasis is very different with glazing arranged to make the most of the very seasonally planted garden. In the summer, the landscape changes considerably and full height frameless windows frame verdant views from every angle.

The apparently effortless simplicity of the exterior was hard-won, not least the planning requirement of retaining the character of the original barn. The architects and the fabricators agonised over every aspect of the detail design to give the joints and corners a flawless yet still industrial quality. ‘We studied the ad-hoc compositions of 'un-designed' and regularly repaired agricultural structures,’ Rendel says, ‘we also looked closely at the industrial photography of Bernd and Hilla Becher.’ The end result is asymmetrical and honest, responding to its site and the brief with characteristic restraint.

The barn's internal plans are inverted, with bedrooms on the ground floor and an open plan first floor to make the most of far-reaching views across the garden to the Souths Downs. Dark joinery, wooden floors and red and turquoise shelving units are paired with the dark red steel of the industrial-sized roof joists. The studio is planning to add a cylindrical viewing tower on the site, in a style that evokes a typical grain silo, to create a viewing platform for the garden and continue building in the pared back agricultural tradition.

INFORMATION

sandyrendel.com

When the Chongqing Iron and Steel plant was inaugurated in the Chinese city in 1938, it represented an important highlight in both local pride and country-wide industrial strength (so much so, that it was visited and celebrated by Chairman Mao in the 1950s). However, as times changed and the city grew, the large scale site became defunct and abandoned, leaving a considerable chunk of town in neglect, as the complex, which originally was in the city's outskirts, now slowly became a central part of town as Chongqing's sprawl expanded in the 21st century. So, the city soon started looking into ideas to redevelop the site, while somehow maintaining its historical significance. 

Enter emerging architecture practice WallaceLiu, headed by Jee Liu and Jamie Wallace, who were based in China at the time and now have relocated to London. The firm were appointed to transform the important industrial site into a new 7,500 sq m museum that highlights the steelworks' cultural, social and industrial history and is part of a larger redevelopment of the old factory campus. The project's scale was considerable, but the young studio responded with flair by taking the plunge and researching the city's heritage while exploring efficient ways to approach both materials and building techniques. 

‘By working with adaptive re-use our design is about rearranging and reframing what is there, and in the case of the museum, accentuating the visual and spatial experience to purposefully make it more dramatic and more complex,' says Wallace. ‘Breaking down the exhibition journey into a series of spaces that travel through the existing structures and around the open public foundation hall invites visitors to explore and observe the existing features whilst completing their composed exhibition narrative.'

The result is a striking complex where old parts have been maintained, lovingly restored and highlighted, yet sit comfortably and in harmony with new elements that bring the museum to the 21st century. The architects kept the scale and grandeur of the original structures, while clearing it from hazardous parts and polishing the interior to make it suitable for display purposes. 

The new structure creates a flowing indoors/outdoors relationship, while the new exhibition halls are lifted up and a trajectory is created through different halls and bridges across the site. A permeable, lightweight steel structure in carefully selected hues wraps around the building, uniting the whole. Inside, a central atrium hall, including cloakrooms, toilet facilities, bookshop and a projection room, becomes the heart of the visitor experience.

‘The materials and colours we chose, and the aesthetics of the large perforated metal curtains supported by tall truss-like structures, come from observations on site, and our intentional compositions with the ruin like post-industrial context,' says Liu. ‘We wanted to create a dynamic composition, layered edges, and the possibility of wandering. This allows the existing features of the old factory to play a foreground.'

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The so-called creative revitalisation of former industrial sites is a familiar refrain in Russian city-making. Moscow already counts numerous such projects under its belt – Red October, Hlebozavod and Artplay to name a few – and a few more in the making, like the 65-hectare ZilArt project, or Renzo Piano’s power-station-soon-turned-cultural-hub, GES 2.

Russia’s post-industrial landscape, however, doesn’t end on the fringes of its capital. Anachronistic, single-industry towns remain, and regions like the Middle Urals and Siberia are dotted with neglected industrial sites. Eight hundred kilometres east of Moscow, in the highly industrialised region of Tatarstan, the very topic of industrial revitalisation was recently discussed during the second Russian Architecture Biennale for Young Architects – courtesy of programme operators and urban development experts Citymakers.

Curated by Sergei Tchoban, director of SPEECH architectural office and Tchoban Voss Architekten, and directed by Natalia Fishman-Bekmambetova, aide to the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, the biennial’s theme – giving a second life to industrial sites – was presented in the format of a competition. Applicants were asked to develop proposals for the rehabilitation of two industrial sites: a former faucet factory in the capital city of Kazan, and a grain elevator in Kazan’s river port that is still operating but in a location ripe for development opportunities.

‘We wanted to give a brief that was really belonging to clear and actual problems in Russia,’ says Tchoban, who helped devised a ratio for the new site: equal parts office and housing and smaller pockets with hotel, cultural and retail functions.

The winning proposals are not guaranteed to be built – both sites are privately-owned, and the owners were not ready to commit just yet – but the topic, and the applicants’ proposals raise important questions. How do we preserve industrial heritage while catering for modern-day needs? What are the benefits of revitalised industrial spaces, and what are the challenges? The winning proposal for the factory, by Aleksandr Alyaev, seeks to make the new, mixed-use site, permeable to its surroundings while preserving all historical buildings.

Alyaev, like all other applicants, is under 35 – an age cap that underlines the biennial’s ambition to give young architects a voice. ‘In general, age is no criteria, but it’s a good criteria for a competition because this is about supporting the young,’ says Kristin Feireiss, German design curator and co-founder of the Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin, who sat on the jury along with Dutch architect Michiel Riedijk and Shanghai-based Philip Yuan.

In fact, giving young creatives a voice has been front-of-mind in Tatarstan for a while. Since 2015, the region has experienced a remarkable growth in green infrastructure as part of Tatarstan’s Public Spaces Development Program, led by Fishman-Bekmambetova, then aged only 24, and a team of architects averaging 25.

As part of the programme, over 350 parks and public spaces have been developed through a participatory design approach involving local communities around Tatarstan. ‘It’s becoming an inevitable process, the engagement of young people, the creation of opportunities, the role of the architect,’ says Fishman-Bekmambetova.

In Soviet times, she explains, the role of the architect was diluted amidst the low-cost, mass-scale housing construction efforts. ‘What is happening now, is we’re giving power back to the architect, and we’re giving power back to the non-corrupt, young people.’

INFORMATION

architectbiennale.ru

The Russian Architecture Biennale for Young Architects ran from 24 – 26 October 2019 in Innopolis in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia

On the seafront of Tallinn, there’s a new neighbourhood emerging. On the site of a former miliary port and shipyard which was closed off to the public for nearly a century, Noblessner has sprung up within just a couple of years. Several contemporary apartment buildings completed last year, one industrial building has been converted into a brewery, and a design store has popped up in another. Rounding off the area with a cultural offering is the new Kai Art Center, which opened last week (20 September).

The art centre is a new home for the formerly nomadic seven-year-old Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center (ECADC), led by director Karin Laansoo. After cropping up internationally at arts festivals and gallery spaces across the world such as the Whitechapel gallery in London and Performa in New York, Laansoo's happy to have found a permanent home for ECADC in which to show four exhibitions per year.

‘It’s a small building,’ Laansoo says of their new digs, ‘but it’s very important for the city. During Soviet times Noblessner was a restricted area, so you couldn’t access the sea, but now people can come here and feel that natural connection with the ocean.' Outside, children are jumping off the edge of the pier and skateboarding across the smooth new paving stones of the public realm. Soon there will be two restaurants opening up on the ground floor of the building. ‘Last year there were no roads in the area. It has been a rapid development.'

The Noblessner area, owned by Estonian shipbuilding company BLRT Grupp – which opened a real estate arm to redevelop the land, features 12 original industrial buildings dating back to the early 20th century. A few have been restored, some are used for pop-up theatres and raves, while a few look dangerously close to collapse, with facades hanging off. The Kai Art Center’s new home is within a two-storey former submarine-making warehouse.

This particular brick and reinforced concrete building was built in 1913 by Danish engineers Christiani & Nielsen. It saw 12 submarines to completion between 1913 and 1917 for the Tsar when Estonia was part of the Russian Empire, and when the country gained independence in 1918 it started being used for shipbuilding, until 2018 when the area started regenerating.

Laansoo describes seeing horses being used to transport heavy submarine parts in archive photographs of the building – yet the architecture reflects the early twentieth century embracing modernity. Slender concrete beams support a gracefully arching roof that spans the whole breadth of the building – leaving a void of 6m high ceilings for the Kai Art Center to play within on the first floor.

‘The same Danish engineers who designed this building also worked on the nearby Seaplane Hangar – when that was built, it was the world’s largest free-standing dome. The concrete structure is really thin, beautiful and avant-garde,’ says Margit Aule, architect and one of the co-founders of KAOS Architects, who was commissioned to renovate the Kai Art Center building.

While architecturally advanced for its time, the building still required a ‘total makeover’ says Aule. ‘In some places you could see through the wall.’ Luckily, KAOS are well versed in the restoration of Estonia’s heritage buildings – and on good terms with the Tallinn Planning Department. Aule describes the whole restoration process as a ‘dialogue’.

‘The company [BLRT Grupp] were looking for an idea for the building for three years. They wanted all the architectural details to be displayed – so it made sense for it to be an exhibition space. It’s an open solution. We divided it with offices at one end, the exhibition space in the middle, then an auditorium at the other end,’ says Margit Aule. Gallery space stretching 450 sq m, an auditorium seating 100, and an office for 16 people including meeting rooms and a kitchen for Kai are planned across the whole first floor.

What the design reveals is that as well as restoration, KAOS is interested in contributing to a contemporary conversation about architecture too. ‘We know how to preserve old buildings, but what we add is always contemporary – we are not replicating,’ says Aule of their work.

The touch is sensitive, but the expression echoes the clarity of the original architects. Balancing functionality with preservation, contemporary divisions float within the architecture. Office cubicles neatly seal off meeting rooms and a bathroom, while new timber and plasterboard walls rise two thirds of the way up the original walls. Heating and ventilation is hidden, yet views of the original factory windows that cast shafts of ‘spectacular’ light into the gallery in the afternoon are left visible.

Additions are discreet, yet not without careful aesthetic consideration. Corner strip lights illuminate the new concrete and steel staircase, echoing the existing industrialism, while the slim concrete beams of the roof have been painted a light grey colour, and layered with acoustic panels to soften the sounds.

Meanwhile other elements have been left admirably in their original state. A huge skylight in the middle of the gallery casts shifting patterns of light into the space throughout the day. One structural wall in one of the offices has been left partially unpainted, revealing layers of patterned and decaying wallpaper.

It's clear that KAOS embrace the old and the new alike. The two founders – both named Margit – are currently working on the remodeling of a 13th century castle in Haapsalu, western Estonia – ‘The medieval period was a long period in Estonia so we have a lot of well preserved stone buildings.’ Here, they are inserting contemporary elements such as new Corten steel staircases and concrete slabbed exhibition spaces into the original architecture.

Their passion for merging the past with the present rings clearer still with Aule’s dream project. An old church just around the corner from their office in the Old Town of Tallinn, a walled medieval settlement protected as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. ‘There was a fire that left it in ruins,’ Aule says of the church, ‘but in these ruins people started building their own private houses. Part of it is still used as a church and concert space. You couldn’t rebuild it, but thinking about how to solve it would be amazing.’

INFORMATION

kai.center

kaosarhitektid.ee

ADDRESS

Kai Art Center
Peetri 12
10415 Tallinn
Estonia

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The Swiss municipality of Muttenz now has a water purification plant with a twist. Far from the traditional industrial facility that remains off-limits to the members of the public, this innovative treatment centre is a truly interactive experience, and open to all by appointment – and who could resist taking an informative tour of how a modern facility of its kind works?

Combining technology, education and preservation, the building, designed by Miami-based Oppenheim Architecture, is swiftly becoming a new landmark for the wider Basel area. The plant’s sculptural form is distinctive. The architects aimed to work with materials that blend harmoniously with the surrounding environment; strengthening the structure’s message of sustainability along the Rhine River waterfront. 

At the same time, the design had to address practical issues such as upkeep and a meaningful connection with its surroundings. Low maintenance, tactile shotcrete (concrete sprayed on a surface through a hose) was used for the façade and roof in order for the design to feel natural and be able to take on patina and mature together with its setting among protected woodland.

Bridging state-of-the-art technology with existing ecosystems and producing potable water of the highest standard, this project, led by practice director Chad Oppenheim, highlights exactly how iconic architecture can be both subtle and work with nature. 

INFORMATION

For more information visit the Oppenheim Architecture website

Snøhetta has completed its colourful fishing facility for the Holmen Industrial Area, in Northern Norway, on Sortlandssundet in the archipelago of Vesterålen, a historic fishing hub. The facility is considerate of the land and its environment, yet cutting-edge and forward-thinking in its approach to design and production.

The client, shipowner Holmøy Maritime, needed one site that could smoothly accommodate all employees and facilities in one place across 6,000sq m. Snøhetta carefully considered the layout that includes four distinctive buildings for trawling, fish farming and fish processing and the company’s headquarters. There is also a guest house for employees between shifts and an undulating park named ‘Lunden’, that was created with surplus excavation from the site.

Snøhetta carefully considered the fish trawlers pathway and daily activities, tracking the fish handling process from net to freezer to ship, to create the best possible conditions for employees and safe production. This saw the freezing terminal placed centrally within the facility, with possibilities for future expansion. While the facility is practical, the colourful building exteriors also make it a special place.

The red, orange, yellow and green colours were chosen to react with the light conditions – from December to January the Vesterålen takes on a distinctive blue darkness, while in summer, 24 hour daylight is dimmed by rain clouds. Materials include aluminum façade cladding and concrete floors chosen for durability, and following the typical industrial typology, yet the added colours and neat wayfinding system reference a corporate vision too.

The interior of the buildings is characterised by open-plan space and large windows, to allow as much light in as possible, and open up employees to the landscape. The colours defined in the exterior palette continue in contrast with light ash and birch woodwork.

Snøhetta designed a graphic pattern for the windows and sides of the freezing terminal inspired by fish scales that wraps around the architecture and also features in the Holmen Industrial Area's new logo, and can be seen in silver on the business cards and stationery.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Snøhetta website

London and Hamburg-based architecture practice Finkernagel Ross has put the final touches to a large-scale project in rural North Germany – the Stahlwerk Augustfehn steel factory. The final stage of the decade-long renovation to the 19th-century complex was the extension to the campus’ office and meeting spaces, which now completed, closes this seminal project for the young practice. 

Back in 2006, the architects, headed by Catherine and Felix Finkernagel, were tasked with modernising the existing industrial complex, while boosting the company’s daily operations with much needed extra space. They proceeded by adding a main production plant and forge on site (which opened in 2009). The creation of a new administration wing followed, including space for a spectacular, restored, listed 19th-century steam engine, in 2012. 

While aiming to bring the steelworks’ facilities into the 21st-century, the architects also sought to draw from the site’s industrial heritage ‘by restoring and then displaying industrial artefacts in the new buildings’.

The final phase of the long-term project boasts a striking roof conversion and extension, which plays with the building’s original pitched roof, while transforming it into a signature feature for the whole complex. A restored former factory clock has been incorporated within the new glazed façade. At the same time, transparent, glass-enclosed parts ensure the new workspace interiors are flooded with natural light.

The refreshed building’s sweeping, modern shape offsets the existing structures’ more austere geometry of sharp, rectangular volumes; softening the whole in a balanced juxtaposition of contemporary architecture and Germany’s industrial past.

INFORMATION
For more information visit the website of Finkernagel Ross

Istanbul’s newest and most talked about concept boutique isn’t to be found within the city’s polished shopping malls or well-heeled shopping streets. Instead, the recently opened Sanayi 313 can be found in a converted car repair shop in Atatürk Oto Sanayi, an industrial estate in the north east of the city.

Dreamt up by two brothers, interior architect Enis Karavil and entrepreneur Amir Karavil, alongside long-time friend and fashion designer Serena Uziyel, Sanayi 313 opened in 2015 with the aim of creating a lifestyle destination for those with a passion for modern design, fashion, art and food.

While furniture, home and fashion accessories sit alongside a restaurant serving up healthy cuisine on the ground floor, the building’s upstairs plays host to the offices of Sanayi 313 Architects and Atelier.

The architectural design service and a design studio is headed up by Enis Karavil, who creates the brand’s limited-edition furniture collections. Having completed interiors projects in locations including London, New York, Istanbul, Riyadh and Doha, Karavil’s studio specialises in the refurbishment and customisation of vintage and antique furniture.

Meanwhile, the Atelier is run by Uziyel, whose Italian-honed shoe-making skills have gained her international acclaim. Uziyel’s collections offer up a range of handmade shoes and bags, which aim to blend modern design aesthetics with traditional craftsmanship. Outside of Istanbul, Sanayi 313 Atelier’s collections are stocked in the UK, Italy, Denmark, Germany, Ukraine, USA, China, Japan, Korea, Dubai, Kuwait and Qatar.

For those wishing to linger in the space a little longer, the ground floor restaurant and patisserie, helmed by chef Müge Ergül, serves up breakfast and lunch to the store’s shoppers, while dinner is reserved for private parties only.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Sanayi 313 website

ADDRESS

Atatürk Auto Industrial
Site 2
Part 10 Number 313
Maslak Istanbul

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In the 1950s, the age of the automobile, car workshops and showrooms the size of shopping malls became a frequent sight on urban peripheries. The concrete, steel and glass Schlotterbeck Citröen Garage in Zurich, designed in 1951 by Basel architects Suter & Suter, is a perfect example. But needs change and cities evolve. Now, 65 years later, the site is part of the dense city structure and space is at a premium here. The listed building, with its double helix access ramps, has escaped demolition but is being transformed into a hybrid commercial and residential project by giuliani.hönger architects.

During the conversion phase, the changes taking place within the structure of the building are being documented by the Swiss photographer David Willen. Permanence, ruin, renovation, conservation and preservation have also shifted a lot in our understanding over time. Willen’s images preserve for us these transient scenes and spaces that we have learned to value.

Through his eyes we see a building undergoing change as a work of art, the incisions and demolitions like so many Gordon Matta-Clark cuts; found remnants shot by Willen with near pious care; or a roomful of wooden supports that are reminiscent of David Chipperfield’s 2014 art installation of 144 tree trunks in the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

This project connects the deeper dimension of time to three-dimensional space and compresses it back to us in two-dimensions in the form of images. Willen understands the aesthetic kick we get out of the intersections of great effort and entropy; the inevitable mortality of things and the nascence of the new. Through this ongoing project we get to see not just the rebirth of a building, but the birth of an artwork as well.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Project Schlotterbeck website

Photography: David Willen

After several tried-and-failed attempts to buy a city fringe warehouse to convert into their dream space, Auckland architects Andrea Bell and Andrew Kissell concluded they would have to construct their own. And so, their new design is now nestled on a previously vacant site behind the car dealerships of Grey Lynn, featuring an elegantly layered street frontage that conceals a generous family home within.

And yet this is no typical home. The ‘warehouse’ shell has exposed structure and services, concrete floors and high-bay lights. There are few linings and no marble kitchen. Instead, it is slightly brutal and almost monumental in scale, designed by architects brave enough to experiment with what makes a dwelling.

'The challenge was to create an honest warehouse character and not to overwork it,' says Kissell. 'Get the basics right – the space, the light, the outlook – and because we knew we couldn’t fully control this type of construction, we left some things to chance.' They have embraced the misalignments, builder’s markings, the accidental gouges in the precast, and enjoy 'that things will wear and age, develop a patina and continue the story.'

Located in a mixed-use neighbourhood, the design would allow for different potential uses in the future – residential, commercial, retail, hospitality or a blend. The staircase is adjacent to the entry lobby, for example, the main structure is fire-rated, and there are no central columns to constrain planning.

For its current residential use, the architects have located three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a TV room and study on the top floor; the kitchen, dining, living, laundry, guest toilet and store on the street / middle floor; and a basement workshop, which overlooks the backyard.

There is real clarity between the industrial shell and the fit-out, a sense that they have in fact converted a warehouse. Domestic elements are restrained, and, as much as possible, are made utilitarian. But to add softness and contrast they have indulged in the rugs, fabrics, and furniture to create the warmth and comfort needed for a home, adding a touch of glamour in amongst the car yards to create a family haven within the city.

INFORMATION
Photography: Simon Devitt

Architecture studio 1+1=1 Claudio Silvestrin Giuliana Salmaso has just signed off a striking addition for the home of Tetra Pak in Italy, the country's new innovation centre for the Swedish food packaging multinational. 

1+1=1 Claudio Silvestrin Giuliana Salmaso and Trombini Studio won the competition to design this 1300 sq m facility back in 2009, a space which would be dedicated to research, innovation and training. This was to be built adjacent to the company's existing headquarters in Emilia Romagna. Close to Modena, the structure would be in good company, within a region where innovation is a local tradition; this is also where the Ferrari and Lamborghini car factories were founded. However, a major earthquake hit northern Italy in 2012, causing widespread damage and delaying the construction plans. The building was, at the time, in design development. The natural event caused a change in the area's earthquake regulations, so the design needed to be updated respectively. 

For example, a 'gelosia' wall in the original design – a partition wall constructed with a perforated pattern that allows light and air to cross through – needed to be replaced. Enter the terracota-coloured pillars made of reinforced concrete and finished with cocciopesto. 

'The intention of the project was to represent tradition, innovation and style with a stunning yet functional contemporary architecture that expresses the international image of the company and its commitment to quality and innovation', explain the architects. 

Now, replacing a derelict farm on site, a winding footpath leads visitors through a green garden to the centre's dramatic, irregularly shaped 11m high wooden door. The pillars flank it on on the right hand side, while the building's curved glass facade unfolds to the left. 

The interior is an 8m high sinuous space that encourages an open plan, flexible desk arrangement. The airy and calm environment overlooks a park. 'The elliptical shape facilitates the circulation of information and teamwork, and fosters a way of working that encourages communication and innovation', say the architects. 'Meanwhile the inner core contains square and rectangular rooms, which are suitable for working in a more conventional way'.

INFORMATION
For more information visit the 1+1=1 website

Photography: Giulia Ricagni and Giovanni de Sandre

Located in an industrial facility on the outskirts of Copenhagen, the Amager Resource Centre (ARC) has been providing recycled energy to its local community since 1970. The centre stands as a significant ecological landmark for Denmark, its energy output playing a crucial role in creating a sustainable environment for the eco-conscious country's future generations.

Last year alone the ARC processed the refuse of one million Danish citizens, and with the population of Copenhagen rapidly growing, there has been increasing demand for a more socially intelligent and ecologically considerate way to tackle the waste recycling process. 

Enter the Amager Bakke – the newest addition to the ARC complex and part of the solution to this problem. It is set to open in 2017, and when it does, it is predicted to produce heat for 160,000 homes and electricity for 62,500 of them, aiding Copenhagen's ambitious goal to become a carbon neutral city by 2025. 

Designed by the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the Bakke will also offer a playful, recreational twist. Standing 85m in height, the plant will become Copenhagen's tallest 'mountain', as its roof has been creatively designed as a ski slope for the use of the local community. The design also integrates a number of green areas, which residents can use for running, walking and hiking. 

Merging seamlessly to its surrounding environment, the Bakke will act as a multi-functional social spot, opening up the area's industrial urban fabric to the public and allowing spectacular long views over the city and the nearby harbour. The BIG concept impressively includes added value for its local residents, helping to redefine the relationship between community and industrial space.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit BIG's website

Photography: Christoffer Regild

If you ever wondered what a credit card production facility looks like, a visit to the Hyundai Card Card Factory is just what the doctor ordered. Located in the company's headquarters in Yeouido, the heart of Seoul's financial district, this brand new project by Hyundai has just opened its doors to the public, offering unprecedented, behind-the-scenes access to its manufacturing spaces.

The factory takes over the building's tenth floor, designed by local architect Choi Wook of One O One – also the man behind another recent project by the same company, the city's Hyundai Card Design Library. The company recently inaugurated one more bespoke space earlier this year (although designed by a different architect), the Hyundai Card Music Library.

One of the team's main priorities was to create a varied emotional experience for the factory visitor – the space should hover between a functional industrial facility, a historical archive and an art installation. Inspiration was found in the vibe and atmosphere of the pioneering factories from the age of the industrial revolution. Thus, the interior combines modern, state-of-the-art automated technology with a little analogue nostalgia via the use of elements that reference the 19th century. For example, the nine large lighting elements hanging from the ceiling subtly recall factory chimneys. Metal – chosen for its raw, industrial feel – was Choi's main choice of material for elevators and furniture.

The company's own history and archives were equally important to the design process. A 'history wall' displays the 102 card plates created since the Hyundai Card's conception, while 200 books about industrial design from the 19the century through to the present day are available to browse in the building's special reading corner. 

The Card Factory is now open to Hyundai customers (there's currently over seven million), who can pick up their cards on site. Members can bring up to three guests along, to relax at the factory's cafe  or take a tour of the premises, experiencing first-hand how their plastic money is made in the 21st century. 

Growing plants using hydroponics has been around for centuries, and this unique method of looking after crops using nutrient-enriched water, without any soil, is still very much in use in modern agriculture. An extensive new facility for such an enterprise has just been completed in rural Guanajuato, near León in central Mexico, and features at its heart a modern office designed by local firm C.C Arquitectos.

Arranged in a way that promotes interaction between different departments, the offices also provide direct sightlines from employees’ desks into the surrounding five hectares of greenhouses, which contain row upon row of leafy lettuces, produced for international export by Next Vegetales. Visual connections between the office workers and the production processes were highly important, says C.C Arquitectos' Manuel Cervantes. This is a development that aims to create ‘a collective experience of working together with a shared purpose’.

Isolated by miles of flat agricultural land, the project was free of the contextual constraints that often come with architectural developments and allowed great flexibility in the design. The program is spread across a series of low volumes, linked by outdoor passageways and courtyards and united under a continuous concrete roof slab.

A series of rectangular forms - white rendered walls, a tranquil shallow pond, and oblong regional stone floor tiles - define a distinct architectural language. Central to the commercial building is a planted courtyard with hewn stone seating and running water features. Here, the monolithic roof slab breaks open and a large, rectilinear skylight streams sun rays down to the reflective pool below. Everything is carefully placed so that edges line up, while the juxtaposition of the white walls and grey ceiling and floors adds definition to the design.

Modern offices, meeting rooms and staff facilities surround the central courtyard, detached from one another yet united by this semi-open space. Large amounts of glazing bring in natural lighting in abundance, making for great work conditions, and highlight further the link between inside and outside.

As well as the main courtyard, the complex includes a second outdoor patio designed by the artist Jerónimo Hagerman. It features hanging Cissus antartica vines, drapped throughout a grey stone landscape, all dramatically set against a bright yellow backdrop.

New Parisian cement works Silos 13 is the height of industrial chic. Modern industrial architecture rarely matches the glories of the past. Ever since the high-tech architects sneaked functionalism off the business park and factory floor and transformed it into high-end design for apartments and galleries, the genre has been left wanting, preferring pragmatic and cost-effective banality over triumphal celebration. But the Silos 13 plant is different.

Commissioned by the French company Semapa, which is in charge of Paris' left bank redevelopment project, the new structure houses a works for Ciments Calcia, one of France's main cement producers. After Ciments Calcia gave over its existing distribution centre on the banks of the Seine for urban development in exchange for this site on the edge of Paris' vast Rive Gauche development zone, the challenge was to create a striking building that enhanced the streetscape while still playing an important industrial role.

Paris-based V.IB Architecture was set up in 2013 by Bettina Ballus and Franck Vialet. Commissioned by Semapa to create the new plant, the 20-strong studio decided to use concrete to create a pure industrial sculpture. 'It was obvious that Calcia would prefer materials that promote their people's skills and their business of making and selling cement to erect wonderful buildings around the city,' say Vialet and Ballus. The result is a pair of soaring silos, adjoining a slender concrete service tower containing stairs and a lift.

At ground and first level are two horizontal tubes, housing offices and a quality control centre. These latter structures were prefabricated off-site and have a crazed pattern of punched polygonal windows and slots - picked out with yellow aluminium reveals - to animate the façades and interiors and reference the fragmenting process used in manufacturing the concrete itself.

The silos themselves were originally planned at 50m but planning constraints cut them down to a still-impressive 37m, with a width of 20m. Built up laboriously from slipformed concrete, they rose at a speed of 2.5cm per hour over a three week build. Together, the five silos form a solid concrete composition, placed right up tight against the busy ring road and dramatically lit and shaded to form a major new urban sculpture. 'The project is a whole, it is alive,' say the architects, 'it's a sort of abstraction of bodies rising from the ground and attracting each other into one unique place.'

Up to 80 trucks a day access the new facility, churning out some 400,000 tons of concrete a year. As well as road there's rail access as well - 80% of the clients were located within 30km of the original site for logistical reasons, so the new centre had to at the heart of the transport network. Major industrial works are rarely showcased in central urban areas. By keeping the plant in the city - and making sure it was an aesthetic success - the architects and planners have kept the spirit of mixed use, multi-functional urbanism alive.