Balenmagazijn – UCO Site
RENOVATION OF INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE INTO A SOCIAL RESTAURANT
The redevelopment of the UCO site, a former large-scale textile factory, offers space for the social economy in the city and begins with the repurposing of a warehouse that was previously designated for the storage of cotton bales.
The hall centralizes the shared functions for companies that will locate their offices on this industrial site.
The original warehouse is essentially a high space with a precast concrete structure and a carefully crafted brick shell. Three gates provide access to the building.
By stacking the new program across four floors, only half of the area of the hall is
allocated. The repurposed building therefore consists of two halves that can be used together or separately. The new construction houses a kitchen, meeting facilities, a job center, and technical spaces. The polyvalent space with a restaurant inherits the generous height and depth of the original warehouse.
The building, with its silent, closed facades, existed on the margin of the sprawling factory. It must now take on a pioneering role as a link within the neighborhood. On the east and west sides, two oversized wooden gates welcome local residents and employees from the companies on the site. The new construction that rises above the warehouse’s cornice is clad in reflective metal,
referencing the material generally used in commercial kitchens. This marks the new future of the Bale warehouse and the site within the city.
TRANSFORMATION WITHOUT A TRACE
The constructive simplicity of the warehouse is fragile. Every modification necessitated by the new program is avoided by adjusting it in a way that eliminates the need for construction modifications.
This strategy can be maintained, and ultimately the intervention on the existing building is reduced to two radical interventions.
The southern facade will be completely opened up with a long, elongated façade that overlooks a park being developed from north to south on the UCO site. In the northern facade, three doors, essential for the production process of the commercial kitchen, are masked with a cladding of brick and natural stone.
