Atlas of Potential

Footprints.

Duperré playground in Paris (2) by
Can Tacò in Barcelona (3) by
Can Sau in Olot (4) by
Basilica di Siponto (5) by

These projects are based on a minimal material consistency of former buildings. Each case represents a design approach based on remains: an empty lot embedded in the urban fabric, foundations of ancient buildings, a façade, partial walls.

Basilica di Siponto, Manfredonia, Foggia
by

Ideal reconstruction.

This adaptation project took place in the Archaeological Park of Siponto, a small town close to Foggia, in southern Italy.

The new design rebuilds and reinterpreted the ancient early-Christian basilica built close to the existing Romanesque church. The ruins of the former church were just a trace on the ground, where some remains were reaching one meter high. The original building was vastly incomplete.

The structure designed by the artist Edoardo Tresoldi attempts to create a bridge towards the memory of the place and the current need to enhance this archaeological site. Tresoldi’s new structure is a transparent sculpture, a contemporary artefact establishing a dialogue with the memory of the former building.

Wired meshes build the structure to create a completely reversible frame. It consists of modular elements of galvanized steel characterized by a squared grid. In particular, the crests of walls have been restored and reinforced to build a support surface.

Today, this place behaves as a dynamic cultural venue and attracts many visitors. This project creates a new dialogue between ancient and contemporary and opens up innovative design possibilities to enhance archaeological heritage.

Can Sau, Olot
by

Light addition.

The project transformed a partial wall and four stepped buttresses into an urban stage. This adaptation project aims to preserve the existing
wall and introduces a permeable facade to accommodate multiple functions in proximity to a city church.

Bricks and lime mortar joints articulate the main structure and complete the load-bearing walls and solve vaults with a single sheet with braces and steel pillars.

The former building was a suitcases store. In 2017, Olot’s Municipality demolished a part of the building in this area because it was crumbling and not aligned with the urban block. Upon requesting a pavement project and an ongoing contract for a waterproof metal cladding, the assignment was reformulated. In 2019, three vaults and four niches were built as
a “scenographic support to urban life”.

According to the architects, this project aims to conserve Olot’s different traces, preserve the signs of
domestic activities on the existing wall, and fill an abandoned area.

The small intervention is about 113 sqm of gross surface area and cost around 30000 euro. The new design focuses on the vertical plane, considering the “work of a formal definition based on completing the existing: buttresses and party walls, linking old and configuring a unitary final structure”.

Thanks to from for the guided tour and the explanation of the project.

On my way from Barcelona to Olot, I stopped by

(1-3) The social housing in the former Fabra i Coats in Barcelona
by .berengue
(4-6) The Civic Centre Lleialtat Santsenca in Barcelona by HARQUITECTES
(7-9) The Barberí Laboratory in Olot
by

(1-3) The old Fabra & Coats in Barcelona was a yarn storage warehouse. In 2020, it was transformed into a social housing complex: 46 houses have been built for young people and artists linked to the F&C Creation Factory and the headquarter of the company. The existing building is a shell for the new volumetric addition.

(4-6) Lleialtat Santsenca (1928) was an old working-class cooperative in the Sants neighbourhood. This building had been adapted to become a civic centre in 2017 by HArchitetes. The intervention preserves not just the main structure but also the many traces on interior walls.

(7-9) The former Barberí foundry (early 20th century) was converted into the Barberí Laboratory, Since 2006, this space is the office of RCR Architects and a vibrant space that hosts many cultural activities, joining nature, old materials, and contemporary additions.

Szimpla Kert, Budapest
(adapted without architects)

Ruinification and cultural promotion

This building was a residential single-story house built in 1829 in the Jewish district of Budapest. In 1911, the buildings became the Herber Stove factory until the IIWW, when, under the N**i occupation, all the holdings belonging to Jewish were confiscated, and the Herbers family disappeared. Under communism regimes, the factory was nationalized to produce ‘small metal components’, probably bullets. The place from the ’80 was in a state of abandonment and ruin. The local authority has plans for demolishing it. So it evacuated and sold it. However, the capital authority extends over in 1994, saving it from demolition. Despite this intervention, the former owner started to demolish the building from the inside, preserving the façade to create a parking lot until the land value would increase.

In 2004, just half of the original masonry building was standing. Over the last 15 years, the actual tenants did many essential works: systems, structural consolidation and reassemblage of the second floor, creating a covered terrace and using the materials from the previous demolition.

In 2006 the Szimpla Kert opened in the remains of Kazinczy 14 street, in VII district of Budapest. The adaptive reuse of this building set an example of the successful reuse of ruins as a pub and a cultural centre, music venues, disco, restaurants and markets all over Budapest.

The Szimpla Kert is a pub, a cultural centre and a temporary market that in 2019 brought together around 2 million people.

Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg
by Herzog & de Meuron

Massive raising and interior addition.

The Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg was the warehouse Kaispeicher A, designed by the architect Werner Kallmorgen. The building was completed in 1966 and then dismissed in the 1990s.
The Elbphilharmonie Hamburg Bau GmbH & Co. KG selected the Architects Herzog & de Meuron to design an adaptive reuse project.

The adapted building opened in 2017 and accommodates a philharmonic hall, a chamber music hall, bars, restaurants, luxury apartments, a hotel, fitness centre, conference rooms, a terrace with panoramic views, and parking facilities.

The original building has been gutted from all interiors, except for the exterior brick walls, and now it accommodates 520 units parking lot.
Out of the gutted Kaispeicher A, the building counts 17 floors, nine less than the original adaptive reuse project.

The project covers 10540 sqm, 5745 sqm dedicated to the building. The Gross-Floor-Area is about 125 sqm, and the maximum height reaches 110 m.

On my way from Gent to Maastricht, I stopped by Ruhrmuseum in Essen (1-5) and Landschaftspark in Duisburg-North (6-10).

These two magnificent adaptations of industrial sites set examples of extensive negative legacy successfully adapted without massive demolition.

The Ruhrmuseum in Essen (1-5) was a factory for sorting coals. Originally built in 1961, it has been adapted by OMA, Fritz Schupp, Martin Kremmer, Floris Alkemade, Heinrich Böll Architekt BDA DWB in 2010.

This building is about 12000 sqm. The new design adds an escalator that rises to 24 meters to maintain the top-to-bottom movement that resembles the productive flow of the factory. Finally, the escalator reaches a distributive space where an information point, ticket office, café, souvenir shop and checkroom are located. Above this level, all machinery remains in its original condition as evidence of its former use.

The Landschaftspark in Duisburg-North (6-10) was a former coal and steel production plant built in the early 1900' and then transformed into a multifunctional park by Latz + Partners architects in 1994.

The park covers approx. 20000 sqm. It organizes into areas following the existing conditions, particularly the pre-existing roads and railways and the present vegetation. A series of waterways and walkways have been added, located along with the old railroad and sewer systems. The heart of the former steel mill has been converted into a square. The old 20000 cubic meter water gasholder has become the most prominent artificial diving facility in Europe; climbing gardens have been created in the former ore storage bunker; the blast furnace has been transformed into a viewing tower.

PC Caritas, Melle, Ghent, Belgium

2016, by Architecten de Vylder Vinck Taillieu.

Ruinification and light addition.

The Sint Jozef building is now the Canon Peter Joseph Triest
Square: a therapy room, a meeting space, an event location, a cafeteria, a forum, and a plaza connecting the buildings in Psychiatric Campus in Melle. 

Saint Joseph building was built in 1908 as a facility to treat so-called 'troubled women'. In 2014, the Sint Jozef building was under demolition, but the asbestos removal and no clear plans for this space delayed the demolition process. Meanwhile, the research collective BAVO set up participatory workshops consisting of doctors, therapists, patients, managers and residents that produced guidelines for this space to re-inscribe the remains of this building into its park context.

Finally, in 2015, demolition stopped, and BAVO presented the requests outlined in the workshop. As a result, Architecten de Vylder Vinck Taillieu proposes to keep the building in its partially demolished stage.

Altering the building as little as possible was the goal. The project lowered windows to the ground to open in all directions, opened the basement, becoming an auditorium, and a tree was planted. Additions are limited to a white loggia and greenhouses as new rooms.

The partially demolished building was repaired rather than restored. Concrete blocks repaired the missing bricks. New structural materials concern just a few steel profiles painted green to secure the building structurally.

On my way from Paris to Gant, I came across the 6B in Saint-Denis (1-2),
the ruins of Albain-Saint-Nazaire (3-4), and the coal mines in Loos-en-Gohelle (5-6-7).

The 6B (1-2) is a well-known example of an industrial wasteland converted into a place of creation, which hosts cultural events and 200 resident artists. Minimal structural interventions have been made, but the project is supported by careful maintenance and event planning.

The ruins in Albein-Saint-Nazaire (3-4) was a church partially destroyed in the IWW that stands as a curated ruin for more than one century. Nature grows around these ruins with silent human maintenance. The ruinification process created a place between anthropic and natural, preserving an active memory of the past.

The Loos-en-Gohelle site (5-6-7) is a former coal mining base. The Base 11-19 is now a multifunctional site. The old railway has been converted into a green corridor, the old workshop into an eco-business incubator, the substation an event venue, and the former bathhouse has become a cultural centre. Extensive redevelopment is still ongoing.

La Cité de la Mode et du Design, Paris
2009, Jakob & MacFarlane

Structural consolidation and light addition.

The conversion project preserves the existing structure and adds a ‘glass skin’ that wraps it.
The building has a privileged view of the river, extends for over 15,000 square meters and attracts about 1.5 million visitors every year.

Les Docks Magasins were built in 1907 on a design by Georges Morin-Goustiaux. Located at the intersection of Quai d’Austerlitz and Pont de Gaulle, they are among the oldest reinforced concrete buildings in Paris. Converted into customs warehouses in 1915, these buildings were used for the transfer of goods.

Jakob & MacFarlane studio won the contract to convert the General Stores with the project “Docks en Seine, Cité de la Mode et du Design”.

Since 2009, it hosts the Institut Française de la Mode, a contemporary art museum, restaurants, bookstores and other businesses. From 2013, also the Musée d’Art Ludique.

The lower platform level is free space: only a few metal grids regulate accesses. The existing volume is organized in two blocks connected by a central atrium, while the steel ‘plug over creates a 320 meters long covered passageway connected to the passage on the quay.

The Duperré playground, Paris

2009-2012-2015-2017-2020 
by Ill-Studio

Surface intervention.

In the Pigalle district, an old dismissed parking lot surrounded by residential buildings has been transformed in the Pigalle Duperré Court.

The idea was driven by citizens’ aim to have a common place for playing sport. In 2009, the inhabitants of the neighbourhood and the local basketball teams started painting the first court with the French-Asian artist Yué “Nyno”. 

Stéphane Ashpool (founder of the Pigalle brand), Nike and the creative studio ILL-Studio) keep renovating this space many times. The current design is from 2020. 

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