Hasta La Ideas

QR codes cover the exterior of this former mustard laboratory in Dijon that Dutch architects MVRDV have converted into a call centre (+ slideshow).

A low budget prevented the architects from replacing the existing facade, so instead they covered it with panels that direct smartphones to the website of French company TeleTech.

Stepped timber platforms covered with chairs and cushions create a flexible workplace for over 600 employees, who can log into the computer network and work from wherever they like in the building.

“The way young people often work, with a laptop on the sofa or bed, was an inspiration for the interior design,” explain the architects.

The centre also accommodates community facilities, including an education centre, a gym, a gallery and a projects incubator.

MVRDV have been busy recently designing a peninsula over a lake in the Netherlands and an 18-storey tower in Poland.

See all our stories about MVRDV »

Photography is by Philippe Ruault, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s some text from MVRDV:

MVRDV completes transformation disused Dijon mustard laboratory

MVRDV has completed transformation of a disused Dijon Mustard laboratory (closed in 2009) into an innovative call centre with an education centre, incubator and social program. For MVRDV it represents an exemplary project: Transformation through reuse is one of the contemporary issues in European architecture since the current crisis. Completion of the 6500m2 refurbishment into a 600 work spaces call centre for operator Teletech has cost just 4 million Euro. The interventions possible on such a budget were directed towards quality enhancement with maximal maintenance of existing structure and services.

All over Europe buildings are vacant and waiting for a new future. Transformations are usually all about the preservation of historically or architecturally significant parts of a building. In this case the building was completed in 2004 and the preservation act directed towards reuse. The building is a former Unilever Amora Dijon mustard laboratory completed in 2004 and closed only five years later in 2009. The building was in a good state but due to its wide volume not suitable for traditional work spaces. The construction budget was too low to exchange the façade or make serious alterations to the structure. The budget makes literal reuse necessary and leads to less replacements and a better sustainable profile of the transformation act. A fine balance between intervention and intelligent re-use of the existing is the essence of the project.

Above: photograph is by the architects

MVRDV sees this transformation as an exemplary project for contemporary European architecture in times of the current crisis. How to reuse a building which is structurally in good shape but not suitable for a traditional transformation and use? The more reuse of the existing is possible the more budget is liberated for interventions. The unusual building evokes an unusual use and in the end will adjust perfectly to the Teletech work rhythm.

The Teletech call centre has rush hours in the morning, afternoon and early evening, only at these moments the building will be fully occupied by its workforce. For these short periods also unusual work places can be used which would not be suitable for eight hour shifts. The transformation strategy is adapted to this irregular use of the building. The inside is turned into a work landscape and the 600 young call centre operators will have flexible spaces: they can log in anywhere they want inside this work landscape. Different qualities such as silent, open or secluded places are offered. The way young people often work, with a laptop on the sofa or bed, was an inspiration for the interior design: the space needs to appeal to the operators to work the way they like, the space will be informally furnished with homely objects to provide a fun and creative working environment.

Above: photograph is by the architects

Outside the rush hours the call centre operators will have free time in which they can make use of the education centre, fitness centre, a gallery and projects incubator, also located inside the building. A big window, entresol spaces, skylights and a large atrium are used to create a community feeling and allow for daylight penetrating the 40 x 70 metres volume. As these interventions use up a large part of the budget other parts had to be designed as economically as possible. The façade for example could not be exchanged but is transformed with a simple print of a QR flashcode translated into the activities of the company; the façade acts as communicator and signals the transformation. The ground floor contains parking and cannot be inhabited as the building is located on a flood plain. In many cases the budget only allowed to remove or paint the existing elements. The result however is an exciting work space and radically contradicts the usual call centre which is often a series of tedious cubicles.

Teletech is a French service provider with call centres all over the world. In Dijon, Teletech International will experiment with this combination of call centre, education centre, leisure space and incubator to create and maintain jobs in France which are generally outsourced to developing countries. Despite the worldwide trend in this sector to reduce costs and constantly increase Taylorism, the company invests massively in its social policy along with this construction project. The ambition is directed towards reinventing and revolutionising existing procedures to improve customer brand relationships through a better qualified call centre agent. Teletech International believes that a qualitative work space is a part of the solution in creating a higher level of interaction with the consumers. The company will attract, teach and keep high level profile employees on site which can offer specialised and sophisticated services. The new building and the social program are an essential part of this innovative strategy.

The post TeleTech call centre
by MVRDV appeared first on Dezeen.

Slideshow: our second project this week by Madrid studio Exit Architects is a civic and cultural centre inside a former prison in Palencia, Spain.

Constructed from load-bearing brickwork, the nineteenth century building comprises four wings that have been completely refurbished to accommodate an auditorium, a library, multi-function rooms and classrooms for art and music.

A translucent glass pavilion provides an entrance to the building, while new walls and roof structures have been created over and around the existing blocks using zinc and more semiopaque glass.

At the centre of the four wings is a new hall, inside which large round skylights extend down to create cylindrical light wells and miniature courtyards.

The library is contained within the wing that previously housed prisoner cell blocks and features a central reading area beneath an octagonal skylight.

Our other project this week by Exit Architects is a concrete sculpture museum, which you can see here.

Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Here’s some more text from Exit Architects:

Rehabilitation of Former Prison of Palencia as Cultural Civic Center

The former Palencia Provincial Prison complex was created at the end of the XIX century, built with brick bearing walls following the “neomudéjar” style, and composed mainly of four two-storey wings and some other with one storey.

On this building was planned a comprehensive refurbishment to transform the former use and convert it into a center that promotes the social and cultural activity in this part of the town.

Our proposal intends to convert the former prison into a meeting place, recovering some of the old spaces, and creating at the same time new structures that make possible the new planned activities.

It is a project that respects the existing building, which is given a contemporary, lighter appearance, and where the natural light will play a key role.

With this aim the main two-storey wings have been refurbished, emptying their interior and placing a new independent structure to bear the new floors and roofs. Besides, between the main wings have been built new connecting pavilions, which form the new complex perimeter and give it a modern and friendly aspect.

To introduce the light in the building we had to remove the old covered with tiles which were in very poor condition, and have been replaced by others of zinc that open large skylights which introduce light into the open halls of the Center.

The entire building is organized around a great hall that connects the 4 pavilions of the former prison. It is a diaphanous space based only on a few mild cylindrical courtyards of glass that illuminate and provide the backbone of the stay.

Due to its central location in relation to the pavilions, this space acts as a nerve center and distributor of users, across the Pavilion access and reception, directed towards the rest of the areas of the Centre.

The hall gives way to the lateral pavilions where the auditorium and various music and art classrooms are. On the upper floor, under a large glass skylights, are two multi-purpose areas dedicated to more numerous groups.

In the area where is the cells of prisoners were, we placed the library. The reading rooms are articulated around a central space of high-rise under a lantern of octagonal shape that acts as a distributor for the different areas and that arrives vertical communication and control areas and offices.

Finally, access to the Centre are carried out through a very light and bright glazed perimeter that pretends to be a filter between the city and the activity of the interior.

A structural steel beam travels abroad tying areas glazed with the former factory walls getting an alleged industrial air.

The use of metallic materials in all intervention, as the zinc in facades and roofs, glass and uglass in the lower bodies and skylights and the aluminium lattices as light filters also contributes to this.

architects: EXIT ARCHITECTS – ÁNGEL SEVILLANO / JOSÉ Mª TABUYO
location: AVDA. VALLADOLID Nº 26, 34034 PALENCIA
clients: MINISTERIO DE FOMENTO, AYUNTAMIENTO DE PALENCIA

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

area: 5.077 m2
budget: 9.675.038 EUROS
project date: 2007
completion date: 2011
quantity surveyor: IMPULSO INDUSTRIAL ALTERNATIVO. ÁLVARO FERNÁNDEZ

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

structural engineers: NB35. JOSÉ LUIS LUCERO
mechanical engineers: GRUPO JG. JUAN ANTONIO POSADAS
light consultant: MANUEL DÍAZ CARRETERO
collaborators: MARIO SANJUÁN, IBÁN CARPINTERO, MIGUEL GARCÍA-REDONDO, SILVIA N. GÓMEZ

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

Bjarke Ingels Group have won a competition to convert a Basel warehouse with their design for an extension that will zigzag across the roof like a bolt of lightening.

The Danish architects propose to convert the industrial Transitlager building into offices, apartments and galleries.

The apartments are to occupy the three new upper floors and will open out onto triangular rooftop gardens.

Four storeys inside the existing concrete warehouse will house offices and galleries, facing a new public square proposed by site masterplanners Herzog & de Meuron.

Other projects by BIG on Dezeen include a power plant that doubles up as a ski slope and a centre for women’s sports – see more projects by BIG here.

Here’s some more information from BIG:

BIG Transforms Transitlager In Switzerland

BIG wins an invited competition to renovate and extend an existing 1960′s concrete warehouse situated in a Basel industrial district which is being transformed into an alternative Arts District.

Located in Basel’s upcoming Dreispitz neighborhood, which is envisioned as an attractive and inviting urban quarter in Herzog de Meuron’s master plan from 2003, the existing 18.000 m2 ”Transitlager” built in the late 1960s is to be renovated and extended by up to 7.000 m2 for residential and commercial purposes.

The development is undertaken by St. Gallen -based real estate development company Nüesch Development for the landlord, the Christoph Merian Foundation and investor the UBS (CH) Property Fund – Swiss Mixed ‘Sima’.

The winning entry which included engineers Bollinger Grohmann and HL Technik was chosen among proposals from Harry Gugger Studio and Lacaton Vassal among others.

The Transitlager’s surrounding industrial area is characterized by the geometries of infrastructures – the intersecting railways, loading docks and turning radiuses that weave through the city and create a puzzle of linear buildings with pointy corners and staggered façade lines into an untraditional and adventurous urban area consisting of galleries, restaurants and creative businesses.

The iconic character of the existing Transitlager, its generous surrounding public spaces, and connection to the city’s botanical garden makes the building a natural focal point of the Arts District.

By re-programming and extending the former warehouse into a multifunctional series of floors for various uses, BIG proposes a cross breed of art, commerce, working and living.

Two distinct buildings on top of each other form a mixed-use hybrid with activity and life 24 hours a day.

“We propose a transformation of the Transitlager that builds on the industrial logic of the existing building and of the surrounding area. The extension doubles the size of the Transitlager and becomes an opposite twin – based on the same structure, but with a different geometry. The combined building becomes a spectrum of optimal conditions: From open and flexible plans to tailor made units, public programs to private residences, vibrant urban space to peaceful green gardens and from cool industrial to warm and refined. ” Andreas Klok Pedersen, Partner, BIG.

The wide dimensions of the former warehouse, the mix of programs, the structural limits and the sun orientation creates a typology that is neither point house nor slab – a folded geometry adapted to the specifics of the existing structure and optimized for daylight and views.

The staggered edge and pointy ends echoes the geometries of the industrial buildings of the neighborhood, creating a surprising familiarity with the heterogeneous surroundings.

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

Click above for larger image

See also:

.

West 57th by BIG	PUU-BO by BIG	TEK by BIG

Lisbon studio Orgânica Arquitectura have completed a two-storey residence behind the solid stone walls of an otherwise ruined house in Sintra, Portugal.

A wall of windows at the rear of Cabrela House overlooks a small courtyard, which is bounded by the retained stone structure.

The new steel-framed house has a pitched roof that imitates the profile of both the existing building and the adjoining property next door.

A living room, kitchen and work studio can be found on the ground floor, while two bedrooms are located on the storey above.

Similar projects from the Dezeen archive include a concrete house atop stone building remains in the Swiss Alps, a Corten steel artist’s studio inserted into a ruined Victorian dovecote, and two houses where a steeply-pitched roof covers an old dry stone construction in the Spanish Pyrenees.

Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Here are a few words from the architects:

Cabrela House, Sintra, Portugal

On the site we found ruins of a house waiting to be recover.

On the interior a house emerges: we preserved the limit walls and we designed an exterior space.

At the same time we harmonize the smalls existing volumes that follow the house next door.

On the main floor stay the kitchen, the living room and a small studio and at first floor two bedrooms.

Architecture: Orgânica Arquitectura (Paulo Serôdio Lopes, Teresa Serôdio Lopes, Marta Belém)

Client: José Silva Pereira

Area: 142m2;

Local: Cabrela, Sintra, Portugal

See also:

.

Casa Talia by Marco Giunta	Jaffa Flat by Pitsou Kedem	Moritzburg Museum Extension by Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos

TWO/BO Arquitectura and architect Luis Twose have converted a sixteenth-century Catalan house into a business academy for a pharmaceutical company.

A glass-fronted extension cantilevers out from the west face to shelter the main entrance of the Grifols Academy.

A new spiral staircase joins up with its sixteenth-century counterpart inside the restored stone tower, leading to a rooftop terrace.

The academy provides training facilities, conference rooms and a terraced ground-floor bar.

More stories about projects in Spain on Dezeen »
More stories about renovations on Dezeen »

Here are some more details from TWO/BO Arquitectura:

Grifols Academy by TWO/BO Architecture and Luis Twose Architect

The aim of the Project was to convert a sixteenth-century house into a new academy centre.

The site is located in Parets del Vallès and is surrounded by a group of new factories.

The house was one of the few vestiges of the rural past of the town.

Before our intervention, the house was abandoned and it was in danger of collapsing.

It had suffered a lot of renovations and extensions which had obscured the original shape of the building and were now in a state of disrepair.

This project led to requalification of the existing building, on one hand enhancing and recovering the most historic values, and on the other, clarifying its spaces, which were dark and chaotic, by a new layout with two visual axes and through the introduction of natural light which now reaches every space of the house.

We focused our intervention on two points, the west façade and the interior of the tower.

On the west façade, we designed a new access path ending in a plaza which leads to the entrance of the academy.

This entrance is framed by a new “loggia” (an open-air gallery) which was designed to be a neutral but modern element of iron and glass whose shape connects old parts of the west façade.

The defensive tower, which had been the old symbol of the house, has been restored.

The floors were removed to create a dramatic vertical space that leads to the old wooden staircase at the top of the tower.

With all the plaster removed, the underlying stone structure is now visible.

The project also involved the landscaping of the grounds.

Taking into account the industrial surroundings, and we have tried to create a quiet oasis by making the most of the existing topography, and by planting local vegetation.

See also:

.

Messner Mountain Museum by EM2	Shop in a church by Merkx+Girod	Museum Extension by Nieto Sobejano