Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
The Dexamenes plant, once a bustling producer of currant wine, was built on the Peloponnese coastline so ships could easily dock beside it and load up from one of 20 concrete tanks. Today, thanks to the work of Athens firm K-Studio — which went to great lengths to preserve the structures’ manholes, pipes and patinated concrete — those tanks have been transformed into hotel rooms outfitted with metal light fixtures, touches of wood and terrazzo and sliding windows overlooking the sea.
In a courtyard pond, set between two rows of guest rooms, they’ve even embraced the pair of existing fermentation drums as massive sculptural installations and artifacts from the building’s past.
Team Dimitris Karampatakis, Marivenia Chiotopoulou, Giorgos Mitrogiorgis, Dimitris Sotiropoulos, Giorgos Dimitrakopoulos, Christina Stamouli and Thomai Christopoulou
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Architecture: Adaptive Re-Use
Bell Labs, Location: Holmdel NJ, Architect: Eero Saarinen Architect
In Holmdel Township, New Jersey, a “MetroBurb” is born. Once home to over 6,000 engineers and scientists, the former Bell Labs campus — a 186,000-square-metre complex designed by the legendary Eero Saarinen — has been respectfully yet radically reinvented into a city in miniature.
Originally built in 1962, the sprawling five-storey building housed a striking sequence of central atriums ringed by windowless research labs behind a mesmerizing mirror-like exterior. By 2006, however, the massive edifice was vacant and slated for demolition. What a shame that would have been. Fortunately, a forward-looking adaptive re-use project by New York’s Alexander Gorlin Architects has transformed the building, adding a variety of office and retail spaces and reviving the spine of atriums into discrete social hubs.
Among its major moves, the firm replaced the monolithic opaque walls of the former research rooms with a careful balance of glass walls and solid panels. This opened up the new offices, co-working spaces and event venues (popular for weddings and private parties) to the atriums below, which have been enlivened with boutiques, coffee shops and food halls. Alongside eye-catching seating by Ron Arad, the designers introduced to this “Main Street” a variety of plant life and Astroturf “lawns” that soften the imposing architecture with a playful dose of green.
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