Former 20th-century industrial complexes and their landscapes were once determining the socio-cultural fabric on a local and regional level. While such buildings were originally designed for machines and streams of production, the stories of those who worked there remain entangled within the industrial realm. These factories therefore act as “time shelters” of the past - tangible evidence of materiality and spatial configuration, interwoven with intangible traces of human discourse. One such time shelter of the maritime industry is Nedstaal Fabriek – a closed-cycle steel production complex in Alblasserdam, The Netherlands.
The project explores the adaptive reuse of Nedstaal and its landscape in a socially sensitive and heritage-based manner. The oral history method was employed to examine the factory’s hidden industrial values as perceived by those who worked there or lived in Alblasserdam. Six direct oral interviews were conducted and summarized in oral history fragment maps. The values that emerged from this research method, were then directly implemented in the proposal for the adaptive reuse of Nedstaal in a maritime innovation campus. These outcomes featured the importance of the “objects” of Nedstaal – the machinery and facilities used during the steel production process, as these tangible elements, that formed the interviewee’s spatial perception of the factory’s realm. Furthermore, the overall industrial atmosphere was highlighted as an important intangible value.
The project focuses on redeveloping the former annealing department building in a startup mixed-use office building for the maritime technological demand of the Drechtsteden area. This repurposing is executed within the constraints of the existing building and its “shell”. Internally, a new steel gallery system, connecting the various spaces is introduced. This gallery features reused steel arches from another building on the terrain, currently in the process of demolition. These arches were specifically designed for visitors to the factory and therefore represent one of the few elements, oriented towards human use. Reusing them is a symbolic gesture, aimed at restoring the connection between past and future in the new redevelopment. Furthermore, two atriums used as laboratory spaces extrude from the ground floor to the rooftop. Adjacent to them, newly built startup cubicles are introduced. Finally, the former annealing basins – facilities used for the treatment of steel, are repurposed in various ways, thus actively participating in the new design. On a landscape level, several points of the plot had been altered to showcase the industrial past while actively participating in the urban fabric for future use.
Overall, the project proposes a human-centered, value-based manner of adaptive reuse where the human experience and its implementations for designing within the context of industrial heritage rank equally important to other scientifically straightforward approaches.