Adaptive reuse and transformation of an industrial warehouse into a hybrid cultural center for creation, assembly, participation and research.

Aim: Bring back and promote the culture of making in Belval, create an open, participative space to assemble, test, question the current status of Belval. See architecture as a framework for occupation.

A considerable number of witnesses of the industrial era in Luxembourg have been lost forever. Buildings with significant architectural value have been demolished and can longer be experienced, appropriated or used. The approach is not nostalgic, but crucial to recognise our heritage as a valuable recourse with qualities and capacities to reinvent the society for the future. Vacant spaces should be made available to the communities.

The “BlowersHall”,attached to this emblematic location in Belval, Luxembourg, in the middle of the new and only university campus and between a redeveloped wasteland and still in use steel factory, can be functional, productive and of public utility. With a critical eye towards the recent rapid development of Belval – isolated, controlled, with no space for representation – the proposal aims to create a truly open public space for the people.

The Blowers Hall can turn this heritage accessible, promote interactions between fields and activities and become a key urban facility that gives back to the city.

Public space in non-negotiable. The proposal leads to a centre for creation, education and participation. A polyvalent space hosting exhibitions, events, staging, manufacturing. Open to all, promoting dialogue, hacking and testing and letting users to appropriate the building in a rough way. A place to where various users cross paths. A place of conflict, modifying patterns and behaviours, overlapping spheres, where meetings are encouraged and users are stimulated. The unused Blowers Hall, akin to a vacated cathedral, is translated into a creative

hub for Belval, reinventing the purpose of the Blowers Hall. Can we seize this opportunity?