SOTEG Schlassgoart

"La modernité, c'est le transitoire, le fugitif, le contingent, la moitié de l'art, dont l'autre moitié est l'éternel et l'immuable." Charles Baudelaire The central theme of the project is the architectural debate over the relationship between history and present, memory and future, tradition and innovation. Set in the midst of a recently abandoned industrial site, two derelict brick buildings - a former power station and a small adjoining pump house -like a "lieu magique" irresistibly attracted to the place. A master plan study for the development of the general area, connecting it right onto the city centre of Esch-sur-Alzette prompted the client s decision for this particular site. SOTEG, a major energy provider for gas and electricity, called for a single building complex, grouping all administrative functions, manufacturing units, the maintenance and dispatching unit as well as their 24- hour network monitoring unit. A concrete base, containing support functions such as parking, storage, technica,l etc. serves as a common platform to the buildings set out around a rooftop garden and public space. The former power station was hollowed out and a steel and concrete structure - thus a house within a house -was implanted to create floor space for offices. Large windows were carefully carved into the outside brick walls to make for views and add natural light to the existing clerestorey. The pumphouse, the smallest of the two brick buildings, has been adapted to a conference space. A corten-steel extension has been added to serve as an entry sequence and house all services. Both brick buildings seem to establish a dialogue with a third building containing the manufacturing and monitoring units. This orthogonal glass and metal box reflects the ambient light, occasionally appearing sharp and pristine, at other moments merging with the grey sky, adjusting to weather conditions during the day and being illuminated from within at dusk. The intrinsic qualities of the design scheme will work with the urban development of the site, when intimate outside spaces will become a public urban plaza and prominent meeting place, when a private space will move to a public place.