The Reconstruction of the Factory Building at Ankru 8 into Residential Lofts

The design masterfully blends industrial authenticity with domestic warmth. By preserving the rugged charm of the original factory while introducing sensitive interventions—a rooftop oasis, eco-conscious greenery, and communal zones—it champions sustainable urban regeneration. The result advanced the capital city disctrict Kopli’s cultural identity and enabled shared living experiences in the form of numerous communal areas. Ankru 8 balances raw material honesty with refined interventions that speak to both ecological and communal aspirations.

It was the shared ambition of the client and architects to use as much of the existing soviet-time factory building as possible. The Ankru 8 building is the only "fully planned and developed" building in the district. The rest are mostly repairs and refurbishments of existing industrial spaces with little intervention. Also the client understood and evaluated the soviet-time concrete structure of the factory to be in quite a good state and it was never even considered to be taken down (although a lot of times during construction, everyone was quite mad at the existing "not so straight and not so great" concrete slabs and posts, saying that it would have been so much easier to building from scratch). It would have also been easier to design the building from scratch and not to consider the existing buildings three different historic building stages and different floor heights etc.

Rooftop add-ons were needed to add the maximum of 33% more building volume to the development scheme. The views to the sea from the top of the building were breathtaking, so it was clear the volume needed to be added on top. The aesthetic look is borrowed from the neighboring buildings. Scaffolding balconies are added in order to create a quality space outside. Straight forward, robust and lightweight "shelf" outside the building acts almost like furniture to the lofts (but in scale of architecture) allowing for residents to expand their way of life to the outdoors, use it as storage or space to interact with other community members. New envelope - enclosing the building with contextual materials was appropriate, so the cheapest cast concrete blocks were used as exterior facade elements, alongside external steel columns etc. The whole material palette consisted of materials found in use over time in the factory area...