Design development: Transformaion

Through my investigations and understanding of the existing building and with my metabolic approach in mind, I developed a transformation strategy, which is based on four parameters:

1. Organizing new programs considering the building existing environmental and material qualities, keeping as much as possible: The proposed program will be organized according to the light, humidity, temperature, privacy, connectivity, sturdiness, services, and enclosures found in the existing building.

2. Reorganizing the existing material and infrastructural palette to support the new proposed symbiotic processes: The existing material and infrastructural palettes, such as stainless steel plates, grids, hooks, and cables, will be reimagined following the new needs of the program, acknowledging the value of the existing slaughterhouse as cultural heritage.

3. Introducing bio-materialities produced by those new processes and programs: Biomaterials such as mycelium and scoby, originating from processes related to the new proposed food facility, will be used when needed in the architectural intervention while taking advantage of their qualities.

4. Celebrating the resultant aesthetics of these operations, creating a collage of history and diverse materialities: The project will embrace and bring together a heterogeneous material palette, combining materials that are organic and non-organic, soft and hard, new and existing.

The transformation restores the industrial legacy of the building and turns its infrastructural support inside out. Doing so invites the public into its growing processes and metabolic system, consequently blurring the distinction between recreation and production. It unfolds the rational and robust principles of the building but proposes an alternative mode of production while celebrating its inherent architectural qualities.