The city of Dijon and Teletech International have chosen MVRDV to transform a disused Dijon Mustard laboratory completed in 2004 into an innovative call centre with an education centre, incubator and social program. Transformation through reuse is one of the contemporary issues in European architecture since the current crisis. Completion of the 6000m2 refurbishment is planned for 2012. More images and complete press release after the break.
All over Europe buildings are empty and waiting for a new future. Transformations are usually all about the preservation of historically or architecturally significant parts of a building. In this case the building is almost new, it was completed in 2004, and the preservation act directed towards reuse. The disused building is a former Unilever Dijon mustard laboratory and closed in 2009. The building is in a good state but due to its wide volume not suitable for traditional work spaces. The construction budget is too low to exchange the façade or make serious alterations to the structure. A fine balance is needed between intervention and intelligent re-use of the existing.
