On the outskirts of Niederanven, between town and countryside, this project is located in an eclectic business area with little distinctive character. The brief, however, was very precise: to transform a former steel-framed industrial hall, originally built as a joinery workshop, into the headquarters of a consulting engineering firm accommodating 80 employees. Developed in collaboration with interior architect Nathalie Jacoby – NJOY, the project seeks to give a new identity to an ordinary building through deliberately limited means.

Demolishing and rebuilding would undoubtedly have been simpler. Instead, the decision was made to work with the existing building, retaining its main structure and volumes while turning its constraints into resources for the project. The lower edges of the pitched roof were raised to create two fully usable levels.

The new façades are composed of two repetitive prefabricated elements. Large window units combine fixed glazing for views with opaque opening panels providing natural ventilation. Between them, self-supporting timber-framed shelving units become both furniture and façade: their backs incorporate thermal insulation and external cladding in rough-sawn Douglas fir. Architecture, envelope, furniture and economy of means are thus combined within a single construction system. The carefully balanced ratio of glazed to opaque surfaces also provides thermal comfort in both summer and winter, without the need for air conditioning.

At the centre of the former hall, a patio creates the landscape that the site itself lacked. Shared spaces – cafeteria, administration, meeting rooms and collective workspaces – are organised around this inner garden, while individual and small-group offices occupy the outer façades. Walkways and open spaces allow natural light to penetrate deep into the heart of the building.

Materials and construction techniques are deliberately left exposed: concrete, steel, timber, joints and structural elements all belong to the everyday vocabulary of the engineers who occupy the building.

In a workplace designed for those who design and engineer buildings, architecture and construction thus become one and the same expression.