Page 198 - Beyond Decommissioning

Experience and lessons learned 179

For example, corroding parts of the construction have not been renovated. To preserve
the past atmosphere of the place, peeling layers of paint and even old cables have not
been removed or repainted. Where an improvement was really needed, only new ele-
ments have been added to the construction, and nothing has been replaced (Van
Gendthallen Amsterdam, 2015).

6.2.2.3 Industrial silos
RE-MUSE is an adaptive reuse project situated on the former Imperial Sugar Refinery
in Sugar Land, TX. The reuse is meant not only to minimize the impacts on virgin
land, but also to prolong the duration of the existing structures. The museum
re-purposes the iconic silo and a contiguous warehouse. The silo houses the heritage
museum, and the warehouse houses the Fort Bend Children’s Discovery Center. These
two buildings are joined by a common lobby. To preserve the aesthetics from the site’s
industrial past, the lobby and the other elements of the project site use recycled steel
and aluminum. A large canopy covers the lobby between the two buildings and create
an open air passageway. The canopy is designed to offset any addition of impervious
surfaces by harvesting rainwater. To lower energy consumption major paths of circu-
lation are placed north of the building to allow for day lighting and to minimize heat
gain (RE-MUSE, n.d.).
Gemini Residence is a residential building on the Islands Brygge waterfront in
Copenhagen, Denmark. With a reference to the twin silos that have given the building
its shape, Gemini Residence takes its name from the astrological sign Gemini
(The Twins, in Latin). Danish Soybean Cake Factory was a soybean processing plant
established in 1909. It produced oil and animal feed and was eventually the largest
employer in the area. The two seed silos were built in 1963. After the plant closed
in the 1990s, the area was redeveloped to a new district with both residential and office
buildings. The conversion of the two seed silos into Gemini Residence was carried out
from 2002 to 2005.
The silos were raw concrete cylinders, 42 m in height and 25 m in width. The hol-
low insides of the silos are used for stairs, elevators, and hallways. The two silos are
connected on each floor, giving the building a basic layout looking like the infinity
symbol (∞). The circular spaces are capped with a Texlon roof for natural light, cre-
ating a lobby area as tall as the building itself, within which people can move up
and down.
This project initially intended to install apartments inside the structure. But it was
later determined that the structures were not strong enough to support all of the holes
that would be needed, so instead the apartments were clipped to the outside. The apart-
ments have full-height windows and balconies along their whole length. At the bottom
the raw concrete has been left uncoated to highlight the industrial origin of the struc-
ture (Gemini Residence, n.d.)(Fig. 6.14).
The conversion of “Silo d’Arenc” (now simply called “Le Silo”) has been a sig-
nificant part of the large-scale redevelopment of the Marseille port, France. The rede-
velopment program was necessitated by the decline of port activities and the general
desire of maintaining and redefining the historical links between the city and its port.