How Bruges Transformed a Vacant Soda Factory Into Town Hall

The Spanish firm Carlos Arroyo Arquitectos has taken a vacant Coca-Cola factory in Bruges, Belgium and turned it into a spiffy city hall—a centralized administration center for the countryside’s various, scattered municipalities. Using recycled materials, along with revamped utility and energy systems, the building is a colorful, eco-conscious, and badly needed addition to the area.

Using inexpensive material, the facility located in Oostkamp is composed of a smorgasbord of materials: thin gypsum and fibre shells that make the luminous bubble ceiling; a felt finish made from recycled bottles for natural warmth and dampened acoustics; and a “thermal onion” heating system that uses the thermal inertia of existing concrete slabs.

Open spaces in the civic center are lit through a controlled weather system with the use of LEDs to provide an environment that mimics and enhances surrounding outdoors. For example, rain is a captured in a transparent surface equipped with colored lights that display an engaging water show from the overhead storm. Solar cells, wind turbines and a rain collecting system provides the facility with natural energy sources. Sky lights peeking through the bubble ceiling provide passive lighting.

Images: courtesy of Frame Publishers and Carlos Arroyo Arquitectos

This post originally appeared on Architizer, an Atlantic partner site.