TRA – Isabelle Toussaint and Matteo Robiglio Architects – Pôle de la pierre – Professional training center

PROJECT: TRA – Isabelle Toussaint and Matteo Robiglio Architects – Pôle de la pierre – Professional training center

LOCATION: Rue Mademoiselle Hanicq 30 à 7060 Soignies (Belgium)

YEAR: 2019

ARCHITECT / FIRM: TRA - Isabelle Toussaint and Matteo Robiglio Architects (Torino-Bruxelles) + atelier d’architecture Patrick Bribosia (HUY)

BUYER: Agence wallone du Patrimoine (AWAP)

SURFACE: 10.490 sqm

PRICE: € 6.422.341,00 (excluding VAT)

DESCRIPTION:
The Belgian “blue stone” (pierre bleue) is a limestone worldly renowned for its mechanical features, beauty and versatility. The Soignies region has been the core of its extraction since Roman times, and is today the core of a thriving global industry. The Grand Carrière (grand quarry) named after the main stone industry tycoons dynasty, the Wincqz family, fully epitomizes the history of blue stone extraction and its transformation in the XIXth century into a modern industry. Scientific organization of work, mechanisation, electrification, dedicated railway connections allowing export in all Europe, social housing and services for workers have all been initiated here by the Wincqz. Active until the 1920es, the site has later been used as logistic platform and storage, to be dismissed in the 1970es. Classed in 1991 as national heritage, it found its new use - in full continuity with its legacy - with the 2011 decision to reuse it as professional training and educational center for the Belgian stone industry. TRA architects with Atelier d’architecture Patrick Bribosia won the 2012 competition launched by IPW (Institut du Patrimoine Wallonie) with a concept proposing the adaptive reuse of the existing buildings and their integration with minimal modern structures to comply with new requirements. The program, defined with the consultation of the final users, includes administrative offices with meeting rooms and a library, lecture halls and training halls, a museum machinery hall, vestiaries, storages, a cafeteria, external covered and open work space, an external stone collection didactic display, an open air lecture space, a stone garden. Program has been inserted in the existing buildings coherently with their typology and original spatial structure, minimising restoration in order to preserve the overlaying traces of evolving technologies and production organisation. Existing structures have been equipped with the latest production equipment and completed with minimal insertions to upgrade comfort and safety to the current highest standards. The integration of industrial heritage and modern architecture produces a vibrant resonance between legacy and new uses, embodying the peculiar brew of tradition and innovation - first conceived here by the Wincqz - that has made the lasting success of the Belgian blue stone industry.

DESCRIPTION:
The program is the result of a comprehensive feasibility study carried out in 2011 by IPW with the consultation of the final users, and has been reviewed between phases 1 and 2 to incorporate new requirements and expand the venue capacity. Program includes administrative offices with meeting rooms and a library, lecture halls and training halls, a museum machinery hall, vestiaries, storages, a cafeteria, external covered and open work space, an external stone collection didactic display, an open air lecture space, a stone garden. Program has been inserted in the existing buildings coherently with their typology and original spatial structure, minimising restoration in order to preserve the overlaying traces of evolving technologies and production organisation. Existing structures have been equipped with the latest production equipment and completed with minimal insertions to upgrade comfort and safety to the current highest standards.

DESCRIPTION:
The project was promoted by the Institut du Patrimoine Wallon (IPW) later Agence Wallone du Patrimoine (AWAP) and financed with regional and European funding. The project has been carried out in two phases. The first phase (2013-2016; cost 3.135.000,00 €) has seen the restoration and reuse of the main building of the site, the 1863 Grand Scierie, and of the Bureau building, with adjacent external areas. The second phase (2016-2019; cost 3. 287.374,00 €) has seen the restoration and reuse of the remaining buildings of the site, the Menuserie et Forge and the Magasin Huile et Clos, the construction of a new wing and the landscaping of the whole site. After completion of the first phase, the Pôle de la Pierre has already become operational; the second phase has therefore been carried out with users on site. With the completion of the second phase in 2019 the facility has reached its full capacity. Final total construction cost is € 6.422.341,00. AWAP currently runs the Pôle de la Pierre as an autonomous administrative body, promoting professional training programs and thematic educational activities. The regional professional training agencies : CEFOMEPI (Centre de Formation aux Métiers de la Pierre), FOREM (Service public wallon de l’Emploi et de la Formation professionnelle) and ’IFAPME (Institut de Formation en Alternance et des Indépendants et petites et moyennes Entreprises) are partner of the project and provide training personnel. The site and the buildings are owned by Pierre Bleue de Wallonie, a private exploiter active on several sites of the Soignies extractive area, and have been made available for the project through a 30 years free lease.

- SURFACE present EXTENSION,

PREVALENT CONSERVATION / CONTINUITY: The overall dimensions increase moderately with respect to the pre-existing surface.

- VOLUME present EXTENSION,

PREVALENT CONSERVATION / CONTINUITY: The overall dimensions increase moderately with respect to the pre-existing volume.

DESCRIPTION:
Site area: 10.490 m2 Covered surface: 1.650 m2 Used surface: 3.850 m2 Volume: 13.750 m3

DESCRIPTION:
The project has conserved all existing buildings, adapting them for the new program by adding internal and external distribution, services and technical plants. New floors have been added within existing volumes in the Bureau, Magasin à Huile et Clous and Menuiserie et Forge Buildings; unused hayloft have been made accessible and used. A light well has been cut on the internal side of the Bureau building front. A new wing for laboratories, vestiaries and teachers’ offices has been added. A “box” has been inserted within the Grande Scierie hall building. A new open-air covered work area has been added along the southern site wall. A new glass canopy has been added to the Huile et Clos building. No existing volume has been demolished.

DESCRIPTION:
Existing buildings are in bricks with sculpted blue stone (pierre bleue) details, with wooden horizontal and roof structure. All existing structures have been preserved and reinforced when needed (carpentry of the Grande Scierie). New structures have been added especially for distribution and are all in steel; floors have been reinforced or added in concrete, integrating existing wooden or metallic structural elements. All new interventions are reversible. The box on the Grande Scierie has a wooden platform - frame structure. The new wing has a steel structure and wood panels envelope.

DESCRIPTION:
The design strategy is based on a simple binary choice that makes clearly readable the interplay between legacy and All new addictions - structural, technical, mechanical - are made in galvanised steel and cladded either in galvanised raw steel (new box in the Grand Scierie) or zinc; windows have new aluminium high performance frames. The three metals have been selected, wrought and placed to obtain maximum homogeneity in color and finishing. All existing structures have been simply cleaned to be kept in their original state, conserving traces of historical layering and minor technical and decoration details.

DESCRIPTION:
The image of the site is the result of an adaptive reuse process: new structures are identified by elementary forms and by the use of just one material (galvanised raw steel) that chromatically evokes the existing chiselled blue stone, while existing structures are preserved in the state in which they were found and not restored. Restoration has been partly carried out by the young trainees of the professional training enter.