Netherlands. The gasometer reborn in bricks

Villa industria by Mecanoo, in Hilversum, features formal and material choices that evoke the former industrial identity of the site.

In 2004, Mecanoo architecten started the design of Villa Industria masterplan for a former industrial site in Hilversum. The opportunity for the redevelopment of the 74,000 sqm area arose from the relocation of the Regional Energy Supply Company. The masterplan prioritises pedestrian and cycle circulation, leaving the cars outside the perimeter of the site.

The masterplan includes 357 dwellings – split between affordable housing and owner-occupied, 400 sqm dedicated to small-scale businesses, while sport facilities occupy 4,000 sqm. The intervention as a whole, speaks the language of the industrial structures previously present on the site, both for the formal and material aspects: the arrangement of bricks, steel and glass gives shape to a diversified complex with a precise neighbourhood identity. The low tone that Mecanoo keeps for the most part of the project rises when it comes to the iconic presence of an ensemble of three cylindrical apartment buildings referring to the old gasometers of the site.