Indian studio Malik Structure has turned a 144-year-old ice manufacturing facility in Ballard Property, Mumbai, into the IF.BE up to date gallery.
The renovation, led and funded by Malik Architecture, aimed to protect the ex-industrial area, which is in an space the place the vast majority of un-listed buildings are demolished, and create an arts improvement that might function “a reference for the previous and future”.
Named IF.BE – Ice Manufacturing facility Ballard Property, the gallery was designed round a central courtyard.
“The drawing archives revealed a steady courtyard connecting Calicut and Cochin Avenue, which is at the moment cluttered with ad-hoc buildings and metallic roofs: bodily proof of the apathy with which these lovely fragments of historical past are handled,” Malik Structure principal architect Arjun Malik advised Dezeen.
The studio retained a big Banyan Tree within the central courtyard, which had begun to trigger harm to the historic constructing material with its spreading roots.
Malik Structure repaired the harm from the tree and carried out “surgical interventions” to remodel the encompassing ice manufacturing facility, sub-station, chilly storage and the ice-cubing space, that are all sheltered underneath the tree.
The unique pitched lantern roof of the substation was prolonged over the courtyard, to kind a brand new “cathedral” gallery space.
This roof, initially a north-light truss, was rotated by 90 levels to let in mild from the east – additionally guaranteeing mild and air flow for the neighbouring construction.
All through the manufacturing facility Malik Structure aimed to protect authentic particulars.
Plaster partitions have been scraped off to uncover the unique brickwork, whereas a specialist wood-working workforce restored the picket trusses and boarding to disclose the classic Burma-teak woodwork.
A number of repurposed authentic industrial artefacts throughout the area have been retained to evoke a way of the previous manufacturing facility.
These embody big cooling coils embedded within the glass flooring on the important entrance on Calicut Avenue, giving the area a museum-like high quality.
The unique gantry that was as soon as used to maneuver slabs of ice has been tailored so it will possibly now be mobilised as a part of artwork installations or used to partition the area.
General, the studio aimed to create an area that tied collectively the previous and fashionable interventions.
“The suturing we carried out aimed to intensify the delicate, virtually tenuous relationship between the discovered and the made, manifesting the true nature of IF.BE as an exploration of the liminal area between hypothesis and actuality,” the studio advised Dezeen.
Different adaptive reuse tasks not too long ago featured on Dezeen embody an residence and gallery in a former Barcelona manufacturing facility by Mesura and a Chinese language brewery transformed right into a cultural centre by Urbanus.
This venture has been shortlisted within the cultural venture class of Dezeen Awards 2023.
The images is by Bharath Ramamrutham.
