The old fire station in Kortrijk has been retrofitted by the Belgian practice ATAMA into a new public hub. This project, known as the Deelfabriek, or 'sharing factory,' was completed in September 2023 for Kortrijk’s city council. The "Tuighuizen" building, a protected monument since 2003, was built in 1940 as a brick and concrete structure with a central stair tower and a curved corner.
The project is conceived as a "sharing and reuse factory" that promotes sharing as an alternative to ownership. The design reconfigures the site from an enclosed, utilitarian space into a publicly accessible hub. The architects' main design move was to shift the social enterprises from facing the street to an inner courtyard. This enabled the prominent former garage to be maintained as a large communal entrance and market hall. Around this space, the original garage doors have been replaced by glazed entrance screens, with glazing bars painted a 'racing green' to complement the brickwork. A new gallery serves as a flexible social and technical backbone, connecting different parts of the complex. The project has received a Special Mention at the New European Bauhaus 2025 awards.
The architects chose a selective "repair" of key elements and added new, clearly distinct structures, a strategy of "minimum intervention, maximum use." A new glazed opening allows access to an inner courtyard, which serves as the heart of the project. The concrete skeleton of a demolished structure was left, creating a 'garden room'. The new single-storey units, which house initiatives such as a sewing repair shop, a bicycle repair shop, a toy library, and a clothing exchange, are placed around this yard.
The design incorporates new materials such as mirrored aluminium fascia boards, which line the reveals of openings and reflect the surrounding heritage. The walls of the ‘garden room cosmos’ appear translucent from certain angles, with reflections that complement the existing architecture. The tower’s interior houses a climbing club, while an artist-reimagined interior in its glazed crown functions as a unique meeting space.
A new model for adaptive reuse
The Deelfabriek project presents a model for the adaptive reuse of protected monuments. By reinterpreting the historic fire station as a new public hub, the architects have demonstrated a design approach that prioritises selective intervention over direct restoration. This strategy has yielded an urban framework that is both flexible and adaptable, enabling the continuous transformation and collaboration of various community initiatives. The project's success is rooted in its social purpose, ultimately creating an inclusive social fabric for the neighbourhood and beyond.
