Niemeyer

Niemeyer will bring together new ventures for digital innovation, cultural venues, hospitality, education and manufacturing — all set within the original factory buildings. Public functions such as cafés, galleries and workshops are housed both in the renovated interiors and in newly designed spaces, that connect seamlessly with streets and parks. Located near the station and city centre, the site becomes part of the city’s everyday flow, welcoming to both locals and visitors.

The Niemeyer complex tells its story through architecture: brick halls from 1904, raw concrete additions from later decades, and the marks left by former industrial use. Wherever possible, we carefully preserve and restore the original structures. Our design embraces these layers rather than smoothing them over — highlighting the site’s evolution through contrast and continuity.

To this historic bedrock, we add a series of spatial elements that utilise the site’s layered nature, while forging new connections between people, programs, and place. Every intervention strengthens the dialogue between old and new, building and city, interior and landscape.

We carried the concept of opening up the factory into the interior design throughout the site. As such, we turned the interior spaces, which were originally cluttered and dark, into bright and attractive places with a clear logic and routing, while ensuring the historical character of the original factory was preserved.

Atop the repurposed ART building, the DAK ART rooftop terrace transforms the former industrial roofscape into a cultural space overlooking the Industriestraat.

Across, the Burley Bar opens with a transparent facade that dissolves the boundary between interior and public realm. This activation of the ground floor breathes life into the adjacent urban park Spoorpark. Daylight filters deep into the space, while generous openings ensure that the bar feels as much a part of the park as to the building.

To bring a wide range of work functions to Niemeyer, we introduce the Shared Facilities: a series of flexible spaces designed to work, collaborate and exchange ideas.

The Lab Pavilion along Spoorpark unfolds as a flexible, modular environment for digital makers, startups, and knowledge institutions. Open by design, the pavilion’s structure accommodates rapid reconfiguration, ensuring it can evolve with the needs of its users.

Hidden within the old courtyard in the factory’s oldest building, the Tabaksbos (Tobacco Forest) brings nature and daylight to the heart of the architecture. A distinctive platform structure, mature trees, native planting, and informal seating, turn this former production space into an inner world of calm and inspiration.

Along the buildings and functions winds the Green Route: a sequence of new stairs, bridges and walkways that traverse the blocks, linking street level to roofs and courtyards. These spatial objects turn the site into one walkable, multi-level spatial experience — where old and new uplift the other.

Four public zones define the open space: the Spoorpark, Industriestraat, Buurtstraat and Entreeplein. Together, they form the connective tissue between buildings, programs and surrounding neighbourhoods.

The Spoorpark follows the route of the historic rail line. Rails embedded in the pavement, rain gardens, and informal seating invite both play and pause. Industriestraat, once used for logistics, now hosts pavilions, outdoor seating, and public events — making it the new social artery of the site.

The design draws directly from the site’s industrial DNA. Rough brick and steel window frames are maintained or reintroduced, structural skeletons are revealed.

Materials from dismantled structures are re-used in place: brick reclaimed from demolitions becomes paving, steel trusses reappear as pergolas, and concrete slabs become seating. The result is a layered environment where the site’s history is not just referenced, yet physically present.

Green roofs on buildings like the Lab Pavillion help cool the environment and purify the air. Rainwater is collected through permeable surfaces and stored underground in buffers and wadis, supporting the landscape year-round.

An existing basement network is repurposed for bicycle parking and infrastructure, leaving the surface open to pedestrians and public life. Cycling routes connect directly to the nearby train station and urban fabric.

Niemeyer is not a finished product, but a living project shaped through use. From the start, residents, entrepreneurs and future users are involved — through test spaces, temporary installations, and public events. It’s a place where work and culture, calm and bustle, architecture and nature interweave. The factory isn’t forgotten — it’s carried forward as a framework for how the city can grow with its past, instead of over it.