There are many iconic examples of the renovation of flour mill architecture: almost all of them are art spaces, galleries, and artists' studios. Few manage to partially adapt the functionality for housing. Adapting the engineering of these monstrous structures is a complex and expensive task, so they are often demolished and replaced with residential complexes. Hello Glorax, Nizhny Novgorod. I have nothing against this project, but if the flour mill on Chernigovskaya Embankment had been preserved, its visual impact could have become a new calling card for the city. (Although no, I do have something against it! 😈 We have rendered concepts for this area several times and are generally involved in 3D content for the neighboring project of our friends from FSK Fordevind🥹).
Let’s move to the bank of the Otra River in the city of Kristiansand in southern Norway. Although the grain storage facility rises more than 30 meters above the water’s surface, it reads more like a large art object: the massive white volume does not overwhelm the surroundings but emphasizes the silhouette of the embankment. To fill the interior space with light, the architects cut off the tops of thirty silos and replaced them with glass lanterns. In addition to providing light for the interior, they effectively pass through the new upper floor, creating an effect of an absolute panorama without walls.
Inside, reinforcing the shell, the engineers managed to carve out a huge concrete cube, forming a 21-meter atrium around which exhibition halls are built. However, among all the structural ideas, my favorite is the spiral staircase: merciless in height but remarkably harmoniously integrated into one of the cylinders.