Rebirth of Warehouse: Reconstructing Taipei Industrial Office

This industrial workplace known as Rebirth of Warehouse is MoreIn Design’s exceptional project which aims to reduce consumption of environmental resources. This interesting concept gained the favour of the APSDA’s committees, which led MoreIn to receive an Honourable Mention in the Workspace category. 

“Present the most suitable appearance according to the base environment. No deliberate reduction, not design for design, reducing the consumption of environmental resources.”

This issue concerns an over 40-year-old street house that was once a warehouse. On a narrow road in the city’s heart, this warehouse is lined with locomotives. Although the core structure is sound, there are several damage concerns regarding the walls.

Abandoning the office space’s concealed barriers, a large window connects the inner and exterior vision, offering a breathing cushion in the packed lane. In the future, this space might become a small community communication area.

During the inner wall surface removal process, the design team discovered that the building’s external wall had been severely damaged and could not prevent water penetration on rainy days. If the process did not start from the outside wall, the mildew stains could not be treated easily. However, the case is a leased property, so integrating the complete house to deal with the external wall is impossible. 

The team’s solution was altering the design in which they left the fractured red brick wall undisturbed, without polishing or protective paint. This allows the wall to breathe and adjust water flow naturally, thus preventing mildew stains and other wall issues.

The basic principle of the entire room’s design is minimisation. Composing iron parts that are easy to recycle and reuse, the components reduced the amount of building waste generated in the future. They also preserved the floor tiles in the toilet. There is hardly any woodwork in the entire project, except the wooden floors covering the interior’s ground.

Most of the walls kept their original appearance, with Italian mineral coatings being tested on a few surfaces. This location will serve as future wall material tests. A part of furniture and decoration are abandoned old artefacts, contributing to the glorious trace of time. Finally, a floral installation and several modern furniture and ornaments add a hint of new life to the workspace.