Game Streetmekka Viborg, designed by EFFEKT is a pioneering project on how to bring new life to one of the many vacant industrial buildings by transforming it into a new vibrant culture house for street sports, street culture and street art.
-text by the authors
 
 
The existing building originally served as a windmill factory and is a typical example of one of the many more or less identical mass produced warehouses or factories buildings from the late 1960ies and 1970ies found in almost every suburban industrial zone in the western world. Typically constructed from prefabricated concrete panels or corrugated steel, industrial leftovers are perceived as having little to none historic, cultural and architectural value.
industrial building, renovation, Denmark, Game Streetmekka Viborg, EFFEKT
industrial building, renovation, Denmark, Game Streetmekka Viborg, EFFEKTindustrial building, renovation, Denmark, Game Streetmekka Viborg, EFFEKT  

industrial building, renovation, Denmark, Game Streetmekka Viborg, EFFEKT

How do we organize a highly complex and diverse program with limited space and budget?

industrial building, renovation, Denmark, Game Streetmekka Viborg, EFFEKT

We propose to open up the opaque and introverted industrial building, and transform the impressive central factory space to a new kind of interior space: A covered streetscape opening up to the outside.

industrial building, renovation, Denmark, Game Streetmekka Viborg, EFFEKT industrial building, renovation, Denmark, Game Streetmekka Viborg, EFFEKTindustrial building, renovation, Denmark, Game Streetmekka Viborg, EFFEKT industrial building, renovation, Denmark, Game Streetmekka Viborg, EFFEKT

Second, the existing building, (with its uninviting and worn out prefabricated concrete panel facade) is wrapped in new performative translucent skin, giving the appearance of a light and welcoming building.

industrial building, renovation, Denmark, Game Streetmekka Viborg, EFFEKT

And last, the building is filled with new functions for both trial, parkour, basket, skate, bouldering, dance and also customized workshop areas for DJing and music production, an animation studio, maker lab and artist studios.

Social spaces and designated hangout zones are strategically interweaved into the functional program and distributed throughout the building.

  industrial building, renovation, Denmark, Game Streetmekka Viborg, EFFEKT industrial building, renovation, Denmark, Game Streetmekka Viborg, EFFEKTindustrial building, renovation, Denmark, Game Streetmekka Viborg, EFFEKT

The surrounding landscape is filled with various street sports and street cultural functions placed within a recreational string of greenery connecting to the main city-pathway of the area.

industrial building, renovation, Denmark, Game Streetmekka Viborg, EFFEKTindustrial building, renovation, Denmark, Game Streetmekka Viborg, EFFEKT   

Diagrams

Plans

industrial building, renovation, Denmark, Game Streetmekka Viborg, EFFEKT  

Facts & Credits
Project title     GAME StreetMekka Viborg
Architecture    EFFEKT
Typology         Culturan, Sports & Recreation
Location          Viborg, Denmark
Year                  2017-2018
Status              Under construction
Size                  4,000 m2 Building, 6,000 m2 landscape
Client              Viborg Municipality, Realdania, Lokale- & Anlægsfonden, TrygFonden, NordeaFonden, GAME
Design team
Tue Hesselberg Foged, Sinus Lynge, Ulrik Mathiasson, Christoffer Gotfredsen, Virginie Le Goffic, Yulia Kozlova, Evgeny Markachev, Nicolai Duedahl Hende
Collaborators  Beaver Concrete (Skate), BOGL (Landscape)
Consultants      Jonathan Linde (Parkour), Bjørn Iisager (Bouldering), Lars Pedersen (Street Art), Nørlum (Digital Art & Animation)

All drawings & graphics by EFFEKT.
Pre-Project Building Images by EFFEKT.
Completed Project Images by COAST Studio / Rasmus Hjortshøj

Awards & Nominations Mies van der Rohe Award 2019 – European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Shortlisted

RELATED ARTICLES