C-Mine Cultural Infrastructure
C-Mine is a contemporary answer on how to deal with large-scale industrial heritage.
The site is located within the 'carbon belt', a coalmine strip stretching as far as the Ruhr area. When mining stopped in the 1980s, the former machinery buildings were left as empty shells until they were reprogrammed into this project for cultural infrastructure. The original T-shaped building, with its dark five-metre-high base, is extended to its maximum footprint, resulting in a deep and fascinating labyrinth-like ground level.
On the first level this extension offers a new piano nobile, punctuated by the two new venues. Five steel tunnels filter the C-Mine visitors from the main square into the foyer, which is the main distributing space located in the base.
The Turbine Hall and the machine rooms give directly onto the new piano nobile terraces, a continuous open-air field of red and white tiling based on the original flooring, linking old and new in a natural and generous manner.