iMAL art center

Transformation of a former industrial building into a center for arts, science, technology, innovation and inclusion

The iMAL (Interactive Media Art Laboratory) has been an art centre dedicated to digital cultures and new technologies for more than twenty years. In the heart of an urban area undergoing major changes in Brussels, the site is part of the ‘Canal Plan’, a large-scale regional initiative to transform a territorial area along the waterway. This is the first project for a public contracting authority that the Brussels architecture and urban planning office CENTRAL carried out, in momentary association with the Paris-based office NP2F. The institution has been operating for some time in a former industrial building, consisting of large floor plates supported by a column-beam structure. One of the challenges – in particular  with regard to this space to be extended and renovated - was to make the exhibition areas and FabLab coexist. With a modest budget, the project is essentially based on a few strategic and localised architectural interventions, bringing new qualities to the finished product in a remarkable economy of means.