De Vasim

This spinning mill was completed in 1948 and today we know this building as The Vasim. In the late 1950s the labor-intensive textile industry shifted from the Netherlands to Asia, and in 1969 the NYMA largely closed its doors. Although the building owes its existence to the art silk spinning mill, it owes its name to the new use that took up residence in the immense factory building in 1985; the Vasim sintering plant (VliegAsSInterMaatschappij).

The company processed fly ash from coal-fred power plants into artifcial gravel and lytag, an ingredient for light concrete and foundation for asphalt roads. During this process, the mountains of waste grit around the plant caused a lot of dust nuisance, and after much protest from the residents of Nijmegen-West, the plant closed in 2000 because of the environmental nuisance. The building became the property of the municipality and in the following years, as Stichting cultuurspinnerij De Vasim, the building housed and stored a tent rental company, workshops for over 40 artists and cultural companies, and many events and (public) activities took place in the front two halls.

The NYMA site in development

NYMA is in development and the place for pioneers. The former factory site has already changed a lot in recent years and will be transformed even more in the coming years into the lively hotspot of Nijmegen with its indispensable industrial atmosphere. A development that brings organic growth and in which temporary and more permanent users succeed each other with space for makers, culture, catering, education, sports & events.

Within the framework for the public space drawn up by ZUS, the existing (monumental) buildings are maintained and a new fabric with structures and furnishing elements with a recognizable identity is woven through the various places. As a result, the Winselingsedijk as Boulevard, the Waalfront with terrace on the Waal, the Grote Kolk with event space and deck to De Vasim, the Kleine Kolk with space for sports under the bridge De oversteek and slightly more distant lot 7 are connected. In this, the recognizable robust relics, the grand landscape and the industrial logic are central.

Recognizable steel furnishing elements in blue-gray NYMA colors that form a transition/connection between The Vasim and the public space are the lifted deck with terrace on the dike and the transformer house and the wide steel staircase that provides access to the south entrance (and escape route) of the eventspaces and supporting offices on the foors in the halls and the south end building.

The concept / strategy
By means of four steps; appreciating, connecting, activating & preserving, a spatial concept was developed for De Vasim with which the building could be transformed in phases in an orderly fashion and on a manageable scale. Central to this was that the robust character of the building was made visible and where possible restored (or even reinforced).

In order to interweave the building with the NYMA site, the facades were opened more to the surroundings and a convenient and orderly organization was designed to match the NYMA Fabrik. Not only does this structure meet the current building physics and regulations of today, but also forms a sustainable basis for interventions and (functional) changes in the future. The resulting spaces can be activated and programmed in various ways and provide places for meeting, cross-pollination and experimentation for users and functions among themselves to the environment.

During these steps, a suitable climate concept and materialization were used to see if the building could be made sustainable where possible, utilizing the existing installation spaces and creating a pleasant indoor climate for diferent activities. Because of the enormous scale of the building, the design proposals were made from a low-tech approach, in line with the industrial logic of the building, and in this way the available budget was used smartly. Central to this was the creation of afordable (work) spaces for the intended target group of creative business & start-ups.

A robust relic with clear organization
The Vasim is characterized by its immense scale and almost sphinx-like appearance. Located on the dike, in the vortex, but its recognizable chimneys, repeating scale roofs and full-length ventilation ridge are clearly visible from the road over the 'De Oversteek bridge'.

A grand concrete shell consisting of four repeating scale roofs intersected by two central axes. One central street from north to south connecting the head building with chimneys on the dike, the halls and the south building with waiting façade, equipped with concrete yokes and multiple installation corridors that were needed for the various production processes. One central intermediate section between the two halls was once thought to be the end of the building. In the new situation, these two central streets form the main access and entrances from all sides / directions.

The building has two main levels that both connect to ground level. The lower pit level, formerly the foor where the fnal products in the form of artifcial silk or fly ash pellets were collected and from where the expedition took place was hidden and bricked up. Now the entire plinth has been opened up, creating transparent, inviting business spaces, sports facilities and hospitality each with its own entrance at ground level. The second level is accessed directly on the dike. Here used to be the main entrance for employees of the factory and is the level of the halls where the weaving machines and later processing machines of the Sinter Factory stood. Now the base foor of the work city with creative business spaces and event halls.

The foors in the north dike building used to serve as a kitchen, canteen, laundry & locker room, a ventilation foor with equipment linked to the ventilation corridors and chimneys and mixing foor serving the chemicals and raw materials used for the various production processes and also linked to one of the corridors in the back of the building. The dyke building, now equipped with creative business spaces and the corridors in the back were flled with new installations for the current uses, which allowed the scale roofs of the halls to remain free of installations.

Opened facades
The facades of The Vasim are open in all directions. At the location of the central axes, new windows have been placed that provide access to the collective entrances. These entrances are connected over several foors and have foor balconies with function for meetings.

The repeating structure of concrete construction and shell roofs, had an infll of brickwork bands and arched windows. The arched windows had been sealed with glass bricks, but the original concrete ribs, which formerly housed the steel factory windows were still present. By bringing back these windows in a modern way, light once again falls into the halls from above, the shell roofs are visible from outside, and there is also a direct view from the work spaces on the upper foors to the vortex and bridge crossing.

New openings have been added in the brickwork bands at dike level in both side facades, each on the east and west sides responding in its own way to the scale of the surroundings and functions behind. On the west side, four large windows to the large vortex have been added, two of which are fxed and openable. The leftmost window provides access to the deck with terrace; the third window from the left is used for loading and unloading the event space. On the east side, smaller windows have been added in the area of the studios that provide daylight to the various studio spaces, dance and circus school and give a view of the outdoor plaza on the Little Vortex and under the arches of the bridge.

Industrial interior. The frst two halls form the Work City and in this a new wooden element was added that landed in the two halls like an industrial machine. A reference to the machine that used to be in these two halls for processing fly ash. The wooden volume has 3 levels and houses several studios, studios of diferent types of creative entrepreneurs and classrooms for the college. The wooden furniture forms a softening against the brutal concrete inner world. The industrial pale green color scheme recurs as an accent color in several places and forms a connecting component in the interventions and newly added elements throughout the building. The remaining space on the dike level provides space for meeting and interaction, exhibition space, terrace of the catering and will be flled and brought to life together with the users in the coming years.

Photography Architecture: Stijn Poelstra fotografie & video

Photography Eastfacade & users: Thea van den Heuvel Fotografe