Strijp T, TAQ (waterpump building to office building)

Pump building TAQ

The building was originally used to purify waste water produced by the Philips factories. It was designed in the early 1950s by the Philips Engineering Office that was responsible for almost all of the company's real estate. Despite the functional approach, over the years the Engineering Office has certainly developed a recognizable architecture that is starting to acquire a cultural-historical value, especially in Eindhoven. The buildings are characterized by beautiful and solid brickwork, often with concrete frames and modernist, white, steel glass facades. The same applies to the TAQ pump building. That is why the starting point for the design has been to minimize affecting the existing character of the building, both in the interior as in the facade. This was difficult. The largest part of the building consists of thick concrete water basins and purification tanks that are mostly situated underground. Every hole that has to be made here takes days of sawing. In fact, at first glance only the central hall seemed to be usable as an office space.

The main solution was to add two patios at strategic locations that provide the underground spaces with daylight. In addition, the patios also provide a view of the surrounding buildings and trees from the work floor.

The locations of the other added windows have been carefully chosen; firstly to damage the existing structure of the building as little as possible and to save heavy breaking work, but also to frame the surrounding greenery as well as possible. The new aluminum frames have a dark gray color while the existing fronts have been replaced by snow-white renovation frames as in the original design. This way you can see what the adjustments were in the facade. The cuts and drill holes internally are often left in sight and the inner walls are consistently made of glass. In this way the original structure of the building and the interventions are very well recognizable.