Despite its former industrial function, the Milk Factory (nowadays a popular location for the Dutch Design Week and other creative and innovative exhibitions) has an almost church-like character due to the large glass windows and the high central hall. The challenge is to maintain this character.
First of all, we do everything we can not to divide the grand central hall (13 meters high) into boxes. In the past, huge silos were set up here, but now it will be a communal courtyard in which you can find separate box-in-box office units and flexible workspaces. On the first floor, the central hall has a large balcony over the entire length. The milk used to come in here and was routed through the factory, but now it becomes the “blue-green” corridor. An (experimental) pond of almost 40 meters long.
Where possible, original details are to be preserved. The white tiles for example on the parapets and the floor of the inner garden will become a characteristic feature. Also the stainless steel stairs and walkways are preserved and/or reused. And because the central hall is not going to be filled with high walls and new floors, you still have a full view of the beautiful fusée roofs* (semi-circular, concrete shell roofs) with skylights everywhere.
 
Together with the Ice Factory, the Milk Factory will be located on a “monument island”. The floor level of the factories is somewhat higher than the surrounding ground level as a result of their previous use. This difference in height is used in the landscape design by incorporating stairs, seats and greenery in the public space.
The milk factory, which is still built in by anonymous steel halls, will be completely set free all around and the characteristic vertical concrete frames in the facade, which go from floor to eaves, are renovated and even reconstructed. In a couple of places, where the original facade has been demolished in the course of time to hoist silos inside, there is an opportunity to indicate the transformation. Here the concrete posts are reconstructed in glass. Which enables a spectacular view from the inside to the outside.
The entire building will have HR++ glazing and an insulated shell. Energy label A+++ is pursued during the transformation. Finally, the entire facade regains its original white color, people already speak of the “white cathedral”.