Design Studio Differdange

Spring Semester 2025

From Parking Structure to Clustered Housing –
A Transitional Transformative Reuse

Students:
Paola Alejandra Rivera Arellano
Fernanda Donato da Silva Leão
Nisrine Habib M’samri

Instructors:
Florian Hertweck
Klaas de Rycke
Kristina Shatokhina

Physical model. Phase 1 (2030) functions as a car park with a terrace link to the Aalt Stadhaus.

Physical model. Phase 2 (2050) adapts the structure for clustered housing with a central courtyard.

This project reimagines an off-street parking plot in front of Differdange’s Aalt Stadhaus as a space that evolves with the city’s changing needs. Through a three-phase strategy, the current parking lot (2025) transforms into a multi-story parking structure (2030), consolidating relocated on-street parking while being designed for future adaptation. By 2050, the structure is gradually repurposed into clustered housing, reusing the existing framework to create a vibrant shared living environment. Embracing time as a design tool, the proposal prioritizes flexibility, sustainable reuse over demolition, and the gradual restoration of urban life to the street.

Phase 2 – 2050: The parking structure, originally built to relocate on-street parking, is repurposed into a clustered housing typology. The existing structural framework is retained. The terrace, first used as an extension of the Aalt Stadhaus concert hall and public space, is adapted to meet residents’ needs while remaining accessible to the community.

A 6×6 m structural grid allows parking spaces, to be later adapted into rooms. The design responds to the site’s spatial context, repurposes the central ramp, initially for car circulation, into a courtyard, and links the Aalt stadhaus to the terrace for smooth pedestrian flow.

The project unfolds in three stages — Phase 0 (2025) introduces off-street parking for the Aalt Stadhaus; Phase 1 (2030) builds a car park to accommodate relocated on-street parking; Phase 2 (2050) reuses the structure to create clustered housing within the existing grid.

Phase 1 (2030) shows the multi-storey car park with a direct Aalt Stadhaus-terrace connection.

By Phase 2 (2050), the structure is reused for clustered housing, the former parking ramp becomes a courtyard, and the terrace link continues to serve as a public and cultural access point.