A second life for a heritage building. Concept for the adaptation of the brewery and manufactory in Węgrów

How do you bring derelict heritage buildings back to life without pretending time stood still? Inicjatywa Projektowa's answer is an award-winning competition concept for the adaptation of a former brewery and manufactory in Węgrów — a project in which contemporary materials and technology serve to respect the historic fabric rather than imitate it.

The brief: a park support facility within heritage walls

The heritage brewery and manufactory buildings were intended to serve as catering, sanitary and administrative support facilities for the adjoining park. The biggest design challenge proved to be adapting the existing functional layout to the needs of new users while preserving and respecting the original fabric as fully as possible. This is one of the most demanding types of task in architecture — working 'inside' a heritage structure, where every decision to demolish, cut through or add a storey must be negotiated with the historic structure and conservation requirements.

A glazed link instead of reconstruction

The core premise was to join two previously separate buildings into a single organism. The studio resolved this with a glazed, two-storey link, set perpendicular to the brewery's volume and filling the gap between the two adapted heritage structures. The conservation philosophy adopted here is key. In line with contemporary thinking on heritage protection, the designers deliberately chose not to rebuild the destroyed part of the manufactory building and its roof in a way that imitates the historic structure. The materials used to reinstate the historical form are openly contemporary: in place of the timber roof structure, a steel structure of similar spacing and dimensions was used, and the new roof sections are covered with large-format glass panes. The new is legibly distinct from the old — and through that contrast, it underscores the value of what is original.

Modest in scale, significant as precedent

It is a modest building — a footprint of around 254 sq m and a usable floor area of around 298 sq m — yet its significance extends well beyond its floor area. In recognising the concept, the competition jury highlighted the interesting solution for the multifunctional park-support space in the glazed, eastern part of the manufactory, which achieves the spatial effect of a public building. At the same time, the jury flagged points for refinement — among them the extent of the glazing and the resulting solar exposure on the southern side. Such a matter-of-fact assessment shows the project was treated as a genuine starting point for realisation. The investor behind the scheme is the town of Węgrów.

Why it is an instructive example

Adapting post-industrial and heritage buildings is one of the most demanding areas of architecture — it requires reconciling conservation requirements, a new function and contemporary usability standards. The Węgrów project shows a strategy in which a heritage building is not 'frozen' but woven into the city's everyday life: it becomes a support facility for the park, a place residents have a genuine reason to visit. For local authorities and institutions holding heritage assets, the Węgrów concept is an instructive example. It proves that a second life for a heritage building need not mean either full reconstruction or demolition; it can be a legible, honest dialogue between historical form and contemporary detail.