Set on emancipating itself from historical ties to the industries of textiles and mining, Lille has, for a number of years, been undergoing considerable change. The metamorphosis of the French city, begun in the 1990s with Rem Koolhaas’s ambitious Euralille plan, continues thanks to the ‘European city of culture 2004’ effect.
Twelve buildings – places for conviviality, meeting and artistic exchange – form the core of a vast rehabilitation scheme known as ‘Maisons Folie’. Among the converted spaces is the former Leclercq factory, which opened March 6. Located at the centre of the historically working-class area of Wazemmes, the late-19th-century silk mill has been transformed by NOX Architekten, which has covered the outside of the building with a sparkling cladding of curved metal. E.S.
