The interesting thing about a lot of infrastructure is that what it supports is often very heavy compared to more ‘typical’ commercial or residential uses.  Which is why adaptive reuse of them is often easy from a structural perspective, since almost always the load is lightened compared to what they were used for in the past.

In this case, this isn’t so much a full adaptive reuse as a re-adaptive-reuse, for this water tower already sported several uses in between its support columns (water being so heavy, any extra weight by these floors and uses was negligible).  But what had been only archives has been converted into student housing in a rather neat way, by having the apartments bust out from between the beefy columns.  These extendy bits not only add floor space but, more importantly, catch light and views, making the small apartments feel expansive and cool.  A trio of communal spaces spiral up the tower, complete with three balconies that catch the morning, noon, and evening sun.

Very slick idea, creating interesting and enlivening spaces for living out of an existing robust icon.  Brilliant idea.

Jaegersborg Water Tower revamped by Dorte Mandrup