Welcome to CONVERTED, The 9th International Architectural Design & Visualization Challenge I’m running in partnership with Substance by ADOBE as the Material Category Marquee Sponsor and ASUS as our Hardware sponsor.

Converted entry by Artifictial

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This is my submission for the Converted Contest. My project involved the conversion of an old and abandoned mill factory to a multi-cultural center which extends beyond the building itself to provide people with an opportunity to blend with nature, history and culture.
Unfortunately, in Greece there is a tendency for old buildings to be left abandoned and then be demolished. Due to that practice a lot of buildings of significant architectural importance have been lost especially in bigger cities like Athens and Thessaloniki. That was my starting point, as what I really wanted to achieve was to restore the building to its former glory and establish the link with the past and its history.
By converting the mill and its surroundings to a living cultural space with historical references, I hope that it will establish a bond with history and architecture and eventually upgrade the state of the area which is quite relegated.
The project is developed in three phases; the building itself, the surrounding space of 56.000 sq. feet (5.200 sq. meter) and the interior spaces.
For the building the interference was minimal and it served the point to accent the industrial character of the building by placing metal columns that embrace the building from both sides, thus highlighting its volume and “imposing” quality.
The surrounding area has been designed in a human-centric approach, offering people the opportunity to enjoy both nature and history. For that reason, the open space hosts spare parts of machinery that were used in the factory acting as an open museum.
For the interior spaces I emphasized on the industrial character even at places where a more delicate approach could be assumed to be the best one (ballet room). Those contrasting elements will hopefully stimulate the interest of the visitor towards the building while he is “living” it.
For this project, five spaces were designed; The main entrance, the dancing room, the lounge room, the roof garden and the library.
For the main entrance I have placed a rail track that crosses the building from the one end to the other. This rail track is a tribute to the old factory, which had a dedicated rail track for the goods to be transported.
For the library I followed a different approach, by designing a modern space which is airy and spacious providing the needed calmness for the readers.
On a final note, most of the interior spaces were designed utilizing two stories with a loft connecting them. That seemed the obvious solution to expand the space vertically, since the width of the building posed certain limitations given its public character (only 29.5 ft long – 9 meters).

I hope you enjoy!
Thank you.

P.S. Link to imagery (wetransfer) : https://bit.ly/2TT6NkS

Converted entry by Marina Gretsova

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The idea is to show conversion from our current noisy and busy way of existence to a more relaxed, balanced and connected one.

In 2051 people live together with nature, growing their own foods and 3D printing pies at the same time

Communication takes place through 3D hologram device, deliveries and transportations are powered by drones, which in return are powered by solar and wind energy gathered by the households.

People have finally incorporated daily exercise and mindfulness in their lives and are applying recycled materials wherever possible
(recycled plastic composite, recycled fabrics and wood)

Link to the final animation here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7xoye6eqr30rvmg/Converted_2051.mp4?dl=0

P.S. I could still keep improving and improving the project, but the deadline is here and thank God, cause I think my eyes are in real danger of falling off.
Regardless of the creative process ups and downs, raised anxiety and complications with the substance animation rendering really enjoyed working on the project, learned a lot and most importantly had a lot of fun too! Many thanks to organizers and participants!

Converted entry by Atash

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I’ve long thought that re-proposing things is sometimes better than recycling. Ship-breaking yards kill hundreds of desperate workers each year in South-East Asia, just to recycle the steal. As the wages are the lowest in these countries and health and safety, and environmental regulations are pretty much non existent, companies take their ships to be retired and recycled there.

What if we didn’t put finances first, but considered people and the natural environment before profit.
I’ve chosen the ULCC hull type to demonstrate this concept as these ships are amongst the largest ever constructed. One ULCC in particular, the Seawise Giant will be the ship I convert. Although it has already been dismantled there are many such ships that are approaching their end and have the potential of being repurposed. The ship will sail under the new name Covenant, the first of the NeoArk ships.

Here I’ve preserved the ship’s hull structure almost completely constructing the housing units into where the cargo hold compartments used to be. The center cargo area I have cleared and converted into a green space filled with fruiting trees and edible herb gardens. This area also contains multiple play and exercise areas. Each cargo hold segment of the ship will contain a “neighborhood” with a total of 14 such areas. Within the livable spaces there are two special use floors that house amongst other things, schools, a library, gyms and function spaces. Some of these will be local to the neighborhood block while others will be a shared service. The community blocks will be book ended by two further special use areas that may include entertainment and science spaces. Two of the neighborhood blocks will be smaller than the others as they will accommodate view decks that will open up to the outside. These areas can be closed off to create a water tight internal space in case of rough weather.

On the outside the Covenant will have a new bridge and crew quarters with a new more powerful hybrid engine. Power will be generated mostly using solar panels that run across almost the entire length of the ship above the service deck. Around the bridge will be a land area for VTOL craft as well as 4 small hangers that can take helicopters to a below deck service and parking bay.

The Covenant will be equipped with 44 large lifeboats, 6 patrol/scout boats, 6 SH-60 Seahawk helicopters and 1 V-22 Osprey.

I have created 1 animation at the moment with a lengthier one planned that will explain the NeoArk project in a documentary style short film.

The Main Animation can be viewed at the below link
https://we.tl/t-CTsUqxyDGk

Converted entry by x-stas

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I’ve done the project in Unreal Engine 5. Animation https://youtu.be/9vyNx5yCE-I
I like the nature of New Zealand. There are many hiking tracks. There are huts on tracks. My project is converting an old hut into a museum and an observation deck. Hires images https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11bfuCrR3n7GCLVWbyttKIxC6AJ635iH9?usp=sharing

Converted entry by JamieHolmes

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Red Barn is a converted utility shed elevated above a lake inspired by Central Otago in the lower half of the South Island, New Zealand. The area is dominated by ranges and basins. Central Otago is a massive block of schist, part of the 85-million-year-old Zealandia continent. I was inspired by the rugged beautiful landscape and the rich history when I visited the area a few years ago. From whaling to farming to fruit to gold the area has had a very diverse past. There are lots of historic buildings that helped serve these industries – some beautiful and some not so, but most are very functional.

In designing Red Barn, I took the quintessential kiwi “shed” you see scattered throughout rural New Zealand and reimagined it as a holiday home. Sheds by nature are simple structures designed for maximum function at minimum cost. I created a piece of vernacular architecture that honours the essence of the shed, without looking out of place nestled into the rural landscape.

Red Barn from the outside is simple in form clad entirely in corrugated iron finished in red oxide paint containing a mix of locally sourced iron ore and oil. The barns roof and central doors both front and rear slide open simultaneously when in use. When unoccupied the barn closes to protect itself from the harsh weather. When in its closed configuration only four windows are visible limiting the amount of change in material showcasing a more monolithic silhouette. In its open configuration a central glass atrium is revealed, and the roof creates wings that cantilever high above the ground.
The Interior is finished with locally sourced raw materials that complement the surrounding landscape that are rugged and beautiful and rich in texture. Timber lined walls, floors and ceilings on the upper level and concrete floors on the lower level. Schist feature walls and Pounamu (greenstone) inspired mosaics in the kitchen and bathrooms. The plan is simple with 2 bedrooms and a shared bathroom wing on either side of the upper-level split by a bridge that spans the atrium. A spiral staircase takes you down to the lower level with open plan living. The entry door leads you directly into the atrium, but the barn can also be access through a utility room that flanks the kitchen. There is a small bathroom/laundry/wet room located behind the living room too.

The idea was that the atrium space could be used for many different functions such as seating over spill for larger gatherings, a play area when the weather was bad, studio/craft area, maybe you could house a large telescope and gaze at the stars when the roof is opened on the northern side of the atrium.

The furniture is simple and minimal to help inform the rawness of the area. I tried where possible to use locally designed furniture and fittings.

Everything is contained within the footprint of the barn to limit its impact on its surroundings and to keep that “shed” like feel. When you are outside you are truly outside!

Animation:

Converted entry by Erfan3p

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Forsaken final images (converted challenge project)
High res images:https://we.tl/t-AhTkZkOarW
While I was trying to think about how I’m going to convert my building to something new, I thought about pretty much everything, and I came up with the idea of an actual agricultural centre, as I mentioned before there is no agricultural centre where I live. So I merged this Idea and the new Idea of vertical farming in my building and I used its huge amount of roofed space for providing sunlight for the plants and crops inside. I removed the roof of the building which was made out of concrete and had no structural role in the building and replaced it with a transparent roof. Since this was going to be a research centre I decided to use the environmental spaces as well and planted as much greenery as I could including tea leaves (you can see them in the first image). And looking at some small researches I made on new technologies in agriculture, I noticed that they use drones to control the farms and even use them to spray all over their crops (you can also see the drone, one on top of the building and one airborne)

Making a water flow through the fields was necessary, so I used some tricks on cinema 4d to replicate whatever was in my mind.
The whole complex has two main buildings, one on the side and the other is the main place of research and farming (I used the building attached to the main structure for a small staff office, for disinfection and lockers) the building on the side is dedicated to offices and study labs)
Coming to interior place other than the platforms I made to hold more plants and crops and gain more space, I also designed rounded stands and scattered some grass and greenery on them, you can also see small pools and water flowing in the interior image. I was talking about technology, also added robotic arms to harvest the beans and crops from both high and ground platforms.
Soft wares and plugins I used: Cinema 4d, corona renderer, speed tree, substance source materials, substance designer, substance painter, Forester and real flow.
That was pretty much everything I did in this project I spent so much time on the idea and what I was going to do with my building, and these are the results, I learned a lot during this process including substance suite and etc. it definitely improved me and was quite challenging for me and the most important I met beautiful designers and people in this community, I will share all my projects here in the future.
Best regards
Erfan