GROUP A Strips a 1969 Rotterdam Harbor Headquarters to Its Frame and Wraps It in Timber Louvers

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This article covers topics related to Office Building, Architecture. In Rotterdam's M4H harbor district, Ferro Offices reuses a 1969 frame, adds one timber storey and reaches BREEAM-NL Outstanding.

In Rotterdam's M4H harbor district, Ferro Offices reuses a 1969 frame, adds one timber storey and reaches BREEAM-NL Outstanding.

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UNI Editorial published Blog under Office Building, Architecture on Oct 10, 2026

Ferro Offices sits in Rotterdam's Merwe-Vierhavens district, known as M4H, a harbor zone that the city is turning into a place for makers, startups and the energy transition. The building began life in 1969 as the headquarters of Ferro, an industrial company. GROUP A stripped it back to its structural frame, added one floor, gave it a new biobased façade and reopened it in 2025 as an 8,250 m² multi-tenant office building. The client is the Port of Rotterdam Authority, which wants the building to show what transformation in M4H should look like.

Plenty of adaptive reuse projects claim to be sustainable. What makes this one worth your attention is how plainly it makes the case. The original frame was strong enough to carry an extra storey without heavy reinforcement, and keeping it saved roughly 75% of the CO₂ that new construction would have produced. GROUP A treats that frame as the project's main asset rather than a constraint to work around. The architecture that follows, timber louvers, setback terraces and a restored stair, mostly helps that existing structure perform better and look more legible.

A Chimney, a Pond and a 1969 Frame

Five-storey timber-clad office block beside a tall concrete chimney, with a pond and bare ground in front under an overcast sky

Wide view of the timber-clad block glowing at dusk beside a tall concrete chimney, with office towers and a puddled lot nearby

The context reads as half finished. A tall concrete chimney rises next to the block, puddled lots and bare ground surround it, and office towers stand in the distance. M4H is still in the middle of changing, and Ferro Offices is one of the first buildings to signal where it is going.

GROUP A kept the building's original massing: a compact five-storey slab with no gestures competing with the chimney. We think that restraint is right. The chimney carries the district's industrial memory, and the office block is free to be a calm, well-made neighbor instead of a monument.

Timber Louvers as Climate Equipment

Straight-on view of the vertical timber slat facade with grey columns and framed windows, ceiling lights glowing through the glass of each floor

Close-up of vertical timber battens and operable wooden shutters beside a window, lit by low warm sun

Close view of timber facade bands and grey columns, with a woman on a phone call standing behind the glazed balcony rail in warm light

The vertical timber slats are the building's new face, but they are doing real environmental work. They cut solar heat gain and reduce the need for mechanical cooling, and operable wooden shutters next to the windows let occupants adjust their own exposure. The close-up shows battens and shutters catching low sun. That detail tells you the façade was built to be used, not just looked at.

The grey columns stay visible behind the timber, so the old frame and the new skin read as two separate layers. That honesty matters in a reuse project. You can see what was kept and what was added, and the result looks less like a retrofit pretending to be new construction.

Setbacks, Terraces and a Cantilevered Entrance

Ground-floor entrance with a revolving door beneath a timber-slatted facade, a blurred pedestrian crossing the paving in the foreground

Cantilevered timber-clad upper floors above a recessed glazed entrance with concrete columns, seen under a hazy grey sky

Stacked timber-clad floors with slim columns and railings, set against a distant office tower and bare winter tree

On the south side, the façade steps back to create terraces on the office floors, and each terrace shades the floor below it. It is a simple passive move, and it gives tenants something many Dutch office buildings lack: outdoor space on their own floor.

At ground level, the upper floors cantilever over a recessed glazed entrance facing the Ferro square. Behind the glass sits a public plinth with a café, shared lunch facilities, stepped seating, indoor bicycle parking and a double-height makerspace for production work. That program matters. A ground floor where people actually make things suits a district marketed as a Makers District far better than a private lobby would.

The Stair as the Building's Spine

Concrete stairwell with board-marked walls, dark timber handrails and oak treads, a person walking past the glazed door in the background

Top-down view of a black-walled stairwell with oak treads and landings, people on the flights blurred in motion, sunlight falling across the upper steps

Black-walled stair with timber treads and handrail, a man descending while a blurred figure walks past in daylight

The stairs carry most of the interior's character. Board-marked concrete and black walls set off oak treads and dark timber handrails, and the top-down view shows flights and landings stacked like a sculpture. The original stone staircase with its wooden handrails was restored rather than replaced, which keeps a piece of the 1969 building's craft in daily use.

A central atrium with a sculptural staircase marks the entrance and connects the floors. Stairs this generous encourage tenants to walk between levels, and in a multi-tenant building that is how chance meetings between companies happen. For a building aimed at energy, mobility and circularity firms, that mixing is part of the brief.

Atrium Light and Kept Fragments

Concrete stair with a dark timber balustrade panel and steel rails against a board-marked wall, a blurred person descending

Looking up through a steel-framed skylight at rows of tilted plywood fins above a dark corrugated wall, in bright daylight

Empty room with a round concrete column, glass block clerestory windows and hanging pendant lamps over exposed ductwork

The atrium pulls daylight deep into what was once a fairly dense office plan. Looking up, a steel-framed skylight sits above rows of tilted plywood fins, which soften and spread the light across a dark corrugated wall.

The empty office room is a useful snapshot of the whole approach: a round concrete column, exposed ductwork, pendant lamps and the original glass block clerestory windows, restored rather than removed. GROUP A did not polish away the building's age. The glass blocks in particular are a material most renovations would strip out, and keeping them gives the interior a texture that new construction cannot imitate.

A Lantern for M4H

Timber-clad five-storey block with a glazed ground floor and a stub chimney behind, lit from within at dusk

Long timber facade with rows of lit offices, a tall glazed bay and a concrete chimney rising behind, seen at dusk

At dusk, the timber façade glows from inside, and the tall glazed bay and the lit floors make the building read as a lantern next to the chimney. For a district that is still largely empty after dark, that visibility is not a minor point. It tells passersby that the area is occupied and working.

The building's performance credentials support that image: gas-free operation, rooftop solar panels, BENG compliance, energy label A++++ and BREEAM-NL Outstanding certification. The figures come from a building that already existed, which is the most persuasive part.

Plans and Drawings

Site plan drawing of an urban district with the building footprint marked in orange among grey blocks, streets, canals and trees

Isometric site diagram of the existing industrial area with a tall chimney, round tanks, a rail line and a few trees

Isometric site diagram with the new brown volume among surrounding blocks, tree-lined streets, a parking lot and a tall chimney

Axonometric site diagram showing a red-toned building among grey industrial volumes, a tall chimney, a parking lot and crossing rail lines

Axonometric diagram of a multistorey concrete frame with a sun ray lighting an opened bay and an arrow marking an entry

Axonometric diagram of the same concrete frame topped with a timber storey, marked +1, above a darker infill bay

Ground floor plan drawing showing a large column grid on the left, central stairs and service cores, and smaller rooms on the right

Floor plan drawing of an open upper level with a central service core, two stair towers and diagonal-crossed voids

Floor plan drawing of an office level with desk clusters, meeting rooms and a central core flanked by stairs

Three section drawings of the zigzagging stair, showing stacked flights and landings across four floors

Building section drawing showing five levels, a central atrium, a rooftop volume and a stair descending to a basement

The site diagrams show the area before and after, with rail lines, round tanks and the chimney sitting around the new brown volume. The two frame axonometrics explain the whole project in a pair of drawings: the existing concrete frame with an opened, daylit bay, then the same frame topped with a timber storey marked +1. The plans show a large column grid at ground level, a central core flanked by stairs and diagonal voids above, while the sections trace the zigzagging stair and the atrium running through five levels.

Why This Project Matters

Ferro Offices shows that a modest 1969 office block, the kind that usually gets demolished without debate, can be the cheapest and lowest-carbon starting point for a top-rated building. The 75% CO₂ saving came from a structural check and a willingness to work within an existing grid, not from new technology. Developers and port authorities with similar stock should take note.

It also shows that reuse does not have to look timid. The timber louvers, terraces and public plinth give the building a new identity while the frame, glass blocks and restored stair keep its history visible. In a district still working out what it wants to be, GROUP A offers a convincing answer: keep what works, add what is needed, and open the ground floor to the people who will make the place.

Ferro Offices by GROUP A, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Area: 8,250 m². Completed: 2025. Photography: Sebastian van Damme.

About the Studio

GROUP A

Official website of GROUP A, one of the studios behind this project.

groupa.nl

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