OFFICE 359

Megafactory is the new manufacturing plant of the Belgian satellite platforms and geospatial intelligence company Aerospacelab. This 25,000 m² industrial facility will be built in Charleroi, and will be able to produce up to 500 satellites annually, making it the largest spacecraft production line in Europe. The building site is on the outskirts of the city, between the residential and industrial areas. The complex consists of two volumes–the main building and a steel structure skeleton of an existing 1960s office building, stripped bare and reused as a parking facility, in order to reduce the footprint of the new complex and to safeguard the florid vegetation on the plot as much as possible. The two volumes are connected by a pedestrian bridge sixteen meters above the ground. The main building is a 130m long elongated elliptical volume, which works like a box in a box, as it encloses a large rectangular production and assembly space (the so-called ‘cleanroom’). In-between the cleanroom and the perforated metallic façade of the building’s perimeter are smaller ateliers and laboratories that create a buffer zone for the technologically sensitive spaces. On the upper floor, a field of offices and shared facilities is pierced by a grid of circular patios, light-wells and cores, that connect the main hall to the accessible roof garden. The building sits on the site in such a way as to make three public squares around it, each in line with the functioning of the factory, but also improving the interaction of the building with its immediate surroundings. The production at the Megafactory is planned to start in the beginning of 2025.