The adaptive reuse of a former tobacco factory

From factory to faculty

The Manufacture des Tabacs in Strasbourg's Krutenau neighbourhood was built in 1849 for tobacco production. After a history of wartime damage and changes in ownership, production stopped in 2010 and the building was closed and designated as a protected heritage site.

In 2023, 11,000m² of the factory became part of the University of Strasbourg, the city's largest educational institution. Vurpas Architectes converted three lots into classrooms, lecture halls, laboratories, research offices and communal areas.

Converting an industrial building into a university comes with a clear problem: factories aren't built for learning.

Hard surfaces, exposed beams, and a heritage constraint

The factory is a large, open industrial space with hard floors, brick walls and original timber beams running across the ceilings. Every surface reflects sound. For classrooms and lecture halls where speech clarity and focus matter, that's a serious acoustic problem.

At the same time, as a protected heritage building, any modification had to be non-intrusive. The industrial character of the space, including the original beams, had to be preserved.

"The major challenge was to offer spaces adapted to each area while preserving the industrial interior design of the site," said Ingrid Jégousse, architect at Vurpas Architectes.

That meant finding acoustic solutions that could be installed between the beams discreetly, without frameworks or fixings that would visually compete with the original structure.