Adaptive Reuse, Urban Metabolism & Collective Regeneration
M.U.D. Lab is a speculative adaptive reuse proposal developed for the New European Bauhaus Prizes 2025, exploring the transformation of a semi-abandoned industrial warehouse in the Renti area of Athens into a regenerative urban hub for ecology, culture, and collective learning.
The concept reimagines the existing building as a multifunctional ecosystem integrating urban agriculture, circular economy practices, material reuse, water recycling systems, and open-access community infrastructure. Through a minimal intervention approach, the proposal preserves the structural identity of the industrial shell while introducing modular rooftop gardens, shaded gathering areas, co-working and exhibition spaces, and urban farming systems.
The project is rooted in principles of urban metabolism and regenerative design, proposing a self-sustaining environment where waste streams are transformed into productive resources. Graywater filtration systems, composting and earthworm farming units, movable planting modules, and biodiversity-oriented landscapes form an integrated ecological framework embedded within the architecture itself.
Alongside its environmental function, M.U.D. Lab was envisioned as an open civic platform supporting workshops, living labs, collaborative research, cultural programming, and skill-sharing activities related to food systems, sustainability, and urban resilience. The proposal positions neglected urban infrastructure not as obsolete remnants of the city, but as latent spaces capable of supporting new forms of collective stewardship and ecological transition.
