In 2005, to reduce the building sector’s impact on the climate and the environment, Maarten Gielen, Tristan Boniver and Lionel Devlieger, working under the name ‘Rotor’, undertook an inquiry into the redirection of waste flows from industry and construction. In the space of twenty years, this Brussels-based designers’ collective has grown from a small group of thinkers in the margins to an established organization whose ideas about salvaging building materials and retaining existing buildings are widely known throughout the architecture and construction world, including on the international stage.

Since their exhibition in the Belgian pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2010, Rotor has evolved into a design, research and consultancy firm. In every project, whether large or small, far or near, they examine not only the extent to which the original building can be retained, which building materials are suitable for salvage and how future-proof and adaptable the building can be, but also the socio-economic, ecological and cultural impact of the often invisible underlying building processes. The Librebook bookshop in Brussels (2016), the pioneering, socio-artistic project Zinneke in Brussels (with Ouest, 2020), the Extra City information desk in Antwerp (2021), the new scenography of Mu.ZEE in Ostend (2021), the redevelopment of the Philips Tower in Brussels (with Conix RDBM, 2022), the refurbishment of the Realco cafeteria in Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve (2023) … Each time, Rotor manages to salvage and retain, in one form or another.