This former brewery of ‘De Zwarte Ruiter’, or ‘The Black Horseman’ beer, which later has been used by furniture manufacturer ‘Artifort’, is part of the Mariaberg/Blauwdorp residential quarters situated in the southern city of Maastricht. This part of the city will be experiencing a major transition over the next decades. The project was realized by the housing cooperative Maasvallei and will be named ‘De Blauwe Veste’, or ‘The Blue Fortress’.

On the ground level and the first floor, 68 apartments have been realized, of which 30 are designated for social housing and the other 38 are available for rent. In the vaulted cellars of the former brewery, 2.350 square meters of business space will be situated. The exterior walls of the monumental cellars have been exposed and the appearance of the building has been preserved by maintaining the old facades.

The Slimline floor system was selected for this project to minimize the weight on the vaults. With an average weight of 325kg/m2 the Slimline Floor System offers maximum bearing capacity with a very low weight, without compromising, for example, acoustic isolation. Moreover, the compact nature of the Slimline Floor System allows the design inside the existing facade of the former brewery to be as open and transparent as possible. The raised glass and steel wall behind the facade results in a nice contrast between the old and the new.