The Door Palace - a storage pavilion for Rotor DC

After having moved from Anderlecht to Evere in 2022, one of the first interventions that was needed on Rotor and Rotor DC's new site was a pavilion to store Rotor DC's ever growing collection of reclaimed doors. 

The design of this pavilion, the Door Palace, combined an existing pallet racking system found in one of the site’s warehouses and the reclaimed structure of an agricultural greenhouse. 
With a height of 9 m, the pallet racking system was too big to be used in Rotor DC’s everyday activities. To give it a new use, the structure was cut up into smaller elements that serve as the load-bearing structure and storage system of the new door pavilion. The greenhouse structure was mounted on top of these structural elements with a specially designed mounting system. 
To protect the interior of the pavilion from the elements, the roof was covered with a white polyethylene film designed for use on agricultural greenhouses and the sides were clad with reclaimed polycarbonate panels. 

While the structural elements and panels were all reused the film covering the roof was purchased new. This new material was chosen for its lightness and its ability to cover a very large area in a both financially and materially economical way. 

Rotor's design was executed by an enormous volunteer effort. Four groups each spent a full week in Evere, spanning the entire month of August 2022. 

In 2026, the polyethylene film covering the Door Palace was damaged during a storm. While parts of the pavilion were still being used as storage by Rotor DC, at the end of the summer, it was modified with a design by bo-rd residents Leia Walz and Vincent Vergote. For the new scenography the roof was partially covered with colourful scaffolding nets. The woven nets create a soft shaded area and a tinted skyview. Keeping half of the storage racks and rearranging some of its structural elements, the space was opened up to the communal garden of bo_rd. Wooden benches and seating platforms were made from reused decking boards out of Rotor DC's stock. 

Details

Rotor design team

Gaspard Geerts, Maarten Gielen, Tristan Boniver

Rotor build team

Gaspard Geerts, Tristan Boniver, Victor Meesters, Tim Rottiers and Maria Glionna, with the help of Michaël Ghyoot

Workshop organisation

Léa Bottani-Dechaud and Giulia Rosa

Volunteers

A huge thanks to our international team of volunteers: Elena Dell’Oro, Julian Hudson, Guillaume Fénard, Hugo Vincent, Li Li Yap, Sriyam Thummatron, Kalina, Yanakieva, Anne Pijl, Julie Maddalena, Chloé Wasselin-Dandre, Jospeh Simms, Romy Straetmans, Natalia Recalde, Alex Kirschstein, Mathieu Ceuterick, Manon Marchand, Vittorio Romieri, Pierre-Loup Benoît, Haoran Wang, Hilke Mano, Denis Samyn, Julie Schumacher, Inès Penneron, Tia-Angelie Vijh, Win Nie Ng, Terry-Louise Doyle, Chris Woodvine, caterina Mirales, Yi Hund, Caterina Cameli, Julien Jacob, Joyce Ng, Nicole Ng

Special thanks

Tim Rottiers and Maria Glionna

2026 design team

Leia Walz and Vincent Vergote