When Re:invent asked us to design the renovation of Cityside, it was clear this wouldn’t be a standard office project. The building, formerly known as Rivierstaete, was designed by Rotterdam architect Hugh Maaskant and built between 1967-1973, first a car factory, then a paper factory, later a multi-tenant office building. We found it dark, corporate, and dated. Rather than starting from a blank page, we listened to what the building already told us. Its history as a paper factory led to a simple idea: paper comes from trees, so nature became the concept’s thread, paired with a return to 1970s warmth and rounded forms. The reception area shows this most clearly: a cold U-shaped desk gave way to a flower-shaped bench around the central column, with reception and coffee bar merged into one welcoming piece. A sculptural staircase now connects ground and first floor. Wherever possible, we prioritized existing materials over new ones, reserving a vacant office as an on-site workshop for upcycling custom furniture, a method refined over fifteen years. We’re especially proud of the OLD NEWS art lights by Ruwe Bolster: existing fixtures rebuilt with flower-shaped paper artworks. We didn’t erase Cityside’s history, we gave it a new chapter.