Ateliers Centraux d’Ougrée

THE ABANDONED WORKSHOP IN BELGIUM

‘Ateliers Centraux d’Ougrée’ are the repair workshops, storage halls and offices of a big steel plant. It is situated in the heart of the steel industry, the Liege region in Belgium.

The first industrial activities on this site begins around 1854 when a zinc oxide plant was built here. A foundry was built in the 1860s. The original activities continued at this location until the end of the 1920s.

The site was then purchased by the Ougrée-Marihaye company. The zinc plant was partly demolished to built these large industrial halls. A railroad cross the site from west to east. The rail is used for the transport of cast iron between the blast furnaces and the steelworks. From 1980 until the year 1990, the Cockerill-Ougrée company enlarges the halls and frequently reorganizes its use.

Economic crisis

After the year 2000, maintenance and storage activities are discontinued. With the exception of a few small buildings used as offices or depots, Ateliers Centraux d’Ougrée is abandoned. It was a victim of the crisis and was left just after the two blast furnaces, HF6 and HFB closed down. The steel factory was named ArcelorMittal at that time, the result of many merges with other factories over the years.

The photos of the abandoned ‘Ateliers Centraux d’Ougrée’ were taken during two visits in 2017 and 2018. The building will be reconverted soon.

Built 1925

Abandoned 1992

Reconversion 2020

Ateliers Centraux d’Ougrée was a victim of the crisis just after the two blast furnaces, HF6 and HFB closed down.
Entrance to the workshops.
Workshop.
Derelict offices.
Administration.
‘H’.
Monitors and sceens.
Wash room and locker room.
The lost chair.
Nude girls in an abandoned factory.
The abandoned hallway.
The abandoned offices of the steel factory.
Decaying offices.
Maintenance workshop.
Rust and decay.
Nature is taking over.
Oil, big and small.
The inner court of the abandoned buildings.