Buildings can have many lives: someone builds them with a purpose, but time eventually imposes others, even though the forms stubbornly tend to persist. This is the case of an old construction in Ljubljana, which was a sugar refinery before a devastating fire destroyed it to give way first to a tobacco factory, then to a textile mill, later to some barracks, and finally to a shelter for homeless people. But the story does not end here. In 2009 City Hall issued a call for competition. This resulted in a project, and the complex was transformed into a center for contemporary art. In the process, the original walls were respected but the interior was worked upon freely, in such a way that the program could be distributed in three layers: the excavated lower area, with technical zones and a space for performances; the ground floor, more open and public; and the upper part, formed by volumes that seem to be floating. The intervention is nuanced by the materials used: concrete on the old surfaces and perforated metal sheets as abstract white cladding for the new pieces.