Things are happening in the premises of the old Seita, on the edge of Interives, the new district being developed between the RD2020 and the tracks of Fleury-les-Aubrais station, in the conurbation of Orléans (Loiret). Part of this immense building, disused since the closure of the site in 2018 by Imperial Tobacco, the parent company of Seita, will become a third place dedicated “to the creative, artistic, social and solidarity economy”.
“We rent offices, workshops, to companies, ociations, creators, artists, etc., the aim being to make it an incubator of creativity,” explains Benjamin Cheminat, founder of the company Moule à Gaufres, which signed a three-year occupancy agreement with SEMDO, the developer of Interives. Called “the waffle mold factory”, this project takes the model of the third ephemeral place that he created in 2022 in Orléans, rue du faubourg Saint-Jeanin an office building before its conversion into housing.
The experiment ended this summer, and some of the occupants are now moving into these industrial premises, under immense vaults. Among them, artists who share a large shared workshop, a bicycle repairer, a budding recycling center, and numerous entrepreneurs in the part partitioned into offices…
A little far away, on a huge mezzanine, curious plastic bubbles are waiting to find a buyer, in the heart of a vast, completely empty room. The available surface area – 2,000 m2 – is in fact far from being used in its entirety, but there is no shortage of ideas.
A stage, a bar and a food truck
The Moule à Gaufres company’s wish is to one day be able to welcome the public there, for exhibitions, meetings, etc., but this requires additional work which has not yet been able to be carried out.
In the meantime, these demonstrations will take place outside, behind the building, where a stage has been set up, with a bar and a food truck. A program of free events is offered throughout the month of September, and an ideas factory will also be created, with evenings twice a month, to “squeeze your brain” and experiment.