We use industrial infrastructures as a catalyst for a new urban hub. Ostrava, the iron heart of the Czech Republic has been built around one industry. Over the last two hundred years, the urban machine consumed coal, produced iron and also, incidentally, the current shape of the city. The ironworks from the Lower Area of the Vítkovice district (LAV) are now centrally located. Production ceased during the last years of the twentieth century while the facilities were preserved as they were. To understand the conditions of this heritage, we dedicated our Énoncé théorique to their history and realised the transient nature of the city’s identity. Ostrava was associated with the iron industry and then became a communist symbol until it was not anymore. We found examples of rehabilitation that extend these past attributes, effectively crystallising the LAV as a frozen fragment of the city. Some projects do challenge the monumentality of the site; rather than considering the commemorative value of these structures as an end goal, they bring these artefacts along into the next cultural cycle. Instead of yet another museum geared towards occasional visitors, these examples leverage the existing infrastructure for ordinary programs. Auditoriums, shops, clubs, restaurants, sports facilities – and now a pool featuring a range of programs, from leisure to training – are being offered to the residents because they are needed and happen to benefit from a remarkable post-industrial context.