After winning an international competition in 2003 commissioned by the Flemish Government, Dutch architecture office KAAN Architecten has worked intensively on the complex masterplan, renovation and extension of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp (Belgium), also known as KMSKA (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen), bringing contemporary allure to a glorious, overlooked beauty of the 19th century. In addition to being one of the last examples of bold neoclassical architecture in the city of Antwerp, the museum houses a rich art collection that embraces seven centuries of art: from Flemish Primitives to expressionists, from paintings to drawings and sculptures. The Department of Culture, Youth and Media of the Flemish Government has invested approximately 100 million euro in the overall renovation of the building.
Photography: Karin Borghouts, Sebastian van Damme, Stijn Bollaert, Mediamixer
Primary client: Departement Cultuur, Jeugd en Media (Vlaamse Overheid)
Mandated client: Het Facilitair Bedrijf (Vlaamse Overheid)
User: Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (KMSKA)
Project costs: 66 Mln euro
Senior project leader: Walter Hoogerwerf
Project team: Valentina Bencic, Maicol Cardelli, Alice Colombo, Aksel Çoruh, Davis de Cos Roman, Sebastian van Damme, Paolo Faleschini, Raluca Firicel, Eva French i Gilabert, Michael Geensen, Narine Gyulkhasyan, Marco Jongmans, Martina Margini, Giuseppe Mazzaglia, Laura Ospina, Maurizio Papa, Ismael Planelles Naya, Giacomo Rizzi, Ralph van Schipper, Kim Sneyders, Koen van Tienen, Niels Vernooij, Martin Zwinggi
This house along the Leuvense Vaart in Mechelen never ceases to fascinate. A seemingly random play of asymmetrical concrete canopies opens and closes the façade, creating a pleasing impression of introverted openness.
A House with a consistent story
The dynamics created by the angled concrete canopies and the sophisticated positioning of the triangular storeys was an aesthetic necessity, designed in response to the environment in which the house was built. In this case, a narrow, deep plot with close proximity to neighbours, but also with an expansive view of the canal and the fields behind it. The concept of the house is the result of a creative process that takes all these parameters into account in a single, consistent story.
Turnova is a vibrant new neighbourhood near the Grote Markt in the middle of Turnhout. B-architecten designed six of the buildings, including Kavel 4.
Kavel 4 and the strip together form the entrance to the Turnova shopping area along the Otterstraat. The plinth consists of commercial spaces and provides access to the underground bicycle shed of Turnova. In the cantilever beam, there are three social two-bedroom apartments.
The building site, situated parallel to the railroad tracks of the Leuven train station, is in many ways remarkable. It’s located within walking distance to the station, which is undergoing large scale developments, but it also seamlessly connects to the smaller scale residential area of ‘Klein Rijsel’.
The client’s ambition was to build a large amount of social housing as well as private homes, both with underground parking, surrounded by a collective garden accessible to the public. This wasn’t an easy task as the topography of the site, as well as the urban plan ‘BPA Westelijke Spoorweggeul’, imposed certain parameters and limitations to the site.
The new sports hall becomes a northern gate to the campus. Its monolithic volume is on the northern side lifted up, opening its interior sports ground to a viewing from the surrounding. Namely, an englazed stripe under the cantilevered volume unveils activities indoor to a passer-by, drivers and visitors of the campus. A careful dimensioning of the stripe as well as its connecting to a campus pedestrian route triggers a curiosity of by-passers and attracts them to enter the building. Once inside, a ramp, an access to stands in the cantilevered level, becomes a deviation of the campus pedestrian route, creating a public promenade through the building.
The new building for the Faculty of Social Work (Building T) acts as a southern gateway and the new Sports Hall Extension forms the northern gate to the campus.
Building T is a free-standing volume, set back off the Voskenslaan, creating an open space as a transition between residential homes along the street and the large green axis of the future masterplan development. Its monolithic massing communicates with its immediate surroundings with a permeable shading membrane, horizontal lamellas which evenly wrap the building’s englazed volume. The wrap opens up at the north-west side of the building in front of the plaza as a big entrance arch, unveiling the interior of the building on the ground floor. The big entrance arch acts as an inviting element that directs people from the plaza/lawn outside to the interior of the building.
The old mansion in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre had already been completely dismantled inside when JUMA architects were asked to renovate and expand it.
Actually, JUMA architects was already the second architect. The previous architect had dismantled the building and had already carried out many structural works. However, the client was not satisfied with the design and JUMA architects were asked to redraw the project. As a result, JUMA architects also had to carry out a lot of structural works first. With the exception of the foundations and the pool tub, the entire rear structure was demolished again.
A few years ago, House of Lorraine was a decayed place, a grievance at the Grand Place in Mechelen.
dmvA was asked to transform this corner and thus revive the market and street scene.
In this project there was great importance attached to urban integration, with respect for the history of the building. For dmvA, high quality living was also the aim.
Thanks to its central position on the Leien – the inner ring road – the building for the headquarters of the city council’s education service is located beside one of Antwerp’s core structural urban design elements and traffic arteries.
The school is situated in Sint-Gillis, Brussels, close by the South rail station. The building had to accommodate three different entities: the school itself, a kindergarten and the neighborhood. The complexity of the design therefore consists of harmonizing these three actors. The limited space was approached intelligently so that every space is used optimally, functions autonomously and is usable for every entity. Due to amended subsidies, the kindergarten eventually was not executed, but it surely confirmed the flexibility of the building: the vacant space could be easily used as additional classrooms.
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