The opposition between cities and countryside in Flanders has increasingly become a mental rather than a physical one. A long-standing anti-urban policy has led to a thorough contamination – i.e. urbanization – of the Flemish countryside. Multiple networks connect locations irrespective of their urban or rural status, enabling ever more frequent movements, eroding physical boundaries, merging it all into a semi-urban pattern we call the Nebular City. Inside this Nebular City, rurality has become less a fact than a choice, less a self-evident tradition than a mental construction. It is the architect’s task to design this mental construction.
Tags: Belgium, Sint-Martens-Latem Comments Off on VILLA BRAECKMAN-STAELS and GARDEN COTTAGE in Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium by De Smet Vermeulen architecten
The works that have been conducted are part of a masterplan that was developped in 2007.
Due to the growing needs of the city services, the Town Hall was looking for an extension of their site. In order to anticipate these growing needs a masterplan was developped. In this plan the historic site of a 19th century flax-factory was incorporated in the new site of the Town Hall. Redevelopping the new site, a new entrance building was designed, centrally located between two existing historically valuable buildings.
Fosbury & Sons has taken up residence in the WATT-tower in Antwerp, a building by legendary modernist architect Léon Stynen. On the impressive first floor Fosbury & Sons founders Stijn Geeraets and Maarten Van Gool have launched a new and high-quality way of working, ‘the renaissance of work’, focussing on the needs of today’s generation. Fosbury & Sons is an inspiring and professional workplace where entrepreneurs, digital nomads and larger companies come together and benefit from all kinds of additional services. As a member, you will enjoy the comfort of a professional office, with the welcome warmth of your living room, the services and looks of a hotel and the fun of your free time. The impressive 3000 m² area was decorated by the Antwerp-based architects Going East.
The building is located in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, a multicultural and dense municipality situated in the north part of Brussels, Belgium
The assignment for the competition was to transform an industrial site into a local city-hall branch including a waiting room, 12 counters and administration offices. The existing building used to be part of a complex for the production of cigarettes, which has been largely demolished in the past decades. Nowadays only two volumes remain along the rue Charles Malis.
1. TOUR ET TAXIS: TOWARDS A MIXED-USE ECO-NEIGHBORHOOD
Whereas most developing countries can write their future starting from a blank slate, European cities face the challenge of transforming their built heritage to secure their energy, social and economic transition towards post-carbon, circular and interdependent urban living.
It means being determined to act as forward thinkers, and to bring our new project “Tour & Taxis” into the 21st century in terms of uses, technological progress, social innovation, and sustainable building principles. Today’s architecture is capable of implementing “energy solidarity” between a piece of architectural heritage — industrial in this case — and a contemporary project. The latter provides the necessary energy to the former by integrating renewable energies, thus limiting carbon emissions as recommended by the COP 21.
“This freestanding family house to the north of Brussels, is situated on a plot which due to its irregular shape remained unsold for a long period of time.
The base shape of this house is an offset of this particular form.
The growing demand for and interest in new forms of living together inspired a Belgian entrepreneurial duo to develop the product Skilpod. A Skilpod is a mobile and modular housing construction that attaches great importance to its energetic properties but that is also always searching for progressive and diverse designs. By means of modular architecture Skilpod searches for a combination of flexibility and energy efficiency. The module is completely built and finished in the Skilpod-studio and subsequently transported and placed on the site. As a result the Skilpod is also moveable to a new location at a later time. The housing constructions are built out of a timber frame structure of CLT, Cross Laminated Timber, and fully isolated with a layer of rock wool insulation. In a Skilpod all techniques can be integrated that are used in a traditional house or office. Application of solar panels, heat pumps, ventilation systems, home automation systems etc. is possible, tailored to the user requirements.
In this project a solitary sixties bungalow with a gentle sloped roof was refurbished and extended.
A new clear plan was distilled from the existing, with a maximum relation with the garden.
The existing rooms on the northern facade of the bungalow were adjusted in order to form a functional strip, serving as entrance hall, bathroom, storage rooms and a private office space. The living spaces were aligned in an open space along the southern facade, benefiting from large windows that give acces to morning and afternoon terraces and the garden. Two furniture elements divide the open space: a fireplace and a kitchen cabinet.
Tags: Belgium, Sint-Denijs-Westrem Comments Off on Bunga Low – low energy refurbishment of a sixties bungalow in Sint-Denijs-Westrem, Belgium by urbain architectencollectief
Atelier Kempe Thill has recently won the European competition for the new faculty building of business economics of the University of Hasselt in Belgium. The faculty building will have a size of approx. 12.000 m2 and will be built on the new city campus of the University close to the medieval city centre of Hasselt in Limburg, Belgium. The new building will contain a series of flexible lecture halls and offices spaces organized around a big atrium that will function as a social condenser for the 1500 students and employees of the faculty. Next to that the building will contain a 500-seat auditorium, and a pubic restaurant that will function as a hub for the entire city campus. According to the planning the building will be opened in 2019.
The land is situated close to a small village in the East Cantons. It runs at a steep gradient into a small valley enclosed by a wooded slope in the distance. The view is spectacular, showcasing a rural landscape. The visual and ecological quality of the site must be preserved and developed as far as possible.
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