The Kielsevest street borders the dens 19th Century extension of the city. The plot is caught in between this street and the inner ring road around Antwerp city. The urban vision of the governing instances for this zone considers a chain of clearly defined buildings embedded in a green public park. The new building defines a clear footprint and hereby enables new urban spaces around it. Respecting the existing urban structure, the new building keeps at a certain distance from it, but also introduces a new scale by being a head building of the following new developments.
We aim to create a flexible urban block, which at first will accommodate the new fire station combined with offices and a grand café, but on the long run could easily be transformed into housing. The fire station is located on the lower levels, together with the grand café that opens up towards the new public park. The higher levels consist of offices, arranged in flexible floorplans. The central patio provides the firefighters with an indispensable outside space for their trucks to be deployed and tested. On the higher levels, the central patio is surrounded by a covered outside walkabout which plays an important role in the circulation trough the building as well as providing social interaction between the firefighters and the offices.
The urban volume contains all functions within one framework. This framework is also reflected in the rational grid in which the structure of the building is planned. On the street level this results in an intense interaction with the public space. On the higher levels the solid building block is provided with air and light by the introduction of a central patio. At two carefully picked spots it was deemed favourable to rise above the existing urban tissue.
The rationality of the grid structure continues within the facades of the building. This solidity makes a flexible use possible. Therefor different window configurations in correspondence to a future change of program, grant a wider flexibility. On two sides at the south-east of the higher volumes, the façade is left open. Here, terraces provide each office space with outside space as well as a natural solar cover.
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