Atelier Kempe Thill . photos: © Ulrich Schwarz . + baunetz
In 2011 Atelier Kempe Thill won the European tender for the transformation of two, almost decayed, modernist apartment blocks in the district Rozemaai, Antwerp. The transformation project of the two housing slabs from the 1970s has now been completed.
In order to tackle the various urban, architectural, social and technical problems that played out on the site, Atelier Kempe Thill decided to transform the two buildings in a fairly radical way. All facades, staircases and the complete interior of the two building have been demolished. The remaining concrete construction has been insulated and new stairwells, lifts and facades have been added. To give
the dwellings more quality the apartments were supplied with a full glass façade in combination with new big balconies facing the landscape park “de Oude Landen”. In the end the project has become an “extreme makeover” of brutalist architecture, almost all historical elements have been demolished or covered for various reasons, and an almost new architecture was created from an existing one. The result is a very welcome contribution to the debate about the relationship between sustainability and economy.
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