Atelier Kempe Thill architects and planners . photos: © Ulrich Schwarz . © Vestio -aereal-
In 2015, the planning team consisting of Abscis architecten, the UAU collectif, LAND landschapsarchitecten, and Atelier Kempe Thill architects and planners, in cooperation with the local property developers Kolmont and Vestio, won a competition by invitation for the development of the Herkenrode barracks in Hasselt, the capital city of the province of Limburg in the east of Flanders. The design team proposed a substantial conversion and retroactive densification of the block in the city center that adheres to the historical model of the medieval city, but also supplements it with new spatial, social, and ecological qualities.
Transformation of the Herkenrode Barracks
What was proposed was rededicating the former drill grounds for the infantry soldiers in the middle of the block as a calm, green oasis in the city center. To link the new park with the public urban space as optimally as possible, three new passageways were thus integrated into the existing block and orient the block perimeter development more intensively toward the greened courtyard space. The existing refugium of the “Sisters of Herkenrode Abbey” from the Renaissance (1544) as well as several monumental barracks buildings from the late nineteenth century are therefore embedded quite carefully in the new park concept and have been converted in part into residential buildings. One section of the northern block perimeter development from the twentieth century was demolished due to building damage and replaced with contemporary residential buildings, under which there is a two-story underground garage for the necessary parking spaces. With its cubic volume and its light brick façades, the new architecture is oriented toward the surrounding development and opens up to the green interior of the block with its spacious balconies and inserted entrance halls. These buildings were designed by Abscis and the UAU collectif.
High-Rise Building inside the Block
To add to the supply of housing required in a strategic manner and achieve a sensible utilization of the plot of land, the realization of a nine-story residential building in the green interior of the block was also proposed. This raised the question of the form that this architecture, which is untypical for the existing historical context in Europe, should take? Atelier Kempe Thill thus proposed a winter garden building that is quite transparent toward all sides. On the one hand, this strives for a matter-of-fact-seeming contrast to the stone and rather heavy brick architecture of the block perimeters in order to emphasize the break with history and underscore the spatial distinctiveness of the park. On the other, an attempt was made to design the building in a rather reserved manner so that it does not dominate the overall situation and the ensemble effect of the block is emphasized. At the same time, attempts were made to relativize the large and tall building mass by means of an open and very airy design and to generate a certain lightness by means of the rather informal character of the façades. The architecture thus makes maximum reference to the green park landscape, the existing historical façades, and the impressive panorama of the city center of Hasselt with its emphasized horizontal, modernistic structure and the strongly cantilevered open building corners. Beneath the residential building, there is also a two-story underground garage. Consequently, there was no need to construct a cellar under a large portion of the park, which means that the newly planted trees have sufficient space to be able to develop well.
Flexible Layout
The new park villa was conceived as a very compact typology on a ground area of 19-by-33 meters. The building is accessed by means of two elevators and only one interior staircase. The second escape route takes place via the façade. The façade and the core are the load-bearing elements of the building. Within the layout, no additional walls were necessary from a construction perspective; just eight supplementary columns are required, partially combined with the shafts for cables and pipes. Around the isolated volumes, a circumferential zone of winter gardens was designed. These balconies are respectively 2.7 meters deep on the east and west sides, while they are respectively 1.7 meters deep on the north and south sides. This general basic structure—as in the case of a classic office building—offers a very flexible basis for the development of the layouts, whereby the architecture of the building can be detached from the design of the layouts almost entirely. During the construction, a building permit was issued for the freely-programmable building and the selling of the apartments, which can in part be adapted quite personally to the needs of the future residents, also took place. What has thus been created is a mixture of fifty individually designed apartments with a size of 47 to 190 square meters, which, like an economic diagram, directly depicts the financial means of the residents and also ensures a certain social mixture within the project.
Urban Architecture with Suburban Qualities
The residential quality generated by the project is ambivalent. On the one hand, the building is situated in a very densely developed and intensively used location in the city center and the architecture and the apartments themselves have a rather urban and collective character. On the other hand, as a result of the protective flanking construction, the immediate surroundings of the building are free of cars, green, very clean, surprisingly calm, and thus seem suburban. To make optimal use of these qualities for the apartments, a vertical zoning of the project was striven for. On the first two stories, duplex units are offered in order to make it unnecessary to position bedrooms on the ground floor. To guarantee sufficient privacy and comfort for the living spaces on the ground floor as well, the building was raised roughly 0.5 meters above the actually level of the park and the living rooms given protruding, double-height winter gardens and a circumferential, raised plant zone that is part of the park architecture.
Starting on the second floor, one-story apartments are offered. The interior façades are glazed as generously as possible and equipped with large sliding elements. The windows provide a horizontal panorama of the surroundings and facilitate a reference to the protruding winter gardens that is as flowing as possible. The apartments on the lower floors are thus oriented more toward the park and the block perimeter development, while starting on the fifth floor, the apartments enjoy a panorama over the roof landscape of Hasselt. Two very individual penthouses were realized on the roof of the building. They are conceived as “rooftop villas,” and each one has a rooftop terrace of roughly 175 square meters.
Economy, Permanence, and Sustainability
The project strives for an as self-evident as possible combination of ambitions that are frequently perceived as contradictory—economy, comfort, sustainability, flexibility, and permanence. As a result of its great compactness with a limited façade surface and the very efficient central passage access, the building is both very economical and also nearly optimal in terms of energy efficiency. The project also makes a vital contribution to the necessary ecological retroactive densification of urban centers. The winter gardens contribute significantly to creating a very relaxed living atmosphere and considerably improve the residents’ quality of life. At the same time, they serve as fixed protection against the sun in the summer and as an energy buffer zone in the winter period. The building is accessed via a spacious, double-height hall on the western side. With its exposed concrete, polished concrete floor, and a freestanding oakwood wall, it celebrates the collectivity of housing and underscores the urbanistic grandeur of the project. The basic structure of the building was realized with a combination of in-site concrete and prefabricated elements. With its great flexibility and future-oriented convertibility, this structural basis strives for a very long lifespan and was thus designed in a particularly robust and resilient manner. The interior construction was executed with flexible lime sandstone elements and lightweight construction. The façades, indoor floors, and terrace floors were realized with various types of wood, thus giving the apartments a rather suburban and warm atmosphere. The windows and sliding elements of the winter gardens are made of aluminum or steel and are up to 5.70 meters high on the ground floor. From the perspective of the architects, the building is a nearly perfect balancing act in line with Leon Battista Alberti, since it attempts to achieve architectural sustainability particularly by means of the structure’s openness to various uses, a sensible compactness, the robustness of the materials selected, and the beauty of the spaces.
Prototype and Ensemble
For Atelier Kempe Thill, the project is on the one hand a new prototype that takes inspiration in particular from experiences with the social-housing projects Hiphouse Zwolle and Montmartre Paris. What has been created here as a result of the strategic merging of urban and suburban qualities is an affordable, ideal model for urban housing beyond the notion of a social subsistence level. With its large winter gardens, flowing relationship between inside and outside, loft-like layouts, and very high-quality materialization, the project can be regarded as a real alternative to the prevailing Flemish model of residing in single-family houses. On the other hand, the project is the very specific result of the aforementioned complex strategy for converting the historical block. Due to its quite calculated spatial effect, what arises is a symbiotic relationship to the stone block perimeter development, the servicing underground garage, and the contemplative park, and the new building thus becomes part of a quite fascinating urban ensemble for Hasselt, whose culmination it forms.
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REFUGA WINTERGARDEN TOWER
HERKENRODE KAZERNE
HASSELT BELGIUM
Facts urban plan:
program urban plan: Several residential buildings and two- storey parking garage
urban design +architects: Abscis Architecten (Ghent)
Atelier Kempe Thill (Rotterdam)
UAU Collectiv (Hasselt)
coordination execution urban plan: Abscis Architecten (Ghent)
landscape architect: LAND landschapsarchitecten
urban plan traffic: Mint NV
program: 15.000m2 building
5.000m2 park
141 housing units
207 parking lots underground garage
Facts Wintergarden tower:
program: 50 apartments
address: Mechtildis de Lechyplein 1
architects: Atelier Kempe Thill architects and planners
design parking garage:
Abscis Architecten
client: Herkenrode Construct NV
Kolmont
Vestio
Process:
Invited competition: september – december 2015
start commission: march 2016
start execution: november 2018
date delivery: november 2022
Building:
site area: 8.470 m2
building footprint: 632 m2 insulated surface
886 m2 insulated surface incl. wintergarden
1127 m2 insolated surface incl. wintergarden, entrance square and planters
building size: 5410 m2 insulated gross floor area
7509 m2 insulated gross floor area incl. wintergarden
360 m2 roof terrace penthouse
building volume: 23.500 m3 gross volume
17.115m3 insulated volume (±70%)
6.210m3 wintergarden (±30%)
building budget: € 9.615.249
(incl. technical installations excl. vat)
budget /m2 insulated surface € 1.779 /m2
surface incl. wintergardens € 1.343 /m2
budget /m3 insulated volume € 560 /m3
insulated volume incl. wintergarden € 410 /m3
Design team project:
Team competition: Atelier Kempe Thill architects and planners, Rotterdam NL
André Kempe, Oliver Thill, David van Eck with Nick Mols
Team project: Atelier Kempe Thill architects and planners, Rotterdam NL
André Kempe, Oliver Thill, Jan Gerrit Wessels with
Rick Hospes
Kento Tanabe
Eldrich Piqué
Marc van Bemmel
Reinier Suurenbroek
structural engineer: VK architects & engineers, Merelbeke BE
building services engineer: VK architects & engineers, Merelbeke BE
Building contractor:
general contractor: THV Strabag – Dethier
N.V. STRABAG Belgium S.A.
Bouwbedrijf Dethier
Subcontractors:
prefab concrete elements facade: Verheijen beton, architectural prefab concrete
wintergarden façade duplex housing: Glass Ceyssens
wintergarden façade 2 – 7th floor: Solarlux Nederland
glass privacy screens between balconies: Schiffeleers Glas
entrance hall façade: KMW – stalen schrijnwerk
insulating glass façade: Schiffeleers Glas
wooden façade: Houthandel Lavrijssen
glass façade penthouses: Schiffeleers Glas
steel balustrades: Smeets laswerken
polished concrete floor: Jos Eerdekens Betonvloeren
rooflight: Schiffeleers Glas
Building systems:
wintergarden façade duplex housing: Keller minimal windows
wintergarden façade 2 – 7th floor: Solarlux SL23
insulating glass façade: Schuco ASE 60
glass balustrades: Smeets laswerken
glass façade penthouses: Schuco ASE 60 – panorama windows
Building materials:
wooden façade: OAK wooden plank façade
prefab concrete: Architectural concrete, acidified surface, color RAL 7044
Interior elements:
concrete floor entrance hall: Jos Eerdekens
wooden wall entrance hall: L&P interieurproductie
postboxes: L&P interieurproductie
steel doors interior: KMW
elevator: Schindler
(cabine interior – L&P interieurproductie)
wooden apartment doors: Stevens houttechniek
curtains balcony: KIMIK en DePloeg
lighting: BEGA en Zumtobel
Renderings Nanopixel3D
airphoto / Vestio
copyright:
photographer/
copyright: Architektur-Fotografie Ulrich Schwarz
Ulrich Schwarz
De site Herkenrode is gelegen in het centrum van de stad Hasselt. Het voormalig militair domein werd een tijd ingericht als zone voor overheidsfuncties van de Federale Overheid. De stad Hasselt verkocht de site via een verkoopprocedure om een globale herbestemming te bekomen in het kader van de binnenstedelijke ontwikkeling van Hasselt. Gezien de schaal van het project, werd door de opdrachtgever geopteerd om verschillende architectuurbureaus aan te stellen. Zo namen Abscis Architecten, Atelier Kempe Thill, UAU Collectiv, LAND landschapsarchitecten elk een evenredig deel voor hun rekening. Om de eenheid van het project te bewaren en de samenwerking gestructureerd te laten verlopen, nam Abscis Architecten bijkomend de coördinerende rol op zich. Binnen het stedenbouwkundig ontwerp werd een duurzaam woonproject ontwikkeld waarbij woningen voor diverse doelgroepen in de Hasseltse binnenstad werden gecombineerd. Een verdichting van het stedenbouwkundig weefsel die meer ademruimte en collectief groen toelaat in het stadscentrum. Gaandeweg werd door U-Hasselt beslist om het ontwerpvoorstel voor de witte Kazerne (UAU Collectiv) en het Poortgebouw (Abscis Architecten) bij het project te betrekken, om zo het totaalbeeld van de gehele site te behouden. Een fantastisch historisch monument, dat op die manier een gepaste invulling kreeg. De volledige site is omgevormd tot een informele ontmoetingsplaats. Zowel voor de bewoner, de student, de professor/docent, als de bezoeker van de stad. Wat voorheen een afgesloten bouwblok was, is nu doorwaadbaar, bereikbaar en bruikbaar. De verschillende zachte routes die reeds aanwezig waren in het stedelijk weefsel van stad Hasselt zijn doorgetrokken doorheen de site. Hierdoor is een subtiele opdeling van het grote stedenbouwkundige bouwblok ontstaan waardoor deze meer aangepast is aan de schaal van de Hasseltse binnenstad. Aan de oostelijke zijde van het binnengebied situeert zich het meer verharde en publieke gedeelte waar de gebouwen van U-Hasselt aan gekoppeld zijn. Dit publiek plein gaat over in het groenere en meer private gedeelte met uiteindelijk, in het westelijk gedeelte van de site, een volledig private buitenruimte. Om het terrein volledig autovrij te kunnen houden, werd onder de gebouwen A, B, C en E een parking (Abscis Architecten) gerealiseerd en werd er een ondergrondse verbinding gemaakt met de verderop gelegen Parking Dusart. Door deze ingreep zijn er geen bijkomende verkeersbewegingen binnen de groene gordel van Hasselt en wordt het stadscentrum ontlast van extra verkeersbewegingen. Fietsers hebben een eigen rechtstreekse toegang tot niveau -1 van de parkeergarage door middel van een fiets- en goederenlift. Zo blijft het langzaam verkeer optimaal gescheiden van het autoverkeer. De randbebouwing, gebouw A (Abscis Architecten) en B (UAU Collectiv) vervangt de bestaande bebouwing langs de Meldertstraat. De volumes sluiten aan op het bestaande stedelijk weefsel, en vervolledigen het stedelijk bouwblok van de Herkenrode site. Door de doordachte keuzes op vlak van materialisatie en korrelgrootte wordt de historische continuïteit doorgetrokken maar realiseren we toch een hedendaagse architectuur met eigentijdse woonkwaliteit. Een centraal volume, gebouw C (Atelier Kempe Thill), functioneert als ordenend element in de vorm van een urban villa. Het definieert de schaal van het groene binnenstedelijke plein en begeleidt de verbinding tussen de verschillende doorsteken en het plein. Tot slot werd een zeer groen, verbindend en autovrij binnenplein (LAND landschapsarchitecten) gecreëerd als een veilige speelomgeving voor kinderen van de omliggende woningen en een rustige oase waar bewoners, bezoekers en passanten kunnen ontspannen.
