Renovation of a Housing Complex in Antwerp
- Jakob Schoof
Access balconies and solid, sculptural stair towers along one side and an exposed concrete facade with a grid pattern along the other side - this is the kind of architecture, seven to eight storeys tall and created in the 1970s and early 1980s that used to and continues to characterize the Rozemaai quarter in Antwerp's north. Two buildings of this kind can hardly be recognized anymore after Atelier Kempe Thill and RE-ST Architecten renovated them. Glass railings that envelope all sides, also the flat roof in the form of a transparent parapet, converge along the edges, forming a continuous hull that makes the solidity and asymmetry of the original buildings a thing of the past. By removing the staircase towers along the western facade and including a new layer of balconies along the longitudinal eastern facade, the architects connected the altogether 107 subsidized apartments to the exterior in a much stronger way than before. A closer look at the details reveals the difference between the front and the back of the building: The access balconies are supported by the existing cantilever beams and merely received a layer of concrete to cover them and make them wheelchair accessible. The balcony strips along the eastern facade are supported by angled concrete shear walls that divide it into individual, 8 metres long segments. The facade design also reflects the difference between the building's public and private sides, indicated by its conventional window openings along the access balconies and full glazing facing the balconies on the eastern facade. The concrete facades were insulated and clad in bronze anodised corrugated sheet aluminium.
