One from three
Campus Cadix in Antwerp by Korteknie Stuhlmacher
Campus Cadix, © Karin Borghouts
An historically protected school from 1927, three adjacent dockside hangars from the late 1930s and a new building come together to form Campus Cadix in the heart of Antwerp’s Eilandje district.
© Luuk Kramer
In order to future-proof the nearly 100-year-old school building for training in the arts and technical crafts, Korteknie Stuhlmacher Architecten have joined these buildings, with all their various typologies and appearances, to create a single harmonious whole. They have connected the most important communal interior and exterior spaces to form a path that runs like a ribbon from the listed existing structure in the west to the new building in the east.
The existing structure
The oldest part of the campus is the school building from 1927, whose eclectic facing brickwork edifices represent diverse roof shapes, numbers of storeys and facade compositions. These buildings are grouped, rather like a monastery, around three inner courtyards. The planners have set two lightweight wood constructions into the two outermost courtyards; their jutting, accessible roofs – a reference to the original pergolas of the existing building – form a fluid transition between inside and outside.
© Karin Borghouts
In the northern courtyard, the new structure functions as an entrance area. A passageway leads over to the neighbouring hangars, which feature iconic Polonceau trusses. The four hangars, which are connected parallel to each other, were originally used as a recruitment centre for dock workers. The southernmost of the four hangars has remained unchanged. Korteknie Stuhlmacher have removed the roof of the middle hangar over a large area in order to create a further inner courtyard. To the right and left of this, they have accommodated the gym and a printing shop. All three hangars have large double doors that open onto the street to the east.
© Karin Borghouts
© Luuk Kramer
The new building
On the opposite side, the six-storey new building has seven gable-ended saddle roofs that echo the roof shape of the hangars. With large windows and facing work of yellow and white bricks punctuated with chequerboard glazing, it resembles a factory building. The open, flexibly designed spatial concept on the ground floor allows the workshops for processing wood and metal to extend over two upper levels.
© Maurice Tjon A Tham
The classrooms are located on the mezzanine and on the two levels above the workshops. Beneath the roof, two-storey workshops offer aspiring artisans an inspiring view of the roofscape right up to the edge of the water at the old dock.
Read more in Detail 6.2023 and in our databank Detail Inspiration.
Architecture: Korteknie Stahlmacher Architecten
Client: AG Real Estate, DBFM Schoolen Van Morgen
Location: Kempischdok – Westkaai, Antwerpen (BE)
Structural engineering: ABT, H4D Raadgevend ingenieurs
Renovation consulting: Callebaut Architecten
Landscape planning: Atelier Arne Deruyter
Gallery
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