Positioned on the side and certainly not willing to interfere in Rubens’ famous lines of sight, the new reception building for the Rubenshuis - the house, studio and garden of artist Peter Paul Rubens - is a discrete extension to this historical site. Besides the reception function, it also contains a multimedia experience centre, a museum café, a reading room and the library collection of the Rubenianum, known as the world’s most extensive... Read more

In a working class neigbourhood of Ghent, against the backdrop of nearby blocks of high-rise flats, Robbrecht en Daem converted an existing timber yard into new architectural studios. The roof of the shed, built by the wood construction company De Coene in the early seventies, was partially dismantled. What used to be the work floor has become an outdoor space that accommodates an arboretum fringed with wild grasses, a swimming pool, bicycle... Read more

Stokerij - the Dutch word for ‘distillery’ - Ateliers and Housing are part of the new urban development of the Dijledelta in Leuven. The Ateliers are located on the site of the former Stella Artois brewery, while the residential area is situated in between the former brewery and an old water tower.The original building of the brewery was a robust brick ruin refined with industrial art-deco details. The design for the renovation and re-... Read more

In order to arrive at a thoughtful strategy that proves itself to be sustainable and intelligent in the long term, a master plan vision for the entire building block was first developed. The proposition of a new wing offers the opportunity to better organise the entire site, to relieve pressure from the interior block and to complement old and new in a targeted way. The ambition was therefore to increase the quality of the 'building as a whole'... Read more

For the redevelopment of the Boerentoren in Antwerp, the central question was how this tower - which previously served mainly as an office building - could optimally exude culture in the future and house the patrimony of The Phoebus Foundation. Robbrecht en Daem's design was built around the democratic idea of making art as accessible as possible. To make art and 'life' coexist.Encounters with art are far from obvious. On the completely open and... Read more

Situated at the head of Spoor Noord, the hospital is a hinge between the park, the docks and the city, and thus benefits from each of their qualities. The limited surface area of the site requires the hospital to be organised vertically. The hospital structure has a clearly discernible layered construction. All outpatient activities with consultation rooms, centres of knowledge and medical technical services are in the lowest section. The various... Read more

This corner building houses an exhibition and event space for Katoen Natie, combined with residential units above. The project is situated adjacent to the company headquarters. The headquarters - which consists of several former port warehouses - was previously renovated by Robbrecht en Daem architecten. The new project visually relates to it as a sort of continuation of the earlier work. The choice of a concrete façade and an aligned cornice... Read more

The project involves the redevelopment of an inner-city block in the centre of Ghent to provide ninety residential units, some new-build and others partially housed in the protected monuments of the former Royal Academy of Fine Arts and fire station. These existing buildings flank a new semi-public interior street that serves as the backbone for the redevelopment of the entire block. The interior walkway connects with two new apartment buildings... Read more

On the banks of the channel running through Brussels, this layered project combines a gymnasium, 16m high indoor & outdoor climbing facilities , a multipurpose sports hall and padel fields on top. The aim of the design is to inscribe itself in the specific context and thus increase the cohesion of the canal area, strengthen its identity and give extra quality to the public and open spaces. A public balcony, a kiosk, a viewpoint and cafétaria... Read more

Robbrecht en Daem architecten, together with Osar architects, has won the design competition for the Jessa Hospital in Hasselt, Belgium. The design is driven by a renewed search for the human scale of the hospital. In this search a contradictory question arises: how can a hospital with an immense surface area (135,000 m2) achieve the necessary small scale and humanity through its architecture? The response is not to put 'the patient' at its... Read more

Located between the many historical warehouses in the ‘Natiebuurt’ and around the corner from their headquarters, Robbrecht en Daem architecten designed this new residential building for Katoen Natie. On the one hand, the design refers to the surrounding 'warehouse architecture', but it also wants to retain the smaller grain and vertical articulation of the existing terraced houses. The staggered cornice emphasises this verticality and... Read more

‘No space, architecturally, is a space unless it has natural light.’ - Louis Kahn On a site on the Garenmarkt, next to the Groeningemuseum, a new exhibition hall will be erected by the end of 2024 that will house two museum spaces and opens out onto a new park. The exhibition areas will be constructed at a raised level and will be separated from each other by a public passageway (Scala Grande), so that an open, transparent and freely... Read more

Clad in a crystalline skin of structured glass and brass-coloured anodized aluminium frames, this park building is embedded in the variable topography of its site, with each side responding to a different context. Whereas the long facade addresses the longitude of the park and the frontality of the ‘Ereperk der Gefusilleerden’, a military cemetery for both World Wars, the northern volume anchors the building in the urban fabric... Read more

The new Cera building positions itself carefully within the medieval core of Leuven, opposite the side entrance of the historic town hall and close to the Grote Markt. It constitutes the true ‘heart of the city’. Originally the site consisted of a complex conglomerate of buildings with the Hôtel d'Eynatten from 1760, a neo-Gothic wing from 1917 and a corner building in sober reconstruction architecture from 1948. In order to free up space in... Read more

With the Bozar Café, Robbrecht en Daem architecten aimed to create a world in all modesty, a kind of microcosm or universe. To give the visitor an experience. A returning aspect in the interiors of the café, the book shop and the box office are the 'circles' - like the form of chandeliers and mirrors - that generate a 'kind of planetarium with sunsets and sunrises'. The choice of materials, such as the dark green granite and leather benches,... Read more

The foldable ‘Ta Tisch Table’ was originally designed for the architects’ travelling exhibition Pacing through Architecture (2012). Made for laying out the drawings, sketches and photographs of their projects, these pieces were constructed in birch plywood measuring 112cm by 303cm, resting on two elegant legs in the same material, which can be folded flat on hinges under the desk. The furniture touches the floor on two linear surfaces; the... Read more

The Halles aux Farines, situated on the right bank of the Garonne, was built along with the construction of the first railway lines and is centrally situated amidst a network of tracks. The former warehouse has been transformed into the municipal archives of Bordeaux, and forms the first link with the future eco-district of Bastide-Niel. The industrial history of the site acquires a new interpretation: the storerooms, where the archive boxes are... Read more

The volume for the State Archives, located in the city center, is meticulously matched to the scale of the surrounding buildings. The sturdy corner building respects the pattern of the street onto which it fronts, while the long horizontal volume behind adheres to the cornice height of the surrounding streets and alleys. At the end of the horizontal wing, the facade is set back from the plot boundary. This makes space available for a small public... Read more

Mobile radio studio that was designed for the radio programme Pompidou and set up in various places in Brussels during the Klara Festival of 2014. The studio consists of four triptychs, a table and a projection standard. Due to the flexibility of the screens, the intimacy of the space and the program is determined. The design is supposed to stimulate a conversation that happens between a few people but can be heard by thousands who do not know... Read more

In the redevelopment of the city centre, the restored relationship with the River Lys forms the starting point. The presence of the Lys generates an enormous quality for the city: the watercourse is the bearer of urban identity. The course of the river defines the structure of the city centre. Contact with the Lys is made possible by the construction of a mooring quay, a promenade and a square in front of the Church, located on the bend of the... Read more

On top of a polished concrete base raised slightly off the ground, a light, gleaming, green-painted steel construction unfolds to form a shelter to protect delicate works of art. The diagonal lines of passage through this new pavilion interweave Middelheim Park with the Hortifloria Garden, a recent extension of this well-known Antwerp sculpture park. Four vertical recesses provide the entrances to the pavilion, divide the space into four and... Read more

The Zwin plain is a border-crossing natural reserve located at the North Sea Coast. Robbrecht en Daem architecten were invited for an Open Competition to provide this natural reserve with new visitors’ facilities. The proposed visitor center comprised of a ticket office, museum shop, auditorium, restaurant, exhibition pavilion and observation pavilions, alongside viewing platforms, vehicle parking and a farm for the maintenance of the estate... Read more

Making a Masterplan for the City Zoo of Antwerp. This included a multitude of housing for animals, a central children’s pavilion, visitors facilities, an office building, an entrance square, a restaurant and a shop.... Read more

The High Views are two observation towers along a cycling route between Lincoln and Boston, 60 km apart. They mark a place to rest on the banks of the River Witham where one can look out over a landscape that is very varied in its use. The design of the towers is in part based on the churches of the two towns. The meandering vault of Lincoln Cathedral inspired the observation tower in Boston. The stubby parish church of Boston gave rise to the... Read more

The Antwerp City Archives are housed in the 20.000 m2 Sint-Felix Warehouse, an icon of historical harbour architecture in Antwerp. The project involved the construction of concrete containers on the upper six storeys, for the conservation of documents from the city’s archives. On the top floor, a new oak roof structure accommodates reading and study rooms around three large, well-lit light wells. Access from the city is via a semi-public... Read more

Rubens Square is a triangular square with a large opening towards the sea. Two long benches oriented parallel to the water are bordered by a wall of tempered glass which acts as protection from the wind. It is a particularly social place where elderly people often watch children play. The square’s tiles have a mosaic-like pattern with maritime tones that refer to the nearby sea. Blues, grey-greens and whites are interwoven like an abstract... Read more

The ‘Ligeti bench’, which was designed for the foyers of the Concert Hall in Bruges (1999– 2002), ranks as one of the most empathically coloured designs of Robbrecht en Daem. This piece derived from the idea of introducing lightness as a contrast to the rigid concrete interiors of the building. A low, deep bench was designed and painted in stripes, with a colour composition inspired by the precisely conceived Farbenklavier of Le Corbusier.... Read more

On ‘t Zand, an open urban space near the station in Bruges, Robbrecht and Daem built a concert hall for Bruges when it was the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2002. Alongside the Halletoren, the Church of Our Lady and St Salvator’s Cathedral, this ‘Concertgebouw’ has become a landmark when driving into the city. A uniform external cladding in terracotta tiles hangs like dignified drapery over the volumes of the concert hall, fly tower and... Read more

An extraordinary play of light is to be found in two of the former harbour warehouses that accommodate the Ka­toennatie in Antwerp. In one of them, domes in alabaster and leaded glass function as new skylights – designed by the Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias – and on top of the other is a roof of wooden slats through which sunlight slips in many layers. A new four-storey building connects the former warehouses. The ensemble of old and new... Read more

BAC Bank in Kerksken is a local bank branch and is one of the very first projects of Robbrecht and Daem architecten. The building stands on a plot that is grafted diagonally to the street and had to be bordered on one side by a blind facade. The complex geometry of this plot was therefore the basis of the design for the layered facade and the play of perspectives that it creates. With a bus stop on the doorstep, the facade projection gained... Read more