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

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

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

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 open landscape of the IJzerbroeken, which surrounds the site of the Knokkebrug, inspires passers-by to dream of a higher outlook from which to view the area. The realisation of a watchtower on this spot is an excellent opportunity to expose the strength of the site. The Friendly Tower is a strong, autonomous, pentagonal figure that provides insight from a height into the historical, geometric figures of the environment, to which the... Read more

On a picturesque site at the edge of Anderlecht, Robbrecht en Daem architecten will build a new house for the Steiner School Brussels. The design proposes three new volumes built in light wood structure and designed in close harmony with each other. The two longitudinal volumes shelter the classrooms and the third volume welcomes a sports and singing hall. The outside gallery aims to establish connections and sharing between all the classrooms.... 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

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

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

In the new clubhouse for the Winge Golf and Country Club, the relationship between inside and outside is crucial, as is the merging of the functional and the scenic. The white building envelops the entire environment, like a warm white blanket over the gently sloping terrain. Two separate building volumes are connected by a continuously sloping concrete roof, accommodating all practical functions such as tee-off and practice rooms on the one hand... Read more

‘Route N16 – Public Places for Private Experience’ is an exhibition and a pragmatic study that explores the limits and potentialities of public space along the N16. The regional N16 road crosses what we can safely call the heart of the Flemish urban sprawl. Four communes, Bornem, Puurs, Willebroek and Mechelen, all located in the province of Antwerp, are connected by the N16. This road winds through an area that is almost exemplary for... 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

Ann Demeulemeester’s flagship store is in a corner building on Leopold De Waelplaats in Antwerp – the square to which the fashion designer contributed with a circular bench. The building is part of a prestigious row of houses and looks like an upper-middle-class house, but was designed and is used as a workshop. During the redesign, the ground floor was cleared, although the workplace character was preserved: the rough wooden floors, the iron... Read more

Following two demolition campaigns for a world exhibition in 1913 and an administrative centre never built in the 60s, Ghent’s historic heart degenerated for decades into a desolate parking lot in between a suite of three adjoining Gothic towers. In two consecutive competitions between 1996 and 2005, Robbrecht en Daem architecten and Marie-José Van Hee architects proposed their own programme, countering the initial competition requirement.... 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

The storehouse for wine barrels, the ‘Chai à barriques’, is entirely underground and is the heart of the building. This reduces the overall height of the building, which keeps its impact on the surroundings to a minimum. Wine production is carried on in the ‘Cuvier‘ on the ground floor, a functional area spanned by a vault of inclined roof planes. Light enters through windows at the corners. A separate tower houses a reception area... 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

The Greenwich café is an iconic Grand Café in the centre of Brussels. Following discussions with the Royal Commission of Monuments and Landscapes of the District of Brussels, a Building Permit was obtained for the restoration of this listed building which was placed on the List of Buildings of Remarkable Architectural Heritage in 2000.The ground floor façade, the stained glass cupola above the Winter Garden, and the remarkable interiors of the... Read more

Two new projection halls for the internationally acclaimed Royal Belgian Film Archives have been installed into the excavated volume under Victor Horta’s Centre for Fine Arts. This intervention has made it possible for the ‘Salles des Arts Décoratifs’ to be restored, as defined in the master plan for the restoration of the building. Cinematek’s prominent collection of historical film apparatus is displayed in a Wunderkammer, a free... 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

Refurbishment of the entrance hall and auditorium in the Royal Museum for Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA). This included the reception desk, benches, signalisation in the entrance hall, lectern, speaker’s desk and the separation wall in the auditorium.... 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

This garden house with swimming pool is a two-storey wooden structure with an irregular floor plan. The load-bear­ing wooden beams form a pattern of adjoining triangles. A sculptural hearth element runs up through the volume as a solid supporting pillar. On the ground floor there are changing rooms, a sauna and a hammam, and upstairs a flat with kitchen. The roof is fitted out as a terrace amidst the treetops.... Read more

A dairy at the foot of the historical castle of Gaasbeek has been converted into accommodation for musicians, with a chamber music hall. The late nineteenth-century front building was transformed into the accommodation; the hall replaces the original small factory shed but adheres to its original outline. The volume is dug deep into a slope into which an open ramp has been cut which then bends over the hall and climbs upwards like a ziggurat and... Read more

The dovecote in the forestry area in Dorst stands in a clearing in the wood, next to a stream in which it is reflected. The way the stones are stacked leaves edges and angles on which the birds can sit. There are occasional gaps too, where a stone has been left out so that the birds can get inside to sit on bars. The dovecote is built in blocks of Pietra di Vicenza, a calcareous sandstone from Italy.... 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

A complex but recognisable setting is composed of a church, a vicarage, a glebe, a brick silo, a brewery, and above all a set of large trees. In short, an idyllic and typical Flemish landscape that somehow predates the Second World War neither touched nor spoiled. In all its aristocratic allure, the 18th-century vicarage exudes a forgotten past that poses a real challenge to all things new. The humble garden walls form a dominant role in the... Read more

A wooden walkway, which descends from a platform to the small valley behind a villa in southern Flanders, leads to the Woodland Cabin, a distant relative of the igloo and the small buildings one comes across in the mountains everywhere in the world. On a platform next to a pond, wooden blocks have been stacked to form a two-lobed space that is closed off with a glass wall and door. Beams that fan out support a green roof from which emerges the... 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

The nineteenth-century, rather dark mansion with a narrow, long city garden in the center was transformed into a contemporary light-filled residence with a pharmacy. Above the renovated pharmacy and between the volumes of the main building, a patio gives a view of the tower of the 18th-century baroque church through wall-high windows, while a skylight brings daylight into the pharmacy workspace. The patio is like a heart between the various... Read more

The garden pavilion in Vosselare was the first in a series of small architectural objects. In the studio of Robbrecht en Daem, these small structures give rise to a reflection on their position as architects and the status of architecture as such. In connection with this project, Juan Muñoz wrote ‘Estimado Amigo’.... Read more

In the Canal Houses apartment building – designed by Robbrecht and Daem architecten – a three-story penthouse apartment was also furnished by the architects. The sober and warm design is achieved through the textures and colors of the materials. A striking feature is the floor in light gray Piedmont Serena, which is a neutral base for the installation of artworks. An oak staircase connects the two other levels where the floor is also in oak... Read more

In 1992, on the occasion of the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Robbrecht en Daem architecten collaborated with Juan Muñoz to create a pavilion titled the House Where It Always Rains. Pavilions are structures where art and architecture come together in the heady pursuit of pure experimentation. Somewhere between a folly and a model, the pavilion is an actual space, constructed so it can be occupied and looked at; but it has no apparent purpose.... Read more

The building trade and the social situation in the early years of our practice were such that the majority of our commissions consisted of interventions to existing buildings or spatial redesigns of building complexes. In this way we contributed to the sum total of the building activity which - in an on-going interrelationship of action and reception produced a considerable material output at that time. We perceive that totality as primary matter... Read more

A penthouse was built on top of an industrial building with an art nouveau facade. This glass pavilion forms a still-life on the roof together with the technical installations enclosed inside a grating, and Isa Genzken’s work of art Camera. The frame of the work of art emphasises the role the flat plays as an observatory overlooking the town.... Read more