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

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

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

The De Konincksite project is located on the border of Antwerp and Berchem, on the edge of Albert Park. Around the existing city brewery, this area is developing into a fordable 'crafts area' (with a lively programme of small shops) and a residential superstructure (with a hotel and flats).Originally, the adjoining plot with the city brewery (the 'mother site' as it were) was criss-crossed by alleyways and squares. The present design aims to... 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

On the plots of land belonging to the former municipal slaughterhouse in Antwerp's Dam district, a master plan for a new part of the city is unfolding. The design by Robbrecht en Daem architecten includes three buildings within one of the building blocks. This is the first building block that will be built on the site. The head of this building block also marks the beginning of the future park.Despite the differences between the three buildings... 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 reconstruction of the Zuidboulevard in Waregem ensures a thorough renovation of the city. The Zuidboulevard is the new gateway to the city and connects the cultural centre De Schakel, the city hall and the new library with each other. Instead of being a cul-de-sac, this renewed boulevard is a turning point, a climax for the previously interrupted loop for shopping, walking and cycling. This transforms the site into an easily navigable place... Read more

De Drie Leeuwen is a project in Vilvoorde consisting of three residential buildings, of which the first phase, a 14 story tower of 70 appartments, has been completed. The project creates a valuable infill at the corner where the Medialaan and Tweeleeuwenweg meet. The completed building is part renovation, part new build whereby the existing apartment block is extended on one side to create a T-shaped plan. A lively facade of balconies on the new... 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

Raoul De Keyser’s oeuvre is permeated by an original, internal and inherently spatial constellation. De Keyser’s paintings do not fit within the Renaissance idiom of a window upon an illusory perspective. The paintings shift, glide, oscillate, overlap and, at times, they also fall. Even when they do in fact suggest an architectonic space, a cabinet for example, there is a certain spatial friction. It is precisely this extremely controlled... Read more

The shopping centre at Sint-Janspoort is a more sustainable counterpart to the large shopping centres on the outskirts of towns and cities and covers a whole block in the historical city centre of Kortrijk. With its interiorised street pattern and monumental atrium – the garden of light – this shopping centre forms a diagonal link between Steenpoort and Veemarkt. The tower closes off one end of the Romeinselaan. The volumetry of the block,... 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

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

The design for the square reconciles two aspects: on the one hand the heavy traffic is dealt with by two roundabouts, one at each end, and on the other a public forecourt is laid out for the Museum of Fine Art. Several works of art have been installed on the square: recovered fragments of the Loos monument by Auguste Rodin, a bench designed by Ann Demeulemeester and a fountain by Christina Iglesias, which forms the heart of the forecourt, gives... 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

The Aue pavilions were temporarily built for the hundred days of Documenta IX in Kassel and formed one of the components housing the contemporary art exhibitions. Visited by six hundred thousand people, the pavilions showcased the work of twenty-eight artists. The Building was situated in the extensive baroque park of Friedrichs' Aue's. This park lies sixteen metres below the nearby Friedrichsplatz from where one could look down on the pavilions... Read more