Zegel
On a corner of one of Antwerp’s major access roads to the city centre, Hub designed a serene mixed-use building that houses residences, offices for the district police and an entrance to a metro station. It is composed of a three-storey plinth and a three-storey tower set back from the corner. The plinth completes the existing street profile, while the tower marks the corner and engages in a dialogue with the apartment building on the opposite corner. The façade was conceived as a generic rhythm of bays, with shallowly recessed windows. While the rhythm acts as a mask covering the different programmes behind it, the windows nonetheless underline the difference. The upper floors that house the residential programme have portrait windows, while the office floors below have larger bays with square windows. The tectonics of the façade have been accentuated by the corner windows of the plinth and the ‘open’ corner solution of the tower.
- Louis De Mey
Composite Presence at Biennale Architettura 2021
This project is part of the exhibition Composite Presence in the Belgian pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
Hub: "Zegel is a composite building made up of a subway entrance, a police station, and residential apartments in the Borgerhout area of Antwerp, a culturally diverse neighbourhood.
The building responds to the form and height of its surrounding buildings. It has a unique position in the urban landscape, marking the invisible structure of the underground system beneath. As a composite in a composite, it reflects the architect's mission of reacting to the present environment and thereby becoming part of the urban condition."
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