van Hoorebeke Timber Gent

Between the seemingly never-ending timber storage buildings and the planing mill, the reception building and central administration complete the production site. The reception building is intended for lorry drivers collecting raw or processed wood from the site and for customers visiting the site. The footprint of the building starts from a simple rectangle that TRANS architecture and urban development have modified into a polygonal shape dictated by circulation routes on the production site. The reception, cafeteria and meeting rooms of various sizes on the ground floor are located under a slightly sloping roof. Higher up under the roof, the permanent workplaces look out over the industrial landscape and water. As an alternative to a generic office building that would be out of place between the large warehouses, the building is reminiscent of a warehouse but still appears like a house, depending on how you look at it. Each workplace has its own outdoor space and the lightly stained wood acts as an antidote to the neutrality of a standardized workplace. This makes the building a kind of refuge on the business premises, a safe place, a ‘clearing in the wood’.

This text is based on the project text provided by the architects.