Groepswoningen en sporthal Krono
The Tondelier site stretches from the inner ring-road to the canal along the northern side of Ghent city centre. The industrial buildings of the past (gasworks, telecoms and flour mill) have made way for a new urban extension that lies between the Rabot Park, the Law Courts, the terraced houses, the advancing development of the neighbourhood and the southern limits of the city’s harbour. Currently, the area is home to piles of earth, tower cranes, site offices and an amalgam of red and green flags and banners singing the praises of the neighbourhood under construction and offering homes to buy or to rent. In the north-eastern corner – next to the historical gasometers – stands the first completed new building that is part of the master-plan for the area.
Drivers who pass Krono on Gasmeterlaan probably expect that behind the quiet, rhythmic and repetitive north façade lies a building without ambiguity: a stacking of similar flats on a plinth of retail premises, where spacious lobbies provide entry to the upper floors. This initial supposition is shattered if one turns into Tondelierlaan and sees the descending line of the east façade. This high frontage, which asserts itself in the view of the street and the city, is here oriented towards the future Rabot Park. With its monumental scale, the building seeks a position amidst the existing factory architecture, makes way for a wing that is more intimate and gives expression to the sports activities going on inside and the housing on top. The unusually sharp corner of the plot accentuates this change of direction. The plinth on this side is kept as open as possible, despite a programme that requires it to be closed (changing rooms, car park etc.). A sunken but open-worked bicycle park, the large windows that offer a view into the local sports centre and the entrance to the car park follow one another in sequence. The assumption that this is a simple and predictable housing complex diminishes along with the scale of the building.
Continuing on around the building along the blank façade on the south frontage, with its unusual and finely detailed masonry, one ends up at the longest side. It is here that the first key to the structure of the Krono building is to be found. The double-height sports centre is crowned by five storey-high fins that could almost be merlons. It is only from the point of view of the resident looking out over the sports centre from above that it becomes clear how structural and structuring these pronounced forms are for the Krono building. The trusses not only support the roof of the sports centre and the floors above it, but also lend structure to the second floor.
The interplay between trusses that turn into walls and the sharp corner of the building gives rise to exceptional rooms that provide the occupants of this floor with three outdoor spaces: a terrace and two separate patios enclosed between the trusses, which at ground level would resemble the backyards of houses. As well as being a stack of housing units, Krono is above all an accumulation of varied outdoor spaces such as this, ranging from terraces to patios and loggias. This generous handling of outdoor spaces is quite inconspicuous to the passer-by, almost concealed, but for the user it is a characteristic feature of the building. At Krono, outdoor spaces are not annexes, not balconies suspended from the façade, but integrated elements of the building.
- Michiel De Cleene
This project is published in Flanders Architectural Review N°14. When Attitudes Take Form
