Jeugdlokalen en kinderopvang Oude God

Along a densely built-up traffic artery in the centre of Mortsel, a small town on the outskirts of Antwerp, KPW Architecten constructed two red, wooden volumes on the boundary of a green space enclosed within a street block. The buildings situated within this grassy terrain contain a cluster of facilities for young people, including a building for the Scouts and an after-school care centre, and were commissioned by the City of Mortsel. Prior to the construction, the lane that provides access to the enclosed area was lost amongst an untidy, indecipherable mass of garden walls, rear extensions and parking spaces. KPW Architecten shift the focus from the busy, densely-built up nature of the street to the potential of the terrain, which is completely surrounded by its urbanised context. The new entrance buildings are recessed from the street and focus the attention of the passer-by on the lane and the park. The symmetrical arrangement of the buildings creates a perspective, while the barns inject a rural and landscape character into an urbanised environment. The architects opted for buildings that refer to ‘the elementary visual idea of a barn (rough wood in black or soft red) in various cultures and on all continents’. One building for a crèche and after-school centre and another for the scouts (the youngsters themselves did the finishing work) stand opposite each other. The two volumes are based on modular structural building, which makes them easy to extend, but they can also be dismantled. Their positioning creates a meeting place, but also makes it possible for the technical installations to be shared. (...)

Bart Tritsmans - Excerpt from Flanders Architectural Review N°13. This Is a Mustard Factory