The Royal Belge in Brussels, a reconversion project by Antwerp-based Bovenbouw Architectuur and London-based Caruso St John Architects features in the latest edition of the Italian magazine Casabella.
There is a theme that insistently returns in the practice of contemporary architecture and the discussions that take place around it: how should we intervene in historical buildings, reusing them and assigning them new functions? Casabella 951 approaches this subject by comparing experiences located at its limits: on one side, the project Paolo Zermani and Eugenio Tessoni have built, organizing the pathway of visitors to one of the greatest monuments of modern architecture, the complex of San Lorenzo in Florence; on the other, the reuse of a typical office building from the 1960s completed by Adam Caruso and Peter St John in Brussels, a provocative statement of principle: “nothing of what has been built should be replaced.”
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