Renovation of Office Complex KBC, Brussels

Renovation office complex KBC, Brussel Renovation office complex KBC, Brussel Renovation office complex KBC, Brussel Renovation office complex KBC, Brussel Renovation office complex KBC, Brussel
Location Havenlaan, Brussels
Start and end year 2002-2005
Builder KBC Bank en Verzekeringen
Building type Office building
Status Completed
In collaboration Technum

The renovations were to be done to the older parts (the so-called ACKB building) at the back of the office building of KBC Bank and Insurances at the Havenlaan 2, which date from the end of the sixties and from 1976.

The new architectural concept is based on the following starting points:

  • a resolute contemporary form
  • a unity in sphere and material use has to be formed between the building parts which are to be renovated: in this way a critical mass can be realised which enters into dialogue with the very impressive pseudo classical form of the main building.
  • an articulate façade structure with a massive façade part at the bottom which visually forms a kind of “step” to the higher façade parts, functions as the conceptual starting point in order to form a transition to the scale of the adjacent and surrounding buildings.
  • for identical reasons the top floor of the building part at the Ulensstraat is drawn up as a penthouse with a set-back window section; from street perspective the preserved structure on this floor visually lightens by the slender canopy above the windows.
  • at the back there was only on the ground floor a protruding volume in which part of the kitchen was located;
  • on top of this base an similar massive façade part is built up to the fourth floor. In this way the profile of the façade becomes more pronounced, supports better the architectural form and the “step form” and softens the transition to the inside garden.
  • renovated central technical installations are neatly located on the technical roof floor which is renovated and expanded for this purpose.
  • The refrigerating apparatuses are also situated here in the open roof area which is enclosed by a encircling canopy element.
  • The inside area is turned into a fully fledged green area, which is set up as an inside garden with private recreational facilities for the users of the office building.

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