Office Building, Kortrijk

About

This project converts a decaying building into a contemporary and durable office space without demolishing its skeleton. The existing building was stripped and then wrapped with an independent facade that serves as both an architectural element and a technical tool, containing and controlling the distribution of technical installations and natural light and giving the building a new urban presence. The new facade consists of a series of hollow concrete columns of varying size which contain the technical ducts and services required of a contemporary sustainable project. Independently from the existing building, it supports a series of terrace slabs whose depths vary according to the orientation, as they also perform as solar protection. The existing core of the building is maintained and optimized to include a stair and an elevator. The addition of a second core for sanitary installations behind the facing wall creates two similar office spaces on each floor and provides a flexible frame for any future programmatic infills. Outside the building, a reorganization of the back of the lot reduced the amount of parking, making room for a public garden and a lunch terrace towards the street... [+]

Sources

• Arquitectura Viva