LOCATION
Antwerp, Belgium
CLIENT
Government of Albania
DATE
2011
TYPOLOGY

The Provincial Government Building Antwerp is scattered in the middle of an area that in parts has buildings forming a boundary and in parts is open to the street. It is surrounded by a park, but does not take advantage of the privileged site. The new proposal offers the possibility to rethink all of that, and to consider the state of the art sustainable aspects for the configuration of the building.

Our project begins by imagining that the existing Provincial Government Building has been removed from the site and replaced by a park. Our intention is to imagine the new building as part of the park landscape. It will take full advantage of the park by locating important facilities there which can realise the potential of the site.

The new Provincial Government building and the park landscape offer the opportunity for the public to enter the site and participate. It could be compared to the painting by Peter Bruegel the Elders which depicts a crowd of people gathered in the forest, ´The Wedding Dance´. It establishes a place that is a fully functioning administrative building which at the same time relates and incorporates the natural landscape. Visitors and staff are part of a shared natural environment.