This office complex occupies a site in a transitional zone between the architectural scale of the original major boulevards and the very different dimensions of Brussels’ North District with its modern, glass high-rise buildings. The result has been to create a “dialogue” between two buildings, one high and one low, each forming a distinct entity, linked by a covered garden. This space is also the entrance to the office complex, where one side opens onto the Place Rogier, the other to the Jardin Botanique, creating the perception of a much larger area.
For their new headquarters, “Groupe Chèque Déjeuner” chose to house all of their various activities in one building, conceived as a series of volumes raised on “pilotis” or columns, all grouped around a vast atrium. The 5-level central body of the project is surrounded by several 3-story wings echoing the smaller buildings already completed in the surrounding business park and designed by the same tea.
Located at the intersection of the rue Bélliard and the rue Science, the design intelligently interprets “setback” guidelines, with planning permission submitted in June 2011. The inclusion of a generous piazza on the road side of the ground floor enables a convivial entrance gesture at the heart of the rue Bélliard. From the first preliminary sketches, the designers chose to shift the main building’s volume from the corner upwards toward the centre of the structure, giving rise to a five storey atrium.
The building is designed to provide some 11,000 sq m of office space. The architectural concept is clean and clear, with smooth concrete facings to the corner block and generous glazed curtain walling outlined with steel detailing.
ART & BUILD Architect’s design for an office building on a highly visible site at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport won over the jury thanks to a convincing, environmentally conscious design, integrating innovative additives in the concrete façade panels. The visual aspect of the building developed by GA Promotion with ADP Immobilier as investor results from careful analysis of the building's exposure to atmospheric pollution, which will be reduced by photo-catalytic elements embedded in bands of concrete which contains recycled glass aggregates.
Art and Build offices and architecture studios are distributed on several levels of the building located chaussée de Waterloo 255 in Brussels.
The surface area of over 2500 m2 distributed over several floors is given over to open-plan offices. The layout and choice of materials is deliberately sober and ecological in style. In 1999, Art & Build was awarded the seal of eco-dynamic company – an award that Art & Build has since been able to retain and improve upon.
The architecture of this bank is designed as a tangible expression of the intersection of glass and wooden panels, forming parallels and volumes that cross or interlock. The bank no longer needs a logo, the architecture - expressed through its interplay of shapes - already provides it.
The architecture of this business park, for which Art & Build developed the master plan, is based on the principle of very flexible building offering numerous variations. Manufactured industrially, using sustainable materials and with advantageous construction costs, the buildings offer large surface areas on each floor, laid out around central cores and common halls that the occupants share. The relationship between the buildings, the connecting links between them, and the play of built and empty spaces within a modular system create a sense of unity and harmony with the environment.
A former industrial site alongside the Paris-Brussels rail line and close to the Brussels South TGV station, the site offers many benefits for the development of a broad range of activities. But the originality of the site suggested an approach that broke with traditional office building solutions. Also, the architects had the brief to renovate an existing building adjacent to the site and restore a listed building on the far south of the area.
