antwerp port house case study

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Antwerp Port House / Zaha Hadid Architects

Curated by ArchDaily
Architects: Zaha Hadid Architects
Area Area of this architecture project Area: 12800 m²
Year Completion year of this architecture project Year: 2016
Photographs Photographs: Helene Binet , Hufton+Crow , Tim Fischer
Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers: Cupa Pizarras , Jansen , Saflex , Assa Abloy , Saint-Gobain , BASF , Desso , Dialum , Global Partitions , JEZET SEATING , Kerroc , Lindner , Mitsubishi Electric , Multiline LED , Renolit , Scheuten , Schüco , Siemens , TRIDONIC
Structural Engineers : Studieburo Mouton
Acoustic Engineers : Daidalos Peutz
Services Engineers : Ingenium nv
Design: Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher
Zha Project Director: Joris Pauwels
Zha Project Architect: Jinmi Lee
Zha Project Team: Florian Goscheff, Monica Noguero, Kristof Crolla, Naomi Fritz, Sandra Riess, Muriel Boselli, Susanne Lettau
Zha Competition Team: Kristof Crolla, Sebastien Delagrange, Paulo Flores, Jimena Araiza, Sofia Daniilidou, Andres Schenker, Evan Erlebacher, Lulu Aldihani
Executive Architect: Bureau Bouwtechniek
Restoration Consultants: Origin
Fire Protection: Fpc
City: Antwerp
Country: Belgium

Text description provided by the architects. The new Port House in Antwerp repurposes, renovates and extends a derelict fire station into a new headquarters for the port – bringing together the port’s 500 staff that previously worked in separate buildings around the city.

Antwerp Port House / Zaha Hadid Architects - Exterior Photography, Waterfront

With 12 km of docks, Antwerp is Europe’s second largest shipping port, serving 15,000 sea trade ships and 60,000 inland barges each year.

Antwerp handles 26% of Europe’s container shipping, transporting more than 200 million tonnes of goods via the ocean-going vessels that call at the port and providing direct employment for over 60,000 people, including more than 8,000 port workers. Indirectly, the Port of Antwerp ensures about 150,000 jobs and has ambitious targets for future expansion to meet the continent’s growth and development over the next century.

In 2007, when the former 1990s offices of the Port of Antwerp had become too small, the port determined that relocation would enable its technical and administrative services to be housed together, providing new accommodation for about 500 staff. The port required a sustainable and future-proof workplace for its employees, representing its ethos and values in an ever-expanding local and international arena.

Antwerp Port House / Zaha Hadid Architects - Image 26 of 41

As the threshold between the city and its vast port, Mexico Island in Antwerp ’s Kattendijk dock on Quay 63 was selected as the site for the new head office. The waterside site also offered significant sustainable construction benefits, allowing materials and building components to be transported by water, an important requirement to meet the port’s ecological targets.

Antwerp Port House / Zaha Hadid Architects - Image 22 of 41

Following the construction of a new fire station with facilities needed to service the expanding port, the old fire station on the Mexico Island site – a listed replica of a Hanseatic residence – became redundant and relied on a change of use to ensure its preservation. This disused fire station had to be integrated into the new project. The Flemish government's department of architecture, together with the City and Port authorities organized the architectural competition for the new headquarters.

Zaha Hadid Architects' design is informed by detailed historical research and a thorough analysis of both the site and the existing building.

Marc Van Peel, president of the Port of Antwerp , said: “There was only one rule laid down in the architectural competition, namely that the original building had to be preserved. There were no other requirements imposed for the positioning of the new building. The jury was therefore pleasantly surprised when the five shortlisted candidates all opted for a modern structure above the original building. They all combined the new with the old, but the design by Zaha Hadid Architects was the most brilliant.”

Working with Origin, leading heritage consultants in the restoration and renovation of historic monuments, ZHA’s studies of the site’s history and heritage are the foundations of the design which firstly emphasises the north-south site axis parallel with the Kattendijkdok linking the city centre to the port. Secondly, due to its location surrounded by water, the building's four elevations are considered of equal importance with no principal facade. ZHA’s design is an elevated extension, rather than a neighbouring volume which would have concealed at least one of the existing facades. ZHA and Origin’s historic analysis of the old fire station also highlighted the role of its originally intended tower - a grand, imposing component of the fire station's Hanseatic design. Its bold vertical statement, intended to crown the imposing volume of the building below, was never realised.

These three key principles define the design’s composition of new and old: a new volume that ‘floats’ above the old building, respecting each of the old facades and completing the verticality of the original design’s unrealised tower.

Like the bow of a ship, the new extension points towards the Scheldt, connecting the building with the river on which Antwerp was founded.

Surrounded by water, the new extension's façade is a glazed surface that ripples like waves and reflects the changing tones and colours of the city’s sky. Triangular facets allow the apparently smooth curves at either end of the building to be formed with flat sheets of glass. They also facilitate the gradual transition from a flat façade at the south end of the building to a rippling surface at the north.

While most of the triangular facets are transparent, some are opaque. This calibrated mix ensures sufficient sunlight within the building, while also controlling solar load to guarantee optimal working conditions. At the same time, the alternation of transparent and opaque facade panels breaks down the volume of the new extension, giving panoramic views of the Scheldt, the city and the Port as well as providing enclosure.

Antwerp Port House / Zaha Hadid Architects - Image 15 of 41

The façade’s rippling quality is generated with flat facets to the south that gradually become more three-dimensional towards to the north. This perception of a transparent volume, cut to give the new building its sparkling appearance, reinterprets Antwerp ’s moniker as the city of diamonds. The new extension appears as a carefully cut form which changes its appearance with the shifting intensity of daylight. Like the ripples on the surface of the water in the surrounding port, the new façade reflects changing light conditions.

Antwerp Port House / Zaha Hadid Architects - Image 14 of 41

The old fire station’s central courtyard has been enclosed with a glass roof and is transformed into the main reception area for the new Port House. From this central atrium, visitors access the historic public reading room and library within the disused fire truck hall which has been carefully restored and preserved. Panoramic lifts provide direct access to the new extension with an external bridge between the existing building and new extension giving panoramic views of the city and port.

Antwerp Port House / Zaha Hadid Architects - Image 11 of 41

The client requirements for an ‘activity based office’ are integrated within the design, with related areas such as the restaurant, meeting rooms and auditorium located at the centre of the upper levels of the existing building and the bottom floors of the new extension. The remaining floors more remote from the centre, comprise open plan offices.

Collaborating with services consultant Ingenium, ZHA developed a sustainable and energy-efficient design reaching a ‘Very Good’ BREEAM environmental rating. Despite the challenges of integrating with a protected historic building, high standards in sustainable design were achieved by implementing effective strategies at each stage of construction. A borehole energy system pumps water to a depth of 80m below grade in over 100 locations around the building to provide heating and cooling. In the existing building, this system uses chilled beams. In the new extension, it uses chilled ceilings. Waterless lavatory fittings and motion detectors minimise water consumption while building automation and optimal daylight controls minimise artificial lighting.

With constant references to the Scheldt, the city of Antwerp and the dynamics of its port, married with the successful renovation and reuse of a redundant fire station - integrating it as a fully-fledged part of its headquarters - the new Port House will serve the port well through its planned expansion over future generations.

Antwerp Port House / Zaha Hadid Architects - Image 7 of 41

Marc Van Peel said: “The architectural style of the original building, a replica of the former Hansa House, recalls the 16th century, Antwerp's "golden century." But now above this original, a contemporary structure in shining glass has been built, which I am sure, represents a new golden century for Antwerp.”

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Project location

Address: antwerp, belgium.

Materials and Tags

Sustainability

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War of the worlds: Port House headquarters, Antwerp, Belgium by ZHA

18 December 2017 By Christophe Van Gerrewey Buildings

AR New into Old Commended: Rearing its woozy head above Antwerp’s sober Port House, the multifaceted extension by ZHA makes a clean break with the past

With Antwerp Port House, Zaha Hadid Architects have staged the battle between old and new so straightforwardly that it becomes brutal. The old is identified with the symmetric order of a disused fire station from the early 20th century, while the new is recognisable in the multifaceted shape of the extension. This is, paradoxically perhaps for a building designed by an architect of Hadid’s generation, in line with the Venice Charter of the ’60s, and with the Modernist prohibition to mingle what exists with what is added. Never, inside nor outside, does it become unclear what is new and what is old – with the exception, perhaps, of the short moment when the panoramic lift leaves the former fire station (and the base of a never materialised spire) and enters the first floor of the office building. As ZHA emphasises, a study by heritage consultants Origin – revealing the orientation of the old building, the equal importance of the four elevations, and the originally intended tower – was the foundation of the project.

Antwerp port house site plan

All this tallies with the one rule laid down in the competition in 2008: the original building had to be preserved. The port was ‘pleasantly surprised’ when all candidates (ZHA, Xaveer De Geyter, Kempe Thill, Rapp + Rapp and Vier Arquitectos) opted for a structure above the fire station – not one practice planned to build next to it. What is easily forgotten is how at the moment of the competition, Antwerp had recently decided to construct a colossal viaduct, that would complete the ring road, and hopefully resolve traffic jams. The designs from 2008 reacted to this future situation – to a prospective skyline with a monumental bridge connecting the port to the city, linking both banks of the river Scheldt, and serving thousands of cars, high above, on a daily basis. Also in ZHA’s first renderings, the viaduct is there as a horizon, but also as a generic and infrastructural counterbalance to the singularity of the Port House.

AR New into Old awards 2019

Click here to find out more and apply today

Deadline 6 September 2019

The competition was won by Hadid, although no jury report has been made public. Only Marc Van Peel, president of Antwerp Port Authority and member of the city council, declared laconically: ‘All candidates combined the new with the old, but ZHA’s design was the most brilliant.’ In 2009, following a referendum, the viaduct was cancelled – not surprising in a city, although built around a major European river, that has shown a neurotic fear of bridges: the first one has yet to be constructed. In 2016, it was decided to tackle Antwerp’s traffic problems with a set of tunnels, and they should be ready by 2025. The consequence for the Port House: without a visible connection, it remains a lonely presence in an industrial area, isolated from the city, as a spectacle without a real audience, minimally present in the northern skyline. This doesn’t mean that port and city aren’t coming closer, and this has been decisive in the shape and the orientation of the building, as project architect Joris Pauwels indicates. The quays of the disused Kattendijk dock, with the Port House close to its northern edge, slowly filled with housing – apartment towers by David Chipperfield, Diener & Diener and Tony Fretton – extending the city’s borders in the direction of the port.

Antwerp port house ground floor plan

Click to download

The question remains which task the Port House has in this process of rapprochement – and which meanings and urban values it radiates to the city of Antwerp. It is here that a more subtle contrast between old and new is at stake. How do Hadid’s poetics, developed in the early ’80s, survive 30 years later, in an era that is indeed different, both for the late architect and her office, as for the culture and the capital ZHA are working for? A once iconoclastic way of envisioning the future of architecture – let’s not forget how Kenneth Frampton heralded Hadid’s drawings in ’83 as the suggestion of ‘the scintillating paradise of the world’ and as the start of ‘a new modern project’ – is now the driving force behind what seems to be a production line of images of powerful brilliance. The theoretical impetus behind Hadid’s oeuvre – the words instead of the objects, or the ideas instead of the forms – tends to be forgotten as an unimportant relic of the past. It’s something that happens to starchitects, to the extent that it provides a definition of the term: the increasing productivity and scale of their offices make it impossible to update theoretical views, while older ones simply get out of sight, out of mind.

What remains in the case of Hadid are ‘overpowering’ buildings – a word I heard uttered more than once during the public tour of the Port House. The guide wasn’t well grounded in architecture, and opted to praise the economic importance of the port, not only for Antwerp, but also for Belgium and Europe, and – taking into account the ecological efforts both during construction and performance of this building – for the planet in general. This may seem unimportant, but the tours are fully booked months in advance, often by people usually uninterested in architecture. Thousands will get to hear this economy-driven boasting, while the story behind Hadid’s architecture remains unacknowledged.

Antwerp port house fifth floor

Antwerp port house seventh floor plan

This might not only be the result of public relations or of a silent aversion to an intellectual approach to architecture. There is something historical or even antiquated in Hadid’s method, rooted as it is in the relatively stable and prosperous Western society of the early ’80s, with a generation of audacious architects who tried to react to this supposed order by criticising, parodying or even dismantling the postwar remnants of academic Modernism. An important moment was the exhibition Deconstructivist Architecture at MoMA in ’88, and from all the architects who were on show there, Hadid was really in her place, and she has remained unspokenly faithful to the formal ideology of Deconstructivism. The terms Mark Wigley, co-curator with Philip Johnson, used in the catalogue, remain strikingly applicable to ZHA’s architecture: ‘Deconstruction gains all its force by challenging the very values of harmony, unity, and stability, and proposing instead a different view of structure: the view that the flaws are intrinsic to the structure’. The historical paradox is that Hadid, with this view, tried to continue the revolutionary praxis of the Russian Constructivists of the early 20th century, while Zaha Hadid Architects have since 2000 expressed the dominant order by means of indeed overpowering and disordered architecture.

The office building in Antwerp illustrates that more than other related projects from their portfolio, such as the library and learning centre at the University of Economics in Vienna, completed in 2013, which also has a base with a protruding sculpture on top. The Port House is different because it’s an extension of an existing and rigidly symmetrical building, emblematic for the classical, repetitive, ordered and supposedly oppressive and dishonest architecture Hadid wanted to get rid of, by infusing the discipline with invention, complexity, non-Euclidean geometry and frighteningly unlikely building structures. Christian Rapp, in 2008 contender in the competition for the Port House but since 2015 city architect of Antwerp, publicly called it ‘a nightmare realised’ shortly after completion, expressing the view of many of his colleagues. It was a remark that unintentionally echoed another one of Wigley’s descriptions from ’88: Deconstructivist projects ‘mark a different sensibility, one in which the dream of pure form has been disturbed. Form has become contaminated. The dream has become a kind of nightmare’. Port president Van Peel asked Rapp for apologies – a strange reaction, since one of the reasons ZHA’s Port House works, is that it is unprecedented and unreal, as indeed a nightly and oneiric manifestation of architecture’s subconscious, certainly in the context of Belgian architecture, that has remained more or less devoid of debauchery or iconolatry.

Antwerp port house by zha section bb

Antwerp port house section aa

Another contradiction of Hadid’s architecture is the way it deals with function, or declines to do so. It was never the intention of Deconstructivism to abort practical use, only to show how relationships between form and function are fictitious. It would be naive, however, to state that the proper quotidian functioning of the Port House isn’t, in one way or another, hindered by the formal and constructive bravura. At the time of the competition, the budget amounted to €28 million, while the final cost rose to €63 million. With an office staff of 500, an all too simple calculation would indicate individual working places worthy of €126,000 each. In reality, landscape offices are somewhat willy-nilly furnished inside this chunk of architecture, while the irregular facade of triangular glass panels only offers very fragmented views of the surroundings. Even the desks or the coffee spaces, designed by ZHA, aren’t allowed to be rectangular. The daily business of office workers hasn’t been the main concern here – neither of the architects, nor of the client. Literally and figuratively, the emphasis is primarily on the self-portrait of the port and its economic activities – striking, indispensable, dominant, but not rationally explicable.

Port House headquarters

Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects

Design: Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher

Project team: Joris Pauwels (project director), Jinmi Lee (project architect), Florian Goscheff, Monica Noguero, Kristof Crolla, Naomi Fritz, Sandra Riess, Muriel Boselli, Susanne Lettau

Executive architect: Bureau Bouwtechniek

Structural engineer: Studieburo Mouton Bvba

Photographs: Nick Hannes

December/January 2018

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Zaha Hadid Architects

Antwerp Port House

Antwerp, Belgium

Project by Zaha Hadid Architects London, United Kingdom

Photographer: Hufton+Crow

The new Port House in Antwerp repurposes, renovates and extends a derelict fire station into a new headquarters for the port – bringing together the port’s 500 staff that previously worked in separate buildings around the city. With 12 km of docks, Antwerp is Europe’s second largest shipping port, serving 15,000 sea trade ships and 60,000 inland barges each year. Antwerp handles 26% of Europe’s container shipping, transporting more than 200 million tonnes of goods via the ocean-going vessels that call at the port and providing direct employment for over 60,000 people, including more than 8,000 port workers. Indirectly, the Port of Antwerp ensures about 150,000 jobs and has ambitious targets for future expansion to meet the continent’s growth and development over the next century. In 2007, when the former 1990s offices of the Port of Antwerp had become too small, the port determined that relocation would enable its technical and administrative services to be housed together, providing new accommodation for about 500 staff. The port required a sustainable and future-proof workplace for its employees, representing its ethos and values in an ever-expanding local and international arena. As the threshold between the city and its vast port, Mexico Island in Antwerp’s Kattendijk dock on Quay 63 was selected as the site for the new head office. The waterside site also offered significant sustainable construction benefits, allowing materials and building components to be transported by water, an important requirement to meet the port’s ecological targets. Following the construction of a new fire station with facilities needed to service the expanding port, the old fire station on the Mexico Island site – a listed replica of a Hanseatic residence – became redundant and relied on a change of use to ensure its preservation. This disused fire station had to be integrated into the new project. The Flemish government's department of architecture, together with the City and Port authorities organized the architectural competition for the new headquarters. Zaha Hadid Architects' design is informed by detailed historical research and a thorough analysis of both the site and the existing building. Marc Van Peel, president of the Port of Antwerp, said: “There was only one rule laid down in the architectural competition, namely that the original building had to be preserved. There were no other requirements imposed for the positioning of the new building. The jury was therefore pleasantly surprised when the five shortlisted candidates all opted for a modern structure above the original building. They all combined the new with the old, but the design by Zaha Hadid Architects was the most brilliant.” Working with Origin, leading heritage consultants in the restoration and renovation of historic monuments, ZHA’s studies of the site’s history and heritage are the foundations of the design which firstly emphasises the north-south site axis parallel with the Kattendijkdok linking the city centre to the port. Secondly, due to its location surrounded by water, the building's four elevations are considered of equal importance with no principal facade. ZHA’s design is an elevated extension, rather than a neighbouring volume which would have concealed at least one of the existing facades. ZHA and Origin’s historic analysis of the old fire station also highlighted the role of its originally intended tower - a grand, imposing component of the fire station's Hanseatic design. Its bold vertical statement, intended to crown the imposing volume of the building below, was never realised. These three key principles define the design’s composition of new and old: a new volume that ‘floats’ above the old building, respecting each of the old facades and completing the verticality of the original design’s unrealised tower. Like the bow of a ship, the new extension points towards the Scheldt, connecting the building with the river on which Antwerp was founded. Surrounded by water, the new extension's façade is a glazed surface that ripples like waves and reflects the changing tones and colours of the city’s sky. Triangular facets allow the apparently smooth curves at either end of the building to be formed with flat sheets of glass. They also facilitate the gradual transition from a flat façade at the south end of the building to a rippling surface at the north. While most of the triangular facets are transparent, some are opaque. This calibrated mix ensures sufficient sunlight within the building, while also controlling solar load to guarantee optimal working conditions. At the same time, the alternation of transparent and opaque facade panels breaks down the volume of the new extension, giving panoramic views of the Scheldt, the city and the Port as well as providing enclosure. The façade’s rippling quality is generated with flat facets to the south that gradually become more three-dimensional towards to the north. This perception of a transparent volume, cut to give the new building its sparkling appearance, reinterprets Antwerp’s moniker as the city of diamonds. The new extension appears as a carefully cut form which changes its appearance with the shifting intensity of daylight. Like the ripples on the surface of the water in the surrounding port, the new façade reflects changing light conditions. The old fire station’s central courtyard has been enclosed with a glass roof and is transformed into the main reception area for the new Port House. From this central atrium, visitors access the historic public reading room and library within the disused fire truck hall which has been carefully restored and preserved. Panoramic lifts provide direct access to the new extension with an external bridge between the existing building and new extension giving panoramic views of the city and port. The client requirements for an ‘activity based office’ are integrated within the design, with related areas such as the restaurant, meeting rooms and auditorium located at the centre of the upper levels of the existing building and the bottom floors of the new extension. The remaining floors more remote from the centre, comprise open plan offices. Collaborating with services consultant Ingenium, ZHA developed a sustainable and energy-efficient design reaching a ‘Very Good’ BREEAM environmental rating. Despite the challenges of integrating with a protected historic building, high standards in sustainable design were achieved by implementing effective strategies at each stage of construction. A borehole energy system pumps water to a depth of 80m below grade in over 100 locations around the building to provide heating and cooling. In the existing building, this system uses chilled beams. In the new extension, it uses chilled ceilings. Waterless lavatory fittings and motion detectors minimise water consumption while building automation and optimal daylight controls minimise artificial lighting. With constant references to the Scheldt, the city of Antwerp and the dynamics of its port, married with the successful renovation and reuse of a redundant fire station - integrating it as a fully-fledged part of its headquarters - the new Port House will serve the port well through its planned expansion over future generations. Marc Van Peel said: “The architectural style of the original building, a replica of the former Hansa House, recalls the 16th century, Antwerp's "golden century." But now above this original, a contemporary structure in shining glass has been built, which I am sure, represents a new golden century for Antwerp.”

Zaha Hadid Design: Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher ZHA Project Director: Joris Pauwels ZHA Project Architect: Jinmi Lee ZHA Project Team: Florian Goscheff, Monica Noguero, Kristof Crolla, Naomi Fritz, Sandra Riess, Muriel Boselli, Susanne Lettau ZHA Competition Team: Kristof Crolla, Sebastien Delagrange, Paulo Flores, Jimena Araiza, Sofia Daniilidou, Andres Schenker, Evan Erlebacher, Lulu Aldihani

Executive Architect: Bureau Bouwtechniek Structural Engineers: Studieburo Mouton Bvba Services Engineers: Ingenium Nv Acoustic Engineers: Daidalos Peutz Restoration Consultants: Origin Fire Protection: Fpc

Photographer: Tim Fisher

Photographer: Helene Binet

/en/project/zaha-hadid-architects-antwerp-port-house/5103850

Port House Antwerp by Zaha Hadid Architects

Antwerp Port House Design, Zaha Hadid Architecture Belgium, Architect, Headquarters property news

Port House Antwerp by Zaha Hadid Architects in Belgium

post updated 20 May 2024

Port House in Antwerp named ‘Best Refurbished Building’ at MIPIM Awards 2018

Following its commendation by the Architectural Review’s ‘New into Old’ awards in December 2017, Port House in Antwerp has been named ‘Best Refurbished Building’ at the MIPIM Awards 2018.

Port House in Antwerp

Established in 1991, the MIPIM Awards are presented at the world’s leading conference of property and real estate, recognising the most outstanding and accomplished projects across the globe.

With 12km of docks handling 26% of Europe’s container shipping, Antwerp is the continent’s second largest port with ambitious targets for future expansion to meet the Europe’s growth over the next century.

Working with heritage consultants Origin, ZHA’s historic analysis of the fire station revealed its unrealised tower. Port House is a composition of a new volume that ‘floats’ above the old building, respecting each of the existing facades and completing the verticality of the original design’s unbuilt central tower. The new extension points towards the city, connecting Antwerp with the port on which it was founded.

Surrounded by water, the new extension’s façade is a glazed surface that ripples like waves and reflects the changing tones and colours of the city’s sky. This perception of a transparent volume, cut to give the new building its sparkling appearance, reinterprets Antwerp’s moniker as the city of diamonds.

28 Jul 2017; 22 Sep 2016

Port House Antwerp Inauguration

Port House, Antwerp inaugurated 22 September, 2016

With 12 km of docks, Antwerp is Europe’s second largest shipping port, serving 15,000 sea trade ships and 60,000 inland barges each year.

Photos below © Tim Fisher

Following the construction of a new fire station with facilities needed to service the expanding port, the old fire station on the Mexico Island site – a listed replica of a Hanseatic residence – became redundant and relied on a change of use to ensure its preservation. This disused fire station had to be integrated into the new project. The Flemish government’s department of architecture, together with the City and Port authorities organized the architectural competition for the new headquarters.

Marc Van Peel, president of the Port of Antwerp, said: “There was only one rule laid down in the architectural competition, namely that the original building had to be preserved. There were no other requirements imposed for the positioning of the new building. The jury was therefore pleasantly surprised when the five shortlisted candidates all opted for a modern structure above the original building. They all combined the new with the old, but the design by Zaha Hadid Architects was the most brilliant.”

Film on YouTube

ZHA and Origin’s historic analysis of the old fire station also highlighted the role of its originally intended tower – a grand, imposing component of the fire station’s Hanseatic design. Its bold vertical statement, intended to crown the imposing volume of the building below, was never realised.

The façade’s rippling quality is generated with flat facets to the south that gradually become more three-dimensional towards to the north. This perception of a transparent volume, cut to give the new building its sparkling appearance, reinterprets Antwerp’s moniker as the city of diamonds. The new extension appears as a carefully cut form which changes its appearance with the shifting intensity of daylight. Like the ripples on the surface of the water in the surrounding port, the new façade reflects changing light conditions.

With constant references to the Scheldt, the city of Antwerp and the dynamics of its port, married with the successful renovation and reuse of a redundant fire station – integrating it as a fully-fledged part of its headquarters – the new Port House will serve the port well through its planned expansion over future generations.

Marc Van Peel said: “The architectural style of the original building, a replica of the former Hansa House, recalls the 16th century, Antwerp’s “golden century.” But now above this original, a contemporary structure in shining glass has been built, which I am sure, represents a new golden century for Antwerp.”

Port House Antwerp by Zaha Hadid Architects – Building Information

Existing fire station: 63 metres length 78.5 metres width 21.5 metres height

190 bicycle parking spaces

Project Team: Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) Design: Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher ZHA Project Director: Joris Pauwels ZHA Project Architect: Jinmi Lee ZHA Project Team: Florian Goscheff, Monica Noguero, Kristof Crolla, Naomi Fritz, Sandra Riess, Muriel Boselli, Susanne Lettau ZHA Competition Team: Kristof Crolla, Sebastien Delagrange, Paulo Flores, Jimena Araiza, Sofia Daniilidou, Andres Schenker, Evan Erlebacher, Lulu Aldihani

20 Jan 2009

Antwerp Port House

Location: Antwerp, Belgium

Belgian Architecture

Belgian Architecture News

Antwerp Buildings

KMSKA Antwerp

Zaha Hadid Books

Timeline of restoration: Antwerp Port House

Antwerp Port House – With 12 km of docks, Antwerp is Europe’s second biggest transportation port, serving 15,000 ocean exchange ships and 60,000 inland freight ships every year. Antwerp handles 26% of Europe ‘s holder delivery, shipping over 200 million tons of merchandise through the maritime vessels that call at the port and giving direct work to the north of 60,000 individuals, including more than 8,000 port specialists. By implication, the Port of Antwerp guarantees around 150,000 positions and has an aggressive focus for future extension to meet the landmass’ development and improvement over the following hundred years.

Timeline of restoration: Antwerp Port House - Sheet1

In 2007, when the previous 1990s workplaces of the Port of Antwerp had become too little, the port verified that movement would empower its specialized and authoritative administrations to be housed together, giving new convenience to around 500 staff. The port required a supportable and future-verification work environment for its representatives, addressing its ethos and values in a consistently growing nearby and global field. As the edge between the city and its immense port, Mexico Island in Antwerp’s Kattendijk dock on Quay 63 was chosen as the site for the new administrative center. The waterside site additionally offered critical reasonable development benefits, permitting materials and building parts to be shipped by water, a significant necessity to meet the port’s natural targets.

Following the development of another fire station with offices expected to support the growing port, the old fire station on the Mexico Island site – a recorded reproduction of a Hanseatic home – became excess and depended on a difference in use to guarantee its conservation. This neglected fire station must be coordinated in the new undertaking. The Flemish government’s branch of design, along with the City and Port specialists coordinated the engineering contest for the new central command. Zaha Hadid Architects ‘ plan is educated by verifiable exploration and an exhaustive examination of both the site and the current structure.

Timeline of restoration: Antwerp Port House - Sheet2

Marc Van Peel, president of the Port of Antwerp, said: “There was only one rule laid down in the architectural competition , namely that the original building had to be preserved. There were no other requirements imposed for the positioning of the new building. The jury was therefore pleasantly surprised when the five shortlisted candidates all opted for a modern structure above the original building. They all combined the new with the old, but the design by Zaha Hadid Architects was the most brilliant.”

Working with Origin, driving legacy advisors in the reclamation and redesign of memorable landmarks, Zaha Hadid Architects’ investigations of the site’s set of experiences and legacy are the groundworks of the plan which underlines the north-south site hub, first and foremost, lined up with the Kattendijkdok connecting the downtown area to the port. Besides, because of its area encircled by water, the structure’s four rises are considered of equivalent significance with no important exterior. Zaha Hadid Architects’ plan is a raised expansion, instead of an adjoining volume that would have covered something like one of the current veneers. Its strong vertical assertion, expected to crown the monumental volume of the structure underneath, was never realized. These three key standards characterize the plan’s piece of new and old: another volume that ‘floats’ over the old structure, regarding every one of the old veneers and finishing the verticality of the first plan’s unrealized pinnacle.

Timeline of restoration: Antwerp Port House - Sheet3

Like the bow of a boat, the new expansion of Antwerp port house focuses on the Scheldt, interfacing the structure with the waterway on which Antwerp was established. Encircled by water, the new expansion’s façade is a coated surface that waves like waves and mirrors the changing tones and shades of the city’s sky. Three-sided features permit the smooth bends at one or the flip side of the structure to be framed with level sheets of glass. They likewise work with the progressive change from a level façade at the south finish of the structure to an undulating surface at the north. While a large portion of the three-sided features is straightforward, some are hazy.

This aligned blend guarantees adequate daylight inside the structure , while additionally controlling the sun-powered burden to ensure ideal working circumstances. Simultaneously, the shift of straightforward and murky veneer boards separates the volume of the new augmentation, giving all-encompassing perspectives on the Scheldt, the city, and the Port as well as giving a walled-in area. The façade’ s undulating quality is produced with level aspects toward the south that steadily become more three-layered toward the north. This view of a straightforward volume, slice to give the new structure its shimmering appearance, revaluates Antwerp’s moniker as the city of precious stones.

Timeline of restoration: Antwerp Port House - Sheet4

The old fire station’s focal patio has been encased with a glass rooftop and is changed into the fundamental banquet room for the new Antwerp Port House. From this focal chamber, guests access the notable public understanding room and library inside the neglected fire engine corridor which has been re-established and safeguarded. All-encompassing lifts give direct admittance to the new augmentation with an outer scaffold between the current structure and new expansion giving all-encompassing perspectives on the city and port. The client prerequisites for a ‘movement-based office’ are incorporated inside the plan, with related regions, for example, the café, meeting rooms, and hall situated at the focal point of the upper levels of the current structure and the base floors of the new augmentation. The leftover floors are additional remote from the middle and involve open arrangement workplaces .

Timeline of restoration: Antwerp Port House - Sheet6

Despite the difficulties of coordinating with a safeguarded notable structure, elevated requirements in a maintainable plan were accomplished by carrying out successful systems at each phase of development. A borehole energy framework siphons water to a profundity of 80m underneath grade in the north of 100 areas around the structure to give warming and cooling. In the current structure, this framework utilizes chilled radiates. In the new augmentation, it utilizes chilled roofs. Waterless latrine fittings and movement identifiers limit water utilization while building mechanization and ideal sunlight controls limit fake lighting.

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