Sustainable exuberance, thermal onions and more…

New City Hall and Civic Center in Oostkamp, Belgium - an adaptive re-use of a former Coca-Cola warehouse by Carlos Arroyo Arquitecto, Spain. The architecture firm was selected by the small municipality through an international design competition. The City Hall complex is currently under construction. Click the top image for a more detailed project description.

This project is the winner of the 2011 Holcim Silver Award for Sustainable Construction.

Note to blog readers - the Holcim Acknowledgement Prize went to the first building of the “Low2No” urban district (architects Sauerbruch Hutton), the subject of my first blog post.

The winning bid to renovate the 118,000 SF industrial shed came in at $7.5 million or 64 $/SF - it was $1.3 million below the estimated budget.

From the Holcim Awards description:

The aim of this project, initiated by the city of Oostkamp, 7km south of Brugge, is to regenerate a former Coca-Cola factory. The four hectare site is to be transformed into a new City Hall and Civic Center for the municipality with a population of 22,000. The key idea of the proposed scheme is not only to recycle the main construction and materials but also to reuse the space itself and its technical infrastructure. 

The coating of the building will be maintained and selectively gashed for illumination. Distinctive interiors made of glass reinforced gypsum (GRG) and recycled paper complement the layout of modular clusters that may be easily arranged. The GRG bubbles are 7mm thin, weigh only 7kg/sq m and are built in several layers on projected inflatable formwork, including a final layer of recycled paper for sound control and thermal insulation.
 
Beside its sustainable construction, the project was considered remarkable by the jury in terms of its social sustainability due to a participatory planning process, including the 170 council employees. The joint accumulation of the program, its process and the resulting design for the open main hall is an outstanding example for transparency in governmental architecture. 

All this is combined with simple but clever concepts for technical infrastructure that include spatial organization according to thermal zones (“thermal onion”) to reduce energy consumption, and effective deployment of natural lighting via a solar chimney and patio system. The project is very convincing: maximum effect through the least possible degree of technical intervention and minimal financial investment. 

“Sustainable Exuberance” - From the architect’s description: 

Joyful recycling: While addressing the issue of embedded energy, we propose a fun way to do things. This has been defined by critics as “sustainable exuberance”, and praised as a key for the success of sustainable approaches. Simple technology for spectacular results: The Glass Reinforced Gypsum shells (GRG), simple and easy, turn an enormous ugly factory into a wonderful experience, with a tiny energy-budget.

The surrounding landscape design was developed in the context of a European Union “Interreg MP4” Program entitled “Making Places Profitable”.  

UPDATE: Carlos Arroyo just emailed to thank me for featuring his work on my “inspiring blog” and provides links to a new plan and construction photos (see above). Thank you Carlos!