Gembloux (BE), E10 - "Looking Through"

Project – The new buildings graft into the urban nucleus on the ”Place de d’Hôtel de ville”, creating a re-stitching with the existing fabric, offering the possibility to devote the whole south side to a garden thought as an urban park open to the city. The buildings emerge from the irregular surface of the park exploiting the variations of quota; they constitute two new public spaces on different heights along the itinerary linking the city, the town hall and the park. Buildings fragment the new town centre into smaller parts, according to the urban scale, and create a programme divided into functional areas.

Implementation – The fragmentation of the building and the views of the city’s landmarks, primary elements of the project, were maintained, although the initial functional programme was reduced. In the later stages of the project, technical aspects relating to the building’s energy efficiency and the actual construction process, were developed. The choice of copper as the cladding material was undoubtedly the most striking feature of the project. After a significant period for adaptation of the project, the works started in 2014 and the buildings were inaugurated in late September 2015.

See the project here