Vertical garden + living and work spaces,Antwerp, 2020
icw. Wirtz international - studieburo Mouton

In the outworn industrial zone near the old docks, on the border between the expanding city and the old port, IEA is designing a vertical garden. A new building project with multiple programs is placed between urban rehabilitation and the historical water landscape. An existing office building located between a new residential development project and a heritage building is being replaced by a new diversified typology of specific urban insert. The client wishes to achieve an optimal balance between a qualitative green outdoor space and the built indoor volume. The proposal yields a vertical garden circulation with individual and shared terraces connecting various functions: living, working and socializing. In close dialog with the owner of the neighboring heritage building, the project evolves from a "row house" (sandwiched between 2 other buildings) into a semi-open building with beautiful balconies looking over the city and the water. Through this intervention, a fascinating dynamic layered project takes shape in which the heritage building is embraced and sheltered at the same time. Public functions are accommodated in the plinth and at the highest level. Regarding the materiality of the project, a limited palette of materials is used in addition to the living organic material. The water management of the gardens and the vertical landscape is elaborated as an ingenious irigation system.