Shopping center K

The project is in two parts: a shopping centre with a floor area of 34,000 sq. m. (90 shops) on four floors and a detached ten-storey block of flats. The latter is positioned in the urban fabric in such a way that it offers a solution to the complex urban planning situation. Its elegant volumetry is very much determined by the continuous balconies on the south side. At the bottom of the block is one of the entrances to the underground car park and to the loading bay for the shops. The challenge was to fit a huge project like this into the historical fabric of the town without disrupting the site. It was therefore very important to introduce some differentiation into the pattern of the facades and to put the entrances to the new inner area in the right places. The details such as the white stone around the shop windows also helps attain the right level of scale.

The shopping part, which can be closed off, is accessible through the underground car park and three entrances at street level. The existing Sioenstraat has been incorporated into the route to the inner area. After the shops have closed this street remains open to link the two parallel streets together. The type chosen was not the 'mall' but the 'market hall', a covered urban space. The openings in the floors are positioned so that attractive diagonal vistas are created to draw visitors up to the first floor, a square spanned by a light steel roof construction. To create the atmosphere of a square, four openings have been made instead of one long slot. The food and drink establishments are on the second floor, which is oriented to the south. The surrounding streets are visible from several places in the interior, to avoid the urban context being visually hermetically excluded.

The choice of materials and the care with which the details have been applied to every part is quite exceptional for this sort of commercial brief.