The Beehive

The project aims to requalify the public spaces of the town centre of Vottem by promoting pedestrian spaces in order to recreate a living space favorable to social interactions. To this aim, a multifunctional building regrouping a nursery, a community center, a medical center and housing will reinforce the offer of amenities and services.

This multifunctional building is located on a two-level site. It comprises, on the lower ground floor, facing the existing kindergarten, a children’s center comprising a nursery and a leisure center; on the upper ground floor, facing the square, a medical center and a community center offering spaces for socio-cultural activities. The two levels of floors offer small dwellings with the aim of complementing the housing offer of the suburban area and thus respond to demographic changes such as the ageing of the population or the evolution of family patterns.\nThe cross plan, induced by the layout logic, makes it possible to articulate the programmes within the different wings of the building. The articulation node brings together the reception areas and the major common spaces on each levels. The outside spaces include two interior courtyards for the nursery and the leisure centre, as well as a low and a high forecourt for access and visibility of the public facilities and housing. Finally, on the upper floors, successive recesses generate outside spaces for the dwellings.\nFurthermore, the project explores construction in terracotta elements in order to valorise Belgian building traditions. The ambition is to take advantage of the properties and potential of this traditional and local material, with its ecological and economic qualities. Thus, the archaic constructive solution used proposes an innovative apparatus associating perforated bricks for thermal insulation and glazed solid bricks for the external facing. \nThe structure of the building is organised in parallel walls arranged perpendicularly to the façades to generate traversing spaces. The floors on each level offer a variation of techniques and vault patterns. The orientation of these vaults underlines the circulation spaces and gives rhythm to the living spaces, while their dimensions follow the scale of the programmes.