Town hall of Gembloux

11 February 2016

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Town hall of Gembloux
Town hall of Gembloux

Demogo created a new building that would become the new centre of Gembloux and the benchmark for all the citizens

How were you commissioned?:
After the first prize at Europan 10 competition

Gembloux Town Centre

What was the brief from the client and how much were they involved?:
The municipality of Gembloux wanted to create a new building that could become the new centre of the city and the benchmark for all the citizens. The municipality supervised all the phases of the project, from the design stage to the final construction.

Gembloux Town Centre

How did the brief affect the materials and design choices?:
The initial brief represented a useful starting point for us but we consciously decided to go beyond the needs of the municipality and to propose original design choices, such as the copper for the cladding or the final position in the project site.

Gembloux Town Centre

How did your previous experience help you with this project?:
This building became a real turning point for the work of the studio, especially as far as the relationship between the project and context, one of the main issue which the studio have dealt with since its foundation.

Gembloux Town Centre

Can you explain the layout of the project:
The project underlines the importance of the symbols of the city, that are three significant historical buildings: the ancient bell tower called Belfry, Église Décanale and Maison du Bailly. These buildings are a sort of direct extension of the town hall and represented the focal points from which we started to arrange the blocks in the site. One of the key issues lies in the establishment of a clear relationship between the park and the city: the park becomes a meeting place for the inhabitants while the new town hall is set up as a scenic wing from which the view opens towards the medieval core of Gembloux.

Gembloux Town Centre

What problems or challenges did you face?:
The choice of copper as the main material for the external cladding of the entire building represented undoubtedly the most difficult challenge for us because some representatives of local authorities were frightened by the possible final image that the building could have had. The complex topography of the site with the consequent problems related to the distribution of the functional program at different levels was another important problem we had to face in this project.

Gembloux Town Centre

What do you feel were the most unusual design elements of the project?:
The copper cladding, whose material continuously changes in accordance with the atmospheric and lighting conditions of the site, and the subdivision of the building in three different blocks with the glazed diaphragm in-between.

Gembloux Town Centre

How do you think this project is pushing design forward? What makes it special?:
The project tries to build a new centrality in the existing town and in the same time it can be seen as an occasion of urban improvement: the building engages in a dialogue with the city and at the end reveals the real character of the surroundings. The project enters into resonance with the ancient voice of the city, also as far as its materiality.

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