Social House
Originally established as a hospital in the 1950s, the site was later partially transformed into a nursing home, municipal offices, and social welfare offices. Since 2018, parts of the complex have b...
We prefer to work with existing structures, that is where we, as designers, need to focus on in the coming decades. We are familiar with open spaces as we are with buildings. Transformation is the general term for repurposing, renovation, adaptation, extension and conversion.
Three essential factors determine the success, or rather the activation, of a transformation: the vision, the space, and the user. A new function may seem perfectly suited to a place but it becomes meaningless without support.
Begijnhof
A few former houses at the edge of the beguinage were altered during the industrialization period and were listed as workers’ houses. After a careful evaluation of their historical value, it was deci...
Lievensplein
Shaping emptiness: from stage to installation. The fountain acts as the connecting element in the new kiosk, designed to enhance social cohesion. The design research resulted in an artwork as a new...
Café De Valk
Two friends bought the local village café, which had been for sale and vacant for ten years. On the upper floor, a holiday home was created to cater to cycling and walking tourism in the Flemish Arde...
Beisloven Educational Center
This former community school building serves as a prototype for how circular transformation can be achieved. The main intervention consists of patios that create a link between the surrounding park a...
Sint-Jozefschool
Architecture is an important link in the didactic evolution from receptive knowledge transfer toward more interactive learning with individual trajectories, where the teacher becomes a coach who insp...
Hunnegem - elementary school
The former priory site of Hunnegem is divided among several stakeholders. The most historically valuable part has been repurposed to serve a museum function. The central wings accommodate various car...
Expo Connect
During the Day of Architecture 2019, Studio Arbor, AMAI, and AiT Architecten presented architectural projects and studies, artworks, and graphic designs inside and outside the church of Oombergen. Th...
Saint Francis Institution
Norman Castle Park Located in the upper basin of the Zwalm Valley, this neo-classical castle lies hidden within a protected village landscape. The site serves as the headquarters of the Saint Franci...
Multihousing Rozebeke
The village landscape of Rozebeke, with its Romanesque church, is protected and has in recent years become a quiet village with many vacant buildings around the church. The protected status has kept...
Reconversion old presbytery garden
In recent decades, efforts succeeded in protecting the presbytery garden and cemetery, ensuring that the green zone with its valuable trees was not replaced by housing developments. This protection p...
Breivelde Castle
At the end of the 19th century, a wealthy industrialist built a country house on a wooded spring area. Twenty years later, the distinctive design was romanticized and transformed into a Neo-Flemish R...