AHI Architectural Heritage Intervention

“Contributing to enhancing our heritage, as the way forward for 21 st Century architecture is our raison d’être; to emphasize a diverse, rich vision that necessarily complements the intervention is our mission, and achieving it with reflexive and purposeful efforts is the challenge”.

This project, founded in, and directed since, 2011 by Ramon Calonge, Oriol Cusidó, Marc Manzano and Jordi Portal, architects and members of the Group of Architects for the Defence and Intervention in Architectural Heritage (AADIPA), has, through the years become a platform that includes four actions that are both independent and transversal.
 
The European Award, a biennial event that brings together and showcases the multiple approaches of intervention in Europe.

The International Biennial, a framework that serves to compare and gain closer insight of quality interventions in architectural heritage in non-European countries.

The digital Archive, a live and open window that provides a panoramic view of interventions in the history of our surroundings.

The Forum, a meeting place where you can participate in on-going debates about the main preoccupations and lines of thought about interventions in architectural heritage in Europe.

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Het Steen

  • Het Steen
  • Het Steen
  • Het Steen
  • Het Steen

The eventful history of Het Steen in Antwerp forms the basis of our design. After ten centuries as part of the city wall, the straightening of the river dramatically changed the situation. On the verge of disappearing, Het Steen was saved by the late 19th century fantasy of a free-standing castle that never had been. It was in this spirit that we designed the new wing, which replaces a 1950s extension, reinforcing the fantasy of the free-standing castle, giving the site meaning- history, passageway, landmark. We create a whole in which different layers of time are reconciled. The typical characteristics of a castle– stone walls with cut-outs, bay windows, niches, rising and falling eaves and towers – form the elements of a contemporary extension. The facades are made of brick in a palette that follow the old natural stone castle wall. Together with artist Pieter Vermeersch, the final gradient was carefully determined. The design is conceived as a new layer. Just as its use has changed over time, the metamorfosis of Het Steen will not end here.

Category

Built heritage

Edition

7
Winner

Year

2022

Author

noAarchitecten
Philippe Viérin, Jitse van den Berg, An Fonteyne

Project team

Didier de Roeck, Peter Verstraeten, Pieter Verreycken, Damiano Finetti, Elke Schoonen

External collaborators

Structural engineer: UTIL Struktuurstudies
MEP engineer: hp engineers
Building physics advisor: Daidalos Peutz

City

Antwerp

Country

Belgium

Surface area sqm

3.700

Cost €

10.000.000

Client

Public
AG Vespa

Original Programme

Mixed Use

Programme

Tourist reception and visitor centre, Cruise terminal, Multifunctional hall, Public space

© Photographer

Kim Zwarts, Tim Fisher, Stijn Bollaert, Michiel De Cleene

Períod

Different transformations since 13th century

Type of intervention

Reuse, restoration and extension

Level of intervention

Total / Integral