Community House

Community house Knokke-Heist

Commissioned by the municipality of Knokke-Heist, a resort on the northwestern coast of Belgium, this project called for a new meeting place for residents, vacation home-owners, and tourists-a vibrant mix of homes, public functions, recreation, and retail space. All of these functions are gathered into a single building -occasionally spilling over to the adjacent square that is already home to an outdoor Tuesday market. Knitting together what was already there with a roster of new functions and services was vital to maintaining a sense of community. The resulting scheme is centered on a fifteen-story building 164 ft. (50 m) high, with eighty housing units stacked above the ground floor, which will accommodate a toy library, a library, an association house, shops, and the police department. Using a vocabulary related to maritime transport and cargo containers, the facade reveals an assembly of smaller houses arranged on the building's slabs, along with accessible greenhouses distributed along the facade and shared terraces. Sustainable design allows for reduced consumption of resources through the use of solar power, water recovery, natural light, and ventilation.

Client City of Knokke-Heist, Caap 

Programme Public spaces, housing, town hall, shops, multi-purpose hall 

Team B2ai, Bollinger, Sempervirens, Les Eclaireurs

Photos : Roland Halbe