Campus Paardenmarkt wins Erfgoedjuweel (Heritage Jewel) 2023

28.09.2023

The historic Paardenmarkt education site underwent extensive renovation and restoration over the past four years. The various detached buildings were connected by ingenious canopies and found passages to create a beautiful whole with an eye for sustainability.

The expert jury awarded the UAntwerp Horse Market site because it is a real model file:

The project was thoughtfully tackled, consistently implemented and realised in a short time.
The adaptation of a severely outdated school building into a contemporary educational institution presented many challenges.
Yet an appropriate solution was sought for each challenge while preserving the heritage value.
The University of Antwerp turned an unstructured building complex into a coherent whole where it is pleasant to study again.

Colleague Barbara Arts looks back on the journey and remembers that adapting the historic buildings to current thermal and acoustic comfort requirements while not losing sight of the heritage value of the campus and the guidelines of Real Estate Heritage was the biggest challenge for her.

Fire

The team also had a nice task ahead of them in terms of fire engineering. They are confident that their advice will allow the students to move safely between the old and new building parts.

Circular

The Paardenmarkt site was part of the grant-funded research project "School building projects tendered circularly? Yes we can!" from Flanders Circular. Colleague Katrien Van Lierop and the UA hope to use their lessons learned to encourage a broad (construction) public to build more circularly.