Architect: TM Office Winhov – HUB
Client: AG Vespa
Timing: 2024 -
Status: Design phase
Photographer: Filippo Bolognese
Advisors: Ney & Partners (stability), Ingenium (techniques), Atelier Horizon (landscape) and FPC (fire)
The City of Antwerp has an impressive heritage collection consisting of some 800,000 items: art, heritage pieces, archaeological finds. To manage that collection in the future in a safe, efficient and dynamic way and to preserve it under optimal and future-proof conditions, AG Vespa is building a brand new collection centre in the future Pomppark Zuid.
The building aims for a minimal ecological footprint and maximum sustainability as a global and integral approach combined with great flexibility and maximum storage capacity to respond to changing needs of a living archive. The client's sustainability ambitions are high.
To realise these ambitions, we support the design team as sustainability consultant and GRO coordinator.
The principles of Climate Responsive Design are applied to the building structure and the building envelope of the depot. We do this to realise a passive building concept that achieves a robust and stable climate with a minimum of techniques (without active heating) and energy consumption.
We also focus on various sustainability aspects in and around the building, such as biodiversity, water management, a circular and future-oriented design, well-considered material choices (using TOTEM) and a large share of renewable energy.
Our approach is holistic and places the building in its wider context. The collection centre is located in a green area that will soon be renamed Pomppark Zuid and become part of Antwerp's Ringpark. We investigated how this project could become an ecological stepping stone within De Grote Verbinding, the green-blue network that will surround the city of Antwerp.
Based on species knowledge and preliminary research, the focus was on bird species such as the swift and black redstart, as well as mammals such as the common dwarf bat and various insect species. We also reviewed flora concepts such as a spontaneous greenbelt and climate roofs.
