The new Port House in Antwerp by Zaha Hadid Architects repurposes, renovates and extends a derelict fire station into a new headquarters for Europe’s second largest shipping port.
Port House in Antwerp
On a 16,400 sqm area, Zaha Hadid Architects renovated Antwerp’s port – the second largest in Europe – with a vertical extension that doesn’t hide the original buildings.
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- 26 September 2016
- Antwerp
Bringing together 500 staff that previously worked in separate buildings around the city, the port holds 12 km of docks, serving 15,000 sea trade ships and 60,000 inland barges each year. Antwerp handles 26% of Europe’s container shipping, transporting more than 200 million tonnes of goods via the ocean-going vessels that call at the port and providing direct employment for over 60,000 people, including more than 8,000 port workers. Indirectly, the Port of Antwerp ensures about 150,000 jobs and has ambitious targets for future expansion to meet the continent’s growth and development over the next century.
Working with Origin, heritage consultants in the restoration and renovation of historic monuments, ZHA’s studies of the site’s history and heritage were the foundations of the design which firstly emphasises the north-south site axis parallel with the Kattendijkdok linking the city centre to the port.
Secondly, due to its location surrounded by water, the building’s four elevations are considered of equal importance with no principal facade. ZHA’s design is an elevated extension, rather than a neighbouring volume which would have concealed at least one of the existing facades.
Surrounded by water, the new extension’s façade is a glazed surface that ripples like waves and reflects the changing tones and colours of the city’s sky. Triangular facets allow the apparently smooth curves at either end of the building to be formed with flat sheets of glass. They also facilitate the gradual transition from a flat façade at the south end of the building to a rippling surface at the north.
Port House, Antwerp, Belgium
Program: port renovation and extension
Architects: Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA)
Team: Zaha Hadid, Patrik Schumacher, Joris Pauwels, Jinmi Lee, Florian Goscheff, Monica Noguero, Kristof Crolla, Naomi Fritz, Sandra Riess, Muriel Boselli, Susanne Lettau
Executive architects: Bureau Bouwtechniek
Structural engineering: Studieburo Mouton Bvba
Service engineering: Ingenium Nv
Aucustics: Daidalos Peutz
Total floor area: 12,800 sqm
New floor area: 6,200 sqm
Site area: 16,400 sqm
Total height: 46 m
Completion: 2016