Highlighting its Rationalist Framing and Form and Resonating with The Color of The City
The City Palace Apartments and Office Complex is a mixed-use building by Dutch architects Atelier Kempe Thill located in the Nieuw Zuid neighborhood of Antwerp, Belgium. The orthogonal volume has a square footprint of 45m x 45m and its rectangular five-story northern facade faces a new square, Panaramkoplein. The building steps down to three stories on the south.
All exterior sides are surrounded by two-story arcade of slender columns. The 3.5m-high first (ground) floor hosts restaurants and shops, and the 3.2m-high second floor hosts offices. The building encloses an inner courtyard of 15.7m x 14.4 with sight-lines through the entire building. Three upper residential floors, each 2.7m high, are recessed from the courtyard by a ring of 2.5m-wide open balcony access. A three-story public underground car park is accessed on the west side of the building, and on the east side a glazed section provides residential access and a view from the street to the courtyard. The courtyard plinth area is executed in grey cement plaster ground and its garden is marble gravel in which green bearskin grass and a Persian Argan tree are planted.
All apartments extend into 2.5m-wide private balconies on the exterior facades, These balconies flow into south-facing roof terraces, some of which are larger than the apartments themselves, creating the impression of living in a suburban family house. Corner balconies are wider and on the top floor apartments have three sides of balcony. The concrete building frame carries sunscreen canopies, and also diverges from its grid height to 4.1 over the terraces, onto which the balconies are extended. The terraces enable green roof planting. The top floor parapets integrate hidden services elements such as solar panels. Above the top floor is a landscaped roof terrace for all residents.
The terraces create a uniformity on the outer façade despite the different dimensions of the apartments behind them. All mid-facade apartments have the same balcony length, and their lift-and-slide windows allow the living rooms to be completely opened out. Window frames are made of anodized and polished aluminum.
The materiality of the City Palace’s concrete and Spanish limestone resonates with the colors of Antwerp and its gray skies, and, along with its rationalist framing and form, expresses a new urban monumentality.
Project: ZUIDERPLEIN ANTWERP / Location: André Delvauxpad – Michel de Braeystraat, BE 2000 Antwerp / Architect: Atelier Kempe Thill architects and planners / Design parking garage in collaboration with: POLO.architects / Project team: Atelier Kempe Thill architects and planners, Rotterdam NL, André Kempe, Oliver Thill, Ruud Smeelen with: Marc van Bemmel, Anna Speakman, Kento Tanabe / Structural engineer: VK architects & engineers, Merelbeke BE / Building services engineer: VK architects & engineers, Merelbeke BE / General contractor: Interbuild, Wilrijk BE / Client: Triple Living nv / Site area: block 14, block 15 – 0,65 ha, block 14 – 0,35 ha. / Gross floor area: block 14, block 15, parking – 29.860 m² , block 14 excl. parking – 6.060m² , block 14 incl. parking – 16.035m² / Gross volume: block 14 excl. parking – 25.105m³ , block 14 incl. parking – 57.150m³ / Window frames: Reynaers, CP155-LS hi, polished, Reynaers, CW50-hi, polished / Doors galleries: Reynears, Masterline 8, hi+, polished / Extruded aluminium cornice: E-max profiles, custom made profile, polished / Insulated glass: Sprimoglass, Optima (triple) and UltraOne (double) / Natural stone cladding: Azul Bateig, Novelda-Alicante (Spain) / Timber wood flooring: Larix Sibirica / Postbox: JU- Metallwarenfabrik, Gerabronn D / Lighting galleries: Norlys asker 1514 / Lighting terraces: Mimik flat mono / Cost: total building budget(block 14, 15 and parking incl. technical installations excl. vat) – € 23.208.495,- budget block 14 incl. parking(block 14, parking incl. technical installations excl. vat) – € 13.545.795,- / Commission: 2016 – 2019 / Design: 2016-2017 / Execution: 2017 – 2019 / Date preliminary delivery: 04.06.2019 / Photograph: Architektur-Fotografie Ulrich Schwarz
