White steal on the outskirts of Gent, by CAAN Architecten

Description of the project by CAAN Architecten

CAAN architects made the design of the new offices of Lootens Line, constructor of steal joinery. On the old site of a wood construction company the warehouse was maintained, renovated and extended. Where the offices used to be, in between the warehouse, the public road and 'het Schipdonkkanaal' the small office part was completely torn down and a new building was planted. On top of all that, the new office had to give a functional and architectural solution for the problem of the level difference: the public road is situated as a barrier, more than 1 meter higher between the channel and the warehouse.

Concept.

The 3-floor office building is integrated in the volumetry of the existing warehouse and is completed with new white isolated front panels. The height of the new building is perfectly tuned with the existing warehouse. The new volume has been detached from the warehouse on the first and second floor. Because of this, new north faced façades, who give maximum of day light into the offices and new views into the warehouse, are born.Both the water side of the warehouse and the water side of the office building are finished with a white grainy texture with a game of square windows. These square windows have many functions, they provide the warehouse and the office with sunlight, they give a wonderful view over the canal, they make sure there is a correlation between the offices and the workplace and there is also a filtered visibility between the public road and the entire company. An extra front façade has been made on the street side (south façade). This rhombic-shaped carbon grill gives an extra texture to the volume but is mainly used to give the office an optimal sun blinding.The horizontal panels of the cutouts were completely finalized as green roofs, reinforced with 3 tree tops, planted in the patios on the ground floor. The patios bring daylight to the deeper functions on the ground floor.

Program.

For a better acces, the entrance and the reception are situated on a higher street level. The other ground floor places are situated 1 meter below, thus at the same level of the warehouse. Three meeting rooms, a show room and a small auditorium are situated around the 3 patios. The personnel space with kitchen and the roof terrace are situated above the main entrance.

Much bigger, on the left side, we can find mainly offices, on the first floor the study office and the offices for the project leaders. On the second floor a roof terrace, a meeting room and the director's office. By not building in the central zone long nice canal views arise over the green roofs.

Steel joinery.

It goes without saying that the entire project, joinery and façade is manufactured in steel, this in consultation with Jan Lootens (Managing Director) and Johan Dervaux (Head Study Office).

Starting with glazed tunnels, large elegant office façades, transparent façades, fire proof windows, to a large pivoting entrance door.

Low energy office building.

The low energy office building is provided with a maximum of innovating technologies, going from triple glazing, a heating pump, a ventilation system D, green roofs with a thickness of 30cm, to solar panels on the roof of the warehouse.

The heating and cooling of the building is provided by an integrated heating pump that gets its energy from the water of the canal.