XAVEER DE GEYTER ARCHITECTS

The commission for the Hotel school campus in Anderlecht features masterplanning, renovation and addition. The existing components of the campus were to be upgraded and renovated to provide a boarding school, 5, teaching facilities and study areas. Furthermore, a new tower building composed almost entirely of fully functioning kitchen classrooms was inserted within the campus serving both as an internal orientation point and as a landmark towards the nearby main ring road of Brussels which skirts one edge of the campus. The organization of the tower itself is largely driven by the efficient delivery and extraction of air to the heavily mechanized kitchen classrooms. Along three sides of these 12 stacked square floors of kitchens, a series of vertical service cores provide not only technical support to the kitchens in the form of lifts, ductwork, toilets and escape stairs but also structural support allowing all floors to be entirely flexible, free from structure and enjoying all round panoramic views of the city. Externally, a slender glass façade minimally wraps the floor plates while the various vertical cores lend each façade a unique yet consistent character.

source: Office web