Hasta La Ideas

Dutch designer Piet Boon has transformed the interior of a former military hospital chapel in Antwerp, Belgium, into a contemporary restaurant featuring a sculptural chandelier.

Piet Boon‘s Amsterdam studio worked with lighting designers .PSLAB and artists Studio Job on the interior of The Jane restaurant, combining modern elements with the chapel’s high ceilings and patterned tile floor.

“The main features we retained in The Jane were the ceiling, of which the peeling paintwork was preserved, and the original pottery floor tiles,” the design team told Dezeen.

Described by the designers as “fine dining meets rock ‘n roll”, the restaurant accommodates its kitchen in the church’s former altar.

.PSLAB’s large chandelier made from steel and hand-blown crystal glass forms a centrepiece in the restaurant. Thin steel poles extend out in all directions from its central cylinder, with small crystal globes attached to the end of each one.

Black circular tables and pale green armchairs sit beneath the chandelier, while larger seating areas are positioned against the walls.

Studio Job created 500 colourful glass window panels to replace the former stained-glass windows.

Referencing “stories of good and evil, rich and poor, life and death as well as good food and religion”, the panels include images of sunflowers, devils and skulls.

A marble-topped bar is installed on an upper-level viewing platform and surrounded by black upholstered bar stools. An illuminated skull light hangs down at the rear of the space.

Bespoke speakers were also installed to “spread sound”, reducing noise and echo from the high ceilings. “The acoustics of the restaurant play an important role in speech intelligibility and ambiance,” added the designers.

Here’s some information from Piet Boon:

‘Divine’ fine dining experience The Jane opens its doors March 25th

Michelin-star chef Sergio Herman and chef Nick Bril created their “fine dining meets rock ‘n roll” restaurant vision together with Piet Boon over three years ago in a mythical location in Antwerp; the chapel of a former military hospital. Piet Boon® Studio, responsible for the interior design and styling of The Jane, since then collaborated in the chapel’s unique transformation into a high-end, contemporary restaurant with international allure where experience is key.

Piet Boon

Based on her belief in authenticity, functionality and materials that ‘age beautifully’ the studio chose to restore only the highly necessary in the chapel and hence preserve the rest. The original ceiling amongst others conveys the pure, understated and respectful environment that serves as the authentic host for the ultimate fine dining experience.

The original altar gave way to the kitchen that – just like the atelier – is embraced by glass, like a modern shrine. It allows guests to witness everything the team creates for them.

The shared passion of Herman, Bril and Boon to work with pure, rich materials is expressed in the interior in which qualitatively outstanding natural stone, leather and oak wood are used.

Moreover Piet Boon® Studio, as with many of her projects, collaborated with a number of leading creative partners to shape the “fine dining meets rock ‘n roll” character of the overall experience. Studio Job, Mathieu Nab and .PSLAB and others each delivered their signature part within the total concept.

Studio Job

Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel of Studio Job designed the windows consisting of 500 unique panels. Inspired by the chapel’s original function, foam spatulas, sunflowers, devils, skulls, babies, Jesus on the cross, dice, apple cores, wrenches, ice cream cones, a canon, croissants, penguins, trophies, gas masks and birthday cakes portray a contemporary translation of the old stained-glass windows. Archetypes from various worlds each tell masterpiece stories of good and evil, rich and poor, life and death as well as good food and religion.

.PSLAB

The ‘piece de résistance’ in the centre of the restaurant is a 800 kilograms-weighing gigantic chandelier of 12 by 9 meters with over 150 lights, designed by the Beirut-based design studio .PSLAB. The chandelier was created in such a way that it contributes to the intimate and ambient divinity of the chapel interior. The team, specialised in the design and production of site-specific contemporary lighting, laid out an overall lighting plan for The Jane to accentuate the unique elements of both the building and the interior. It is aimed to create a scenic ambience by seamlessly combining artistry and engineering.

SERAX

Together with Belgian company SERAX, specialised in decoration accessories, Piet Boon® designed tableware that conveys a shared passion for attention to detail and perfection. Base by Piet Boon® is a high quality bone white porcelain collection combining functionality and design. The tableware has high thermal stability, is lead- and cadmium free and will be featured in the The Jane’s Upper Room Bar.

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as a restaurant by Piet Boon appeared first on Dezeen.

This retirement home near Antwerp was designed by Belgian studio Areal Architecten around a pair of courtyards to avoid creating identical rooms along endless rows of corridors.

Areal Architecten wanted the Mayerhof Care Campus to be “a place to grow old with dignity”, rather than a sequence of characterless rooms.

“Such a scheme is a victory for the functionality of these buildings, but a defeat for the domesticity of it,” explained architect Jurgen Vandewalle.

The three-storey complex accommodates 148 residential units within a single building, which features a plan loosely based on a figure of eight. This allowed residences to be grouped into clusters around the two courtyards.

“Each room gets either a view towards these open spaces in the heart of the nursing home or to the green area around the building,” said Vandewalle.

The largest of the two courtyards is accessible to all residents, while a series of balconies and roof terraces provide accessible outdoor spaces on the upper levels.

Break-out spaces are dotted across all three floors to encourage residents to interact with their neighbours. There are also several common areas where they can dine or socialise together.

“Mayerhof Care Campus acts as a small town where functionality and domesticity merge into a fresh environment, and where social interaction, security and integration of people with different needs are in the centre,” added the architect.

The architect used a combination of timber and aluminium cladding to give the building its gridded facade. While the reflective metal provides horizontal stripes, the timber sections alternate with windows in between.

Areal Architecten has also completed three separate buildings on the site, which provide assisted living for up to 40 residents with disabilities. These structures feature masonry walls with exposed concrete beams.

Pathways run across the complex in different directions and three vehicular entrances lead into different car parking areas.

Photography is by Tim Van De Velde.

Read on for a project description by Areal Architecten:

Elderly Care Campus in Mortsel

Nursing homes and other social services are often interpreted according to the same pattern: countless rooms linked together by long corridors. Such a scheme is a victory for the functionality of these buildings, but a defeat for the domesticity of it. In care area Mayerhof the limits of this rational scheme are questioned, while space is created in which a community can grow. Various additions of communal and open areas add to the domesticity of the place.

By positioning the nursing home in a figure of eight on the site an infinite circulation that connects all the rooms on every floor with each other arises. In this functional diagram however, places where social interaction arises are inserted. At each corner of the figure open spaces create space for interaction. The linear corridor folds around two large voids, creating various perspectives and a sense of overview in the building.

As the program towards the upper floors is diminishing, terraces arise on every floor with an optimal orientation and protected from the wind. Each room gets either view towards these open spaces in the heart of the nursing home or to the green area around the building. The result is a very light volume that is bathed in natural light and space.

Besides nursing, three separate volumes provide assisted living, as stately sentinels overlooking the existing nursing home. Large openings with terraces located in a residential area that acts between the nursing home and the surrounding housing. All properties counting two or three facades allowing natural light to invade the living spaces are bundled with a widened corridor that houses the common functions.

The new buildings are implanted into the free space on the site around the existing nursing home, which remained in use during the works. After the demolition a green zone is liberated embraced by the new nursing home and assisted living residences. The joint residential area and the underground passage bind the different functions together. Otherwise they set themselves as autonomous parts, but live as integrated components of a unique residential care setting with a focus on lifelong living and care.

The choice for three entrances to the site, the construction of streets and indoor spaces and buildings that vary in size and appearance makes this new environment reminiscent of an urban fabric and is way different than the monotonous environments where such programs are mostly housed. The various functions dress in a different architecture. The nursing home is built in a reflective aluminium cladding used as canvas to the sunlight. The assisted living residences have a stately finish in masonry with exposed concrete ring beams.

Mayerhof Care Campus acts as a small town where functionality and domesticity merge into a fresh environment, and where social interaction, security and integration of people with different needs are in the centre. A community bound together by a rational structure, a place to grow old with dignity.

Client: Sint-Carolus Mayerhof vzw
Building cost: elderly care 148 beds – 12.600.000 euro, assisted living 40 units – 5.600.000 euro
Surface: elderly care 10.104 m² + assisted living 3884 m² + underground parking 1229m²
Structural engineering: ABT België nv
Technical studies: VK Engineering nv
Construction: MBG (CFE)

The post Areal Architecten’s Mayerhof retirement home
wraps around two courtyards appeared first on Dezeen.

London, Paris, Milan and New York are usually the first cities that come to mind as the breeding grounds of art and culture. Yet it’s in Antwerp, Belgium (with a population of around 500,000), where the ); return…

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Five jumping-off points when visiting Antwerp’s new impressive museum

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Building as exhibition: the Guggenheim pioneered the larger-than-life model we’ve come to expect from any international museum worth its salt. New York and Bilbao have their Guggenheims, and Rome has its MAXXI. Now, Antwerp has its own iconic piece of museum architecture and it’s poised to make the medieval Flemish town a global destination. The Museum aan de Stroom opened last weekend to an estimated 100,000 visitors, including the Belgian royal family. (Yes, they’ve got a royal family.)

First, some context. Antwerp is a harbor village with a massive port more than seven times the size of its commercial center. In the 1600s, the city was the seat of the Dutch superpower, establishing the nation’s merchant status for centuries to come. Though Antwerp now belongs to Belgium and Chinese harbors have taken precedence in the world’s shipping market, it’s still a city defined by its watery borders. And it’s there, just off the River Scheldt between the historic city center and the up-and-coming industrial neighborhood het Eilandje, that the MAS Museum steps into its starring role.

An icon the city elders ordered, and an icon they got, with a striking ten-story monolith of stacked boxes in alternating red Indian limestone and undulating glass. The architects, Neutelings Riedijk from Rotterdam, rotated each level 90 degrees, allowing the escalators to ascend around the perimeter of the museum. The effect is a moving viewing platform affording wraparound views of the city, from the Gothic Cathedral of Our Lady to the domed Centraal Station to the grittier docklands and warehouses in the immediate vicinity of MAS.

The exhibition spaces, designed by B Architecten, highlight the social and economic culture of the Dutch lowlands and draw from the permanent collections of Antwerp’s more established museums. The 470,000 objects come from three of the city’s historical museums, along with temporary exhibitions of pieces from the contemporary art museum, MuHKA, and the Koninklijk fine arts museum, currently closed for renovation. Highlights include the Wunderkammer (“cabinet of curiosities”) pairing Northern Renaissance still life paintings with found objects and scientific artifacts, and a floor devoted to harbor history, including miniature ship models and counterfeit goods seized from the ports. All eight floors of exhibition space are outfitted in interactive technology as well — should you be curious about that minutely detailed illustrated map of Antwerp from 1566, use the handy QR code to go back in time to the 16th century.

Taking the international and interactive themes online, MAS Museum also offers a quirky virtual tour on its website. From your computer, you can reserve a real live museum guide and steer them through the building according to what you want to see. For the less dictatorial, a video library lets you experience the museum inside and out.

Those visiting the museum in person should take note that beyond the fascinating works on display within and the impressive exterior are some places of note not to be missed. Ranging from a cafe perched upon the River Scheldt that offers stunning views to a young gallery with an eye for works that rival what is housed at the main attraction, here are our five recommendations for places to visit after you’ve had your fill of everything this new cultural landmark has to offer.

Bar Berlin

Bar Berlin is a dark and roomy all-day affair that acts as a cafe, meeting spot, and at night, a bustling bar with attractive young Antwerpers and their international friends. Order a bolleke, the Antwerp nickname for the local pale ale by De Koninck brewery. Kleine Markt 1

Viar

One of the standout shops on the antique-heavy thoroughfare of Kloosterstraat, Viar offers both hand-picked vintage costumes and blue-chip furniture and objets d’art: mid-century Italian desks, Baroque floor mirrors, and sinuous silver candlesticks. Kloosterstraat, 65

Glenns Restaurant

Gilded in a heavy helping of Dutch design and Tom Dixon lighting, Glenns Restaurant is carved out of a former garage near the fine arts museum and named after Antwerp’s most famous hairdresser (yes). The menu is a careful, but not overly precious, demonstration of local seafood and crisp, elegant wines. Graaf van Egmontstraat 39

Zuiderterras Cafe

Zuiderterras – A ship-like restaurant on the banks of the River Schedlt with ridiculous views, Zuiderterras Cafe is where locals go to pretend they’re tourists. The food is straightforward, but the swoon induced by a killer sunset adds a memorable sheen to the proceedings. Ernest van Dijckkaai 37

Office Baroque Gallery

Office Baroque Gallery has been showing the work of international artists (including Cool Hunting favorites Mathew Cerletty and Matthew Brannon) for three years. Their space promises intelligent exhibitions for discovering rising talent. Lange Kievitstraat 48

The iconic Antwerp style of one of fashion’s most beloved photography duos

Almost as legendary as their subjects, creative husband-and-wife duo, Inge Grognard and Ronald Stoops are steeped in Antwerp’s fashion scene heyday of the early ’80s. With Stoops behind the lens and Gorgnard supplying the make up direction, the pair have created shoots, catwalk shows and spreads for some of the world’s biggest magazines, and indeed some of the icons of contemporary fashion.

“Inge Grognard/Ronald Stoops“, the new book from publishers Ludion, acts as an anthology of over 30 years’ collaboration between the two. Twisting the format slightly, the tome focuses on the non-commercial work, giving readers a better insight into the influences, outlook and their relationship as creative partners.

“This book starts and ends with a scream,” says Grognard, conjuring up an emblematic visualization of their work if there ever was one. “The scream symbolizes how Ronald and I communicate. To outsiders the way we work together must come across as very harsh. We tend to yell at each other a lot and discussions can easily get out of hand,” she continues.

The approach must work though, with a clear tension running through the narratives of the resulting imagery. It’s this same emotional pressure which runs through the book itself, seizing the viewer as they navigate through the fragile, beautiful and the brutal.

As far as elevating the importance of taking in outside influences into ones creative work, the title “Inge Grognard/Ronald Stoops” reinforces just how tightly-knit the Antwerp fashion scene was during its formative years. Stylists, designers, photographers and graphic artists all fed into each other to create that now-recognizable Antwerp style, its progression captured perfectly in this fine title.

“Inge Grognard/Ronald Stoops” hits bookstores at the end of October 2010 with a sticker price of €40.