CROWN AVENUE
LOCATION / Brussels, Belgium
CLIENT / Immomills Development - Batipont Immobilier
PARTNER / Projetc consortium
ASSAR - A.2R.C - AVA and Interior design
AREA / 31 000 sqm above ground
PROGRAM / Office
PROJECT / 1989 - 2002
STATUS / Built 2005
The Crown Avenue building, in Avenue de la Couronne, completes the redevelopment of the site of the former Military Hospital. The redevelopment has proven a genuine social, urban and commercial success. This constitutes the office section (25%) of the redevelopment programme. It is an elegant, lasting response to the requirement to fit in over a length of almost 220 metres between two conserved historic buildings. The architectural section proposed is in a comb shape, with the spine of the comb backing onto Avenue Hergé; from it emanate the six wings perpendicular to Avenue de la Couronne. The integration of this complex into its environment is illustrated particularly by the legibility of the six autonomous entities which form it. They are grouped in pairs around a shared covered patio. The three entities formed in this way are separated by two open patios accessible to the residents. The complex can work as an entity of six, three,or as a single entity; moreover, each of them may be subdivided into half-floors. The taut and rounded forms of the canopies span the three atria. These, like the two open patios (gardens), are enhanced by plants whose colours change with the seasons, with compositions of gravel, beige and grey stone, galvanised steel and exotic wood in symbiosis with the sets of façades and the pathways.