'Hof Ten Bos' Boarding house Brasschaat


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'Hof Ten Bos' Boarding house Brasschaat exterior (enlarged view in image gallery)

Photos: Michael De Lausnay

  • 'Hof Ten Bos' Boarding house Brasschaat exterior
  • 'Hof Ten Bos' Boarding house Brasschaat exterior
  • 'Hof Ten Bos' Boarding house Brasschaat exterior
  • 'Hof Ten Bos' Boarding house Brasschaat exterior
  • 'Hof Ten Bos' Boarding house Brasschaat exterior
  • 'Hof Ten Bos' Boarding house Brasschaat interior
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  • Status:

    Realized

  • Education type:

    GO! Education of the Flemish Community

  • Address:

    Lage Kaart 538, 2930 Brasschaat

  • Client:

    GO! Education of the Flemish Community

  • Contest:

    Open Call 1

  • Programme:

    Extension of boarding house

  • Area:

    517m2

  • Number of classrooms:

    27 individual rooms, 3 rooms for 4 children


Extending a modernist building into the landscape

The existing building on the site was built in 1937 from a design of the well-known Antwerp architect Léon Stynen, as a holiday resort for children convalescing from tuberculosis. The building is now used as a boarding house for pupils in various GO! community education schools in the immediate environment.

An older country house is situated at the back of the wooded estate. The old villa could no longer be used for sleeping accommodation because of fire safety considerations. For the girls whose bedrooms had been accommodated for some time in prefabricated pavilions, it was therefore necessary to build a new wing. Individual rooms were arranged for the boys in the old dormitories in the listed sanatorium building. A great deal of attention was also devoted to fire safety there. The open steel staircase which opens directly onto the communal area was not an obvious choice from the point of view of fire safety. However, the open space has an intrinsic quality and is a valuable feature of the listed building. The building is transparent and the interior is very bright. The communal leisure areas and the dining hall are in the main building. Therefore only daytime activities are carried out there.

The extension aims at a dialogue with Stynen’s building through a structure with a dynamic appearance. A series of concrete porches placed side by side are linked in three dimensions by horizontal beams either at the cornice or at the plinth of the building. This creates a rhythmic pattern in the façade and serves as a playful answer to the rational structure of columns in Léon Stynen’s floorplan. The extension consists of two wings parallel to the original building at the front and perpendicular to the later extension. This results in interesting indoor areas where old and new come together.

The wing for the youngest children consists of one floor with a series of rooms on one side of the corridor, for four children each. The wing for the older children has two stories and rooms on either side of the corridor. The individual rooms can be joined together in pairs with sliding doors. The corridors in the new wings both end in french doors which look out over the surrounding area. The corridors form an axis which cuts across the existing building. The new wings were not built onto the existing building, but are connected to it with glass corridors. Together with the large expanses of glazing, this results in a composition of new and old buildings with interesting views. It is easy to find your way around in the building and you can feel the beautiful wooded environment everywhere in the building.