Archinect - News

Peek inside the slick new gallery spaces at the reopened Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp

2022-09-28T13:16:00-04:00

Today, it appears unchanged from the outside. But an entirely new building has been inserted within the existing footprint. Twenty-first century white cube galleries have been incorporated into the original structure, increasing the exhibition space by 40%.

Following a major 11-year-long, $96 million restoration led by Rotterdam-based firm KAAN Architecten, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) finally reopened in Belgium.

Photo: Karin Borghouts

KAAN Architecten’s work combined a renovation of the 19th-century neoclassical museum building, originally designed by Belgian architects Jean-Jacques Winders and Frans Van Dijk, with the addition of a contemporary extension nestled within the original structure. The firm revived the original colors, materials, and routing of the historic space.

Photo: Karin Borghouts

The new interior building is defined by white exhibition halls, long staircases, hidden rooms, and daylight provided through four light wells.

Take a look at interior shots of the new gallery spaces below.

Photo: Karin Borghouts

Belgian crematorium designed by KAAN Architecten to be a peaceful oasis

2018-11-14T15:44:00-05:00

Located in the Belgian countryside, the recently completed Crematorium Sisegem has been designed by KAAN Architecten as a peaceful oasis. In Belgium, crematoria typically have a more complex programming than in other countries and are commonly used as spaces for gathering, enjoying a meal, and reconnecting with friends and family, says the architects. To help encourage a site of introspection for visitors, the Dutch firm designed a restrained space that can be interpreted and used differently by each individual.

The surrounding landscape, laid out by Brussels designer Erik Dhont, has been carefully devised to help slow down visitors and provide a sense of clam upon arrival. The service road for hearses was arranged to be out of view entirely, while the adjacent hills have been dedicated for scattered ashes and an urn garden. To the north, a pond serves as a reservoir for rainwater and to provide a sense of calm.

The site has been ...

KAAN Architecten designs transparent CUBE study hall for Tilburg University

2018-09-25T20:46:00-04:00

Tilburg University in The Netherlands has a new Education and Self Study Center known as the CUBE that was designed by Dutch practice KAAN Architecten. Tucked away in the northwest corner of campus and completed this past April, the 11,000 m2 building serves the university's faculty and 2,200 students.

Photo © Sebastian van Damme.

Designed with a homogenous layout and no closed-off facades, the compact building features a pared down aesthetic that blends into its green landscape and surrounding buildings on campus, such as the historic Cobbenhagen building built back in the 1960s.

Photo © Sebastian van Damme.

The interior is a spacious study plaza flanked by a transparent auditorium and two patios, KAAN describes. It also features open study spaces, lounges, a cafeteria, a gracefully spiraling staircase, and four open staircases. The glass-walled auditorium comprises of fully equipped lecture rooms, green patios, and smaller spaces for independent study.

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KAAN Architecten completes a new base for the Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay in France

2018-09-12T15:16:00-04:00

The new Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay (ISMO) was recently completed by Dutch firm KAAN Architecten. The institute moved into their new building as part of the Université Paris-Saclay's future campus in Orsay, France.

Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay (ISMO) by KAAN Architecten, located in Orsay, FR. © Fernando-Guerra

Located about 12 miles outside of Paris in Plateau de Saclay, the science institute is a grouping of physics laboratories, an educational building, housing, offices, and a reception center for international researchers.

Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay (ISMO) by KAAN Architecten, located in Orsay, FR. © Fernando-Guerra

The firm's design is centered around an urban-meets-rural idea with a concrete rectangle amidst the for...

KAAN Architecten completes Utopia, a library and academy for performing arts in Belgium

2018-06-26T16:06:00-04:00

Utopia, the Library and Academy for Performing Arts, has recently opened in it's new building designed by KAAN Architecten. Located in Aalst, Belgium, the brick structure incorporates a historic school building from 1880 embedded within.

Taking its cue from Thomas More’s acclaimed book "Utopia" (first printed by a citizen of Aalst), KAAN Architecten's building features an entrance located on an intimate square between the reading café and the auditorium.

Moving through tall, wide openings in the brickwork the structure opens to several thick concrete floors that appearing to float. Hanging at...

Take a look at KAAN Architecten's new offices inside a 1950s-era Rotterdam building

2016-11-23T12:27:00-05:00

Just steps away from the iconic Erasmus Bridge, a new office for KAAN Architecten has joins the crowd of notable buildings in the heart of the Dutch city of Rotterdam. The project transformed 1,400 square meters of a site with a storied history. Designed by Henri Timo Zwiers in the mid-fifties, the structure was built on the grounds a former synagogue that was destroyed in the Second World War. Originally the premises of De Nederlandsche Bank, the building’s bright open spaces and rectangular floor plan lend itself well to an architecture office.

KAAN restored the industrial concrete structure, and counterbalanced the rough concrete with dark walnut. “The harmonious interaction between the warm comfort of the wood and the pre-existing concrete structure, envelopes the atmosphere in a graceful yet monumental feeling,” writes KAAN Architecten.

“The notion of sharing of knowledge is at the core of the division of spaces and the interior design of the new office. This rough space has the ...