Name: Nils Ewen, Max Wasserbäch
Track: Architecture
Studio: Interiors Buildings Cities
Year: MSc2 / 2025
Type: Design project
Tutor: Sereh Mandias, Susanne Pietsch, Leontine de Wit, Dirk Somers
Description:
How can a non-functioning building be brought back to life? De Singel in Antwerp is a major cultural hub with a long history and diverse users: a conservatory, concert halls, a theatre, and the Flemish Architecture Institute. It once also hosted a radio station and other cultural actors. Over the course of five decades, the complex has been expanded in multiple phases, becoming increasingly complex and fragmented. Today, the different institutions coexist under one roof but lack both ideological and physical interfaces. This project is dedicated to the task of transforming the building in a way that reconnects its users, while intervening only minimally to respect the integrity of the historical architecture. At the heart of the proposal lies the inadequate interface between the concert halls and the east wing, which houses the VAI, the dance school, the main exhibition space, and the theatre. At present, this transition is marked only by a modest, easily overlooked passage with a double door. This threshold also separates the first construction phase by Léon Stynen from the polarizing 1990s extension by Stéphane Beel. The design envisions a multifunctional space serving as a transformative zone between different usage scenarios, ranging from large-scale events with over 1000 visitors to the daily activities of music and dance students. A central café acts as a connective core, accommodating all possible scenarios. Materially, the architectural intervention reinterprets the existing fabric while integrating itself discreetly into the overall building.