DUMO

Dieter Van Caneghem

• Architects

Our design team won the competition around the Neo-Gothic Hotel Dumont in Antwerp.
Client is a collaboration between the organizations "Literatuur Vlaanderen" and "Iedereen Leest".

Their wish is to transform Hotel Dumont into a challenging and innovative project, a meeting place of Flanders literature. They want to integrate new offices and a meeting center inside the building.

ZOOM architects answers with an out-of-the-box solution. We demolish the extensions and bring the historic back to its maximum quality. We integrate a new central pavilion inside the courtyard to reactivate the open space. The ground floor of the site serves as a semi-public area which is open to both streets limiting the site.

photo_credit Dieter Van Caneghem — Dieter Van Caneghem

The restauration strategy in collab wit Callebaut architects.

Apart from the interventions on the rear facade and the necessary repair works to ensure the preservation of the building, no interventions are planned on the outer shell. On the inside, the building will be tackled very pragmatically and purely refreshed whereby the use of space of the existing spaces has largely been preserved, but made more accessible and livable through the integration of elevator, sanitary facilities and kitchenettes. Techniques are integrally renewed as well as the stability problems of the various floors were addressed.

Due to the great spatial qualities of the building, a renovation and interior design project was drawn up with maximum respect for the historic building in which we searched for very simple and reversible solutions to integrate the desired modern techniques.

CLOSED OFF

The rear facade of historic Hotel Dumont has been violated by the construction of a parish hall.
The quality of the inner area largely disappears. An urban potential on hold.

REMOVE

As a design team, we demolish the extension and restore Hotel Dumont to its maximum intrinsic quality. The inner area becomes reusable.

ADDITION

A new addition tailored to the specific demand and program. A centrally located meeting pavilion surrounded by as much outdoor space as possible. The ground floor of the site as a semi-public area. Openness and fordability of the inner area is hereby preserved and enhanced.

THE LITERARY COURTYARD GARDEN

The vacant space will be designed as a public garden between the garden walls of the city. A place to read & enjoy greenery, peace & quiet.

In the center of the garden we build a transparent garden pavilion. A perimeter in glass defines a bib as an open space, its boundary is further away as a brick wall. A (permeable) paving spreads around the volume and fans out towards the garden wall. From outside to inside, we introduce a gradient of greenery.

The site is fordable from north to south: the public can circulate freely through the entrance gate of the Hotel Dumont, along the literary courtyard and under the translator's house. The vacant inner area becomes a (semi) public, open green outdoor space.

The garden pavilion becomes a multipurpose building, the garden is its extension. In addition to reading, they will provide space for meetings, accessing collections, eating together and hosting different types of events, from receptions to lectures & temporary exhibitions.

THE BOOKCASE AS A MEETING PAVILION

The building is conceived as a giant bookcase in a walled garden. Here collections can literally be exhibited. The main goal of Iedereen Leest and Literatuur Vlaanderen is to promote the reading of books.

Around this rectangular bookcase we provide a radial perimeter in glass. The ground floor of the new meeting library as the place to meet, eat, consult books & archives, etc.. The glass facade forms the building physical boundary, but not the visual or emotional boundary. Even in the interior around the bookcase you are in the green interior area.

The bookcase extends vertically into a new basement. The circular perimeter here is solid and closed. A customized archive according to contemporary climatic and structural requirements.

LIBERATE HOTEL DUMONT
The rich character of the existing Hotel Dumont captures the imagination. The demolition of the extension restores the stateliness of the rear facade. We return morphologically to its original condition from the 1880s. The new window assembly as a nod to the 19th-century neo-Gothic features and the 20th-century modernist window.

The interior renovation is pragmatic. We see the great qualities of the existing spaces and propose a renovation and interior project with maximum respect for the historic building. We are looking for simple and reversible solutions to integrate the desired modern techniques, the increased floor load and to integrate the office spaces.

Functional pedestals are our answer as a minimal intervention. Their legibility in the existing building is an important starting point here.

We reinterpret the design question by building a volume outside Hotel Dumont.

We design a circular volume which extends vertically to the cellar. On the ground floor it's a lightfull library with free circulation and two gathering rooms. The cellar contains a customized archive of books and storage rooms.

In Hotel Dumont we design low tech. We integrate techniques with respect to historic building and preservation of architectural value. All piping, ducts, cables, vents are therefore placed in surface, incorporated into existing building structure/cavities. As a principle, functional pedestals and volumes were designed. The plinths form the basis of the workplaces, in which all modern techniques are incorporated and provide an acoustic decoupling so that the contact noise is reduced and a pleasant working environment is created.

No modifications were made to the roof, walls or windows. Each room is ventilated, additional ventilation by opening the windows.