Muntpunt Brussels

• Contractors

The Flemish Community Commission and the Flemish Government jointly invested in the renovation of the old ‘Monnaie House’ on the Place de la Monnaie in Brussels. The project has been christened the ‘Muntpunt’ (in Dutch) and involves building a Flemish Communications House in Brussels. Apart from a modern library there will also be a centre with a capital city image to provide information about and promote the local Dutch-language municipal services and facilities network, events and other city information. There are two Brussels partners, the Central Public Library, and Welcome and Promote Brussels. These are the two main building blocks of this centre.

The project is strategically located in the heart of Brussels. The building complex consists of four sections: - the ‘Monnaie House’ located at Muntplein 6 - the building situated at Schildknaapstraat 26, 1000 Brussels - the ‘Schildknaapgebouw’ located at Schildknaapstraat 28, 1000 Brussels - 15 parking spaces on long-term lease and 20 rented in the ‘Monnaie’ underground car park.

Furthermore, there is a subway running next to the building, and the ventilation shaft runs through the building. The implementation methods for the conversion were modified to deal with the close proximity of the subway. Muntpunt will become a magnificent multilingual information centre with a modern library, meeting rooms, a bar and a sitting area. This seven-storey building experienced a thorough facelift. The ground floor includes a smart open space and the large expanses of glass will let in a lot of light. STRABAG Belgium was responsible for the closed carcass and finishing works.

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© Toon Grobet

Muntpunt Brussels

• Architects

At Muntpunt the challenge was to create a place where all the visitors could comfortably access the various services of the Flemish and the Brussels government.

Three existing buildings amalgamated into one main building, Muntpunt, where at least 300 people per hour need to be welcomed. Muntpunt needed to become an information centre that displays and provides information and initiatives with a maximum capacity of flexibility. The programmatical interactions are situated at various levels: in terms of urban planning (in the heart of Brussels, architectural organisation and internal relations within the building) and in terms of media (leaflets, displays and information screens).

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© Ilse LIekens

Brand description

At B, we use our passion for the design and development of spatial solutions to build a better society with the city as main target.

Back in 1997, Evert Crols, Dirk Engelen and Sven Grooten set up an independent office for architecture: B-architecten. The three architects met during their education in Antwerp and Amsterdam. It was at the internationally oriented Berlage Institute where it became clear that Evert, Dirk and Sven shared a common design interest. Today, the office has expanded to three locations, Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent.

Ten years after the foundation of B-architecten, the trio launched a new initiative together with Sebastiaan Leroy: B-bis architecten – an office that focuses on small architectural projects, residential interior design, offices and shops, scenographies for exhibitions and performing arts, temporary installations and furniture design.

In 2020, B-city was launched as a B-platform with the aim to shape and supervise complex urban projects. The core of its ambition is to work on large-scale projects that carry the potential of becoming new city districts.

In 2022, B reinforced itself with a fourth pillar: B-juxta, the division of B that dedicates itself to restoration and renovation projects. B-juxta evolved from the Ghent-based Juxta, which has its roots in Architectenbureau Van Acker – later Avapartners. Since its establishment in 1967, the office grew into an important player in Flanders in the field of restoration, renovation and reallocation of architectural heritage and continues to live on today as part of B.

With B-juxta came the third operating base: a stately townhouse in Ghent's so-called 'millionaires quarter' that exudes history but where, inside, we work on the future. As such, today B operates from Belgium's three university capitals: Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent.

As a result, B has naturally grown into an office of more than 100 people. Each B-team has its particular focus and way of functioning, yet they all share a distinct innovative view on the variety of projects the B-platforms stand for.