In the historic center of Mechelen, you can find as many as two World Heritage Sites: the Beguinage and the almost 100-meter bell tower of the cathedral. However, the sights are not limited to them: they also include the large Hogheis warehouse, which is basically a building of the XIII-XIV centuries. Since then, it has been rebuilt many times, and in the 19th century it entered the complex of the Lorette (Our Lady of Loretana) convent. In 1989, the convent's triangular quarter of buildings of different times was left without an owner, and in 2009, when two developers finally bought it, it was far from being in the best condition.
One of the developers took over the neo-Gothic red-brick building of the monastery, which also included a school for girls: now there are lofts and apartments. The second, City II Site, acquired the rest: Hoghays, three "locked" medieval apartment buildings, Swerth, and a courtyard. The masterplan for the reconstruction was entrusted to the bureau dmvA, which proposed to insert residential buildings into the gaps between historical buildings and turn the courtyard into a public space for residents and other citizens, and place a garage under the courtyard.
The developer decided to preserve the original function of Svert and commissioned another architectural firm to arrange housing there, and dmvA ordered the projects of two modern houses. They chose light-colored bricks for them as a response to the plaster of neighboring buildings; the complex configuration of new buildings is due to the need to arrange arches to pass through the quarter. In addition, such a solution is in harmony with the asymmetry and spontaneity of medieval buildings, but the recognizably modern shape of the windows makes it possible to immediately identify structures of the 21st century in these houses.
Hogheis had a full-fledged security status and corresponding restrictions, so he presented a problem for the City II Site developer: he did not know how to approach it. In response, dmvA architects decided to buy a monument for their new office, since the old one was too small for them - however, the Hoghais was still too spacious: almost 1000 m2. Therefore, they jointly acquired it with a law firm that occupied the first two floors with 19th century interiors (at that time they arranged housing there): the surviving stucco molding was carefully restored.
The architects took the upper floor for themselves as a workshop, under the historic wooden beams. To preserve the medieval look of the space, they disguised the stairs leading from the bottom of the century before last with mirrored cabinets. Wanting to emphasize the practicality of their approach to work, they made tables from doors placed on trestles from recycled wood, and made storage systems in the form of carts. Above the office, in the attic, they set up an apartment.
The budget of the project, which covered a total of about 4.7 thousand m2 of new and reconstructed spaces, was slightly less than 5.2 million euros.
