Kortrijk Business Park

office building heading Benelux Park
With a view to incorporating the Hoog Kortrijk district as an integral part of the city, the Kortrijk city council and the intermunicipal organisation Intercommunale Leiedal launched an urban development competition in 1990. In his master plan, urbanist Bernardo Secchi, who won the assignment, conveyed the ambition to realise a striking building with high-quality architecture at the tip of the Benelux park. POLO took on the challenge.
Location

Beneluxpark
Kortrijk
Belgium

Year
2021
Surface area
18.117m²
Status
realized
Client
Verstraete Development
Landscape design
  • Wirtz International Landscape Architects
BREAAM - Very Good certificate
RES Awards 2022 - nomination
Photography
Evenbeeld

Park offices

The sleek volume with five building layers embraces a green patio, nestling into a strongly irregular lanscape. The communal spaces are located around this patio, in the building base. The restaurant and the multi-purpose hall open onto the lower garden with a view on the buffer basin.

For the landscape development of the Benelux park, Bureau Bas Smets came up with the unique concept of ‘park offices’. The buildings will blend into their park-like surroundings, making the plot boundaries virtually invisible. Thanks to its location at the tip of the park, the site stands out as an iconic structure next to one of the best known entry and exit roads of Kortrijk.

Variety of activities

The design is a balancing exercise between identity and flexibility, whereby the main focus is on building a high-quality, future-oriented and sustainable project. User comfort is key in the office building, which has the capacity to house companies of different sizes with the possibility to grow or shrink.

On the outside, the stately, rhythmic brick facade acts as an autonomous skin that gives the building a strong identity. This facade is not a translation of what happens behind, but rather an interface that can encompass constantly changing activities and programmes. It creates a stark contrast with the glass inner facade and the flexible interior that stimulate creative methods of cooperation.

Associated themes