Westvleteren Community Center
WESTVLETEREN COMMUNITY CENTER
Atelier Tom Vanhee
STRUCTURE ENGINEER
S.C.E.S. nv
CONTRACTOR
Monument Vandekerckhove
CLIENT
Gemeentebestuur Vleteren
The meeting centre offers accommodation to various community activities. The complex of buildings consists of successive constructions, ranging from a 19th century school building and an old town hall to an industrial construction from the 1990s.
The dilapidated storage building makes place for enlargement of the meeting hall. That way the back yard becomes an outdoor space for the party room.
The gabled roof is replaced by a single slope roof, making the room and space higher, and bringing a better acoustic sound in the hall. The high windows bring light and give views on the nearby church.
A central entrance in the armpit of the building complex offers the building an address. The entrance hall connects the different functions and spaces.
The use of different types of bricks betray the successive renovations in the past. The new added walls in contemporary bricks build in the recent renovation strengthens the patchwork of different bricks.
The meeting centre is so adapted to the modern requirements, with respect for the environment and the users, but also with a whimsical character.
A green roof keeps the meeting hall cool in summer, increases the sustainability of the epdm membrane of the roof, and constitutes a buffer for heavy rainfall. The new toilets are supplied with recycled rain water from the existing buildings. Materials are chosen by the score at their circle of life analysis.
The used wood is FSC-labelled : the structure of the light interior walls, the windows, extra wooden bars for floors and for fixating isolation. We used fibre boards. The lights are energy efficient.
The heating system recuperates the heat of the evacuating gases. We took care of better isolation : we changed all windows in high isolating glass, the roofs or ceilings, the floors and new walls are isolated.
