Since a number of years, the administrative services of the city of Diepenbeek used to be located in offices in Town Hall and in “Huis Schoofs” across the street. Eventually, the need arose to restructure and refresh the existing buildings and spaces. To execute this redesign, a tender was launched to restructure the spaces of four services: Civil Affairs, Social Affairs, Territorial Affairs and the General Administration Office. Specific needs and points of attention were indicated for all four services. Yet it remained important that the design would create a whole with the existing infrastructure regarding style, use of materials and technical equipment. At the same time, the design had to be both maintenance- and eco-friendly.
With the above-mentioned objective in mind, we made a design that focused on the reception space as the central meeting point (front office). At the reception, the visitor is guided/directed to the relevant services. To meet the ecological requirements of the tender, we chose to mainly work with the existing volumes, which created a familiar streetscape for the citizens. Additionally, Huis Schoofs is a protected monument, but to create a fully accessible site we had to renew the right volume (not protected). We decided to design a very ecological building: the right lighting, green roofs, solar panels, special techniques and carefully selected materials contributed to this goal. So as not to interfere with the ongoing activities, it was decided to carry out the renovation works in two phases: in phase I we refurbished the Territorial and Civil Affairs service, in phase II we renovated the Social Affairs service. To create a new atmosphere in the building, we opted for soft materials and colors. The main color tones we used were warm wood-tones combined with white and black accents. The furnishing and decoration will add the necessary colors to the interior.
The refurbishment of the Civil Affairs service included the construction of a new, central reception for the Town Hall. At the reception, people are redirected to the other services and locations. It has become a working space for five employees. The entrance to the counters is through a glass door. This way, the waiting room is separate from the counters so visitors can be helped in all discretion. The space is equipped with one high counter, nine working places at desks, two working places in the back and enough room for a storage and an archive.
For Social Affairs, located at Dorpsstraat 11 and 13 (Huis Schoofs), we chose to preserve the existing volume of Huis Schoofs and to create a new building on the right side. Where there used to be four entrances, we have reduced these to only two. One of these is located opposite Town Hall, the other is on the back side behind a green zone. To create the new building, the existing building was stripped down to construction level. We planned to erect the new building in the same place as the dismantled building. When entering the building, you immediately arrive at the reception where three employees can work at the same time. A waiting room is connected to this reception. Additionally, a passage was created on the ground and first floors to the adjacent building. The ground floor consists of five welcoming rooms, two offices for the home care service, a staff room that serves as a meeting room and a refectory next to an already existing kitchen. On the first floor there are eight offices, an already existing kitchen and a copy room. The building’s attic was converted into a meeting room and archive.
Likewise, the Territorial Affairs service and the General Administration office, located at Dorpsstraat 11, were updated. The main entrance was relocated to the side wall. From this new entrance, a transition area was created leading to a reception desk in the elliptical space on the ground floor. At this desk, three employees can work at the same time. Again, a waiting room is connected to the reception area. This way, the former reception was transformed into a real office.
The planning stage of the work consisted of the architectural study, more specifically planning the construction works and supervising the execution of the works consisting of the general lead, excluding continuous supervision on the execution. We started drawing up a schedule of requirements together with the client. Based on this schedule, we made the draft design, which in turn was the basis for the definitive preliminary design. This preliminary design comprised not only the plans but also a descriptive note and a concise approximative cost estimate or overall budget, a statement on materials and structure systems, indications of equipment and a concise schedule of studies and execution. Starting from the definitive design, the documents were readied for the building application, all the while taking into consideration the time schedule and the duration to obtain a permit, so as not to cause a delay. After having obtained the permits, we wrote out a tender for the construction phase. We provided the participating contractors with the necessary information and after launching the registrations and carefully considerating the options, we settled upon the contractor.
During the managing of the works, the client could count on us to:
- monitor the delimitation of the construction works;
- check whether the building materials met the quality requirements (i.e. having the necessary quality certificates) and the orders that were placed;
- carry out the necessary measurements, or having them carried out, and to organise machine and materials testing including the interpretation and analysis of the results obtained;
- provide additional technical instructions and detailed drawings during the execution of the works, meanwhile carrying out the necessary checks to verify whether the works are being executed in accordance with the plans as drawn up by the architect and following the rules of the art;
- give technical instructions to the people in charge of the continuous supervision;
- verify the execution documents drafted by the contractor;
- investigate possible modifications, advise the client on the subject, draw up the necessary documents and submit these for approval to the client;
- check the state of progress with regards to the architectural study;
- match the plans to the actual execution after the works have finished and to lend full assistance to draw up a complete as-built file.