Avant-garde in Antwerp For the design concept of our new office, we chose the working title “Arsenale”. A reference to the exhibition site in Venice, where the Architecture and Art Biënnale takes place. The experience of wandering around in a weathered, industrial building and taking inspiration from art and architecture installations, was the atmosphere we were looking for. When we first laid eyes on a casco building site in a misunderstood part of the city, we knew Antwerp's meat packing district was the right place for us. The area, tucked away between Park Spoor Noord, Dam and Albertkanaal, was once a neighborhood full of slaughterhouses and factories. This district, defined by the characterless buildings, the highway flyover and the industrial water dock, has the avant-garde ambiance we were aiming for. The industrial space inspired us to return the building to its original state as much as possible. The "Arsenale" concept is translated into a rough material palette with a choice of raw and unfinished building elements. A blank canvas Throughout the loft, all walls are finished with a rough cement stucco and the ceiling is treated with acoustic spray plaster using recycled newspaper scraps, giving it a light grey color. The massive pillars are stripped back to its original raw concrete look and paired with a gravel-in-sight concrete floor, covering the whole surface. This enhances the perception of depth upon entering the office. The floor plan is designed to be aligned with the pillars. This forms the perfect blank canvas for an "art installation"-like completion of the space. Within this industrial box, all additional architectural elements are conceived as objects and installations, safeguarding an open and functional plan. The office plan is on one side defined by a tranparant volume using an untreated steel frame structure with glass, inspired by Mies Van der Rohe's iconic designs, holding three meeting rooms. Counterbalancing the steel and glass structure, a closed wooden box is placed on the opposite side. The partition wall in European Larch wood is designed and developed as a system of fixed panels, doors and glass. It contains a collection of functions: the sanitary, the sample room, an area dedicated to printing and storage and a large office with a glass wall facing the design studio. Overpouring with daylight, the design studio takes of a large open area. Two rows of long working desks double as exhibition tables, enabling us to use them for material moodboards presentations. The repetition of the material profiling balances out the space and brings it back to human proportions. Exuberant greenery and potted plants add a natural note to the office space. By opting for a fully customized lighting design, we can create something unique. Lighting is translated to the essence, stripped of all frills. We work with apparant fixtures and custom-made pendant luminaires in uncoated aluminum. The compositions of LED tube fixtures are reminiscent of old-skool fluorescent fixtures. The organic shape of the impressive statement ceiling pendant made from neon tube lights refers to the slaughter line in the building's former function. The galvanised steel entrance door with industrial glass and the stainless steel counter at the entrance complete the typical Belgian industrial look of the office design concept. A futureproof vision All choices made throughout the design and construction process are supported by our vision of circular building and sustainability. Whether it is for the choice of one of the most sustainable woods, European Larch or the dimensions of the meeting rooms following the standard size of the plaster boards and eliminating any waste. The stacked concrete blocks can easily be deconstructed and re-used elsewhere. We chose a system with standard metal filing racks for the sample room. For the conference rooms, we re-upholstered vintage Pastoe-style chairs and original chairs designed by Borge Mogensen are placed around the dining table after removing excess layers of varnish. Furthermore, we challenge all our building partners to participate in this vision inviting them to co-create and pushing them to think about solutions that unite design and longterm longitivity. Eye-catcher The most eye-catching symbol of circular design in our office, must be the extra large dining table, or "The Rotor Table". The wooden construction beams were recovered from the demolition of a building by the Brussels collective Rotor DC. Because of their former function as a laminated roof truss, they had an extra long length. They got a second life by turning them into an extra large table, finished with a dark colored stain.