The team Atelier Kempe Thill (Rotterdam) and aNNo architects (Ghent) has recently won the international competition for the renovation and expansion of the Maritime Academy in Antwerp. The project is located in the north of the historic centre of Antwerp, at the prominent bend of the river Schelde. The proposed plan of approximately 15.000m2 in total consists out of three main parts.
The first part is the existing monumental school building from the 1930s designed by the architects Van Kriekinge. Here several subsequent extensions will be demolished and the important Flemish modernistic masterpiece will be fully restored to its former glory. The heat insulation will be adapted to contemporary standards. The second part is the extension of the school with a multifunctional educational building that contains several marine simulators, the library, labs and classrooms.
Both buildings will be connected by a subterranean more public education platform that containsthree auditoriums, a restaurant, informal study areas and large workshops for test setups. The facilities will not only be used by the school but by the Antwerp shipping industry as well. On the roof of the educational platform a new public plaza will be constructed.
