Belgian studio EVR Architecten has renovated an office campus in Ghent, wrapping a new central building with rotating wooden louvres that allow sun-shading to be controlled throughout the day.
EVR Architecten aimed to better unite the existing buildings, which were organised both along the street front and in a small courtyard, on a campus that is home to trade union ACV-CSC-Metea.
The studio's reconfiguration of the campus linked the buildings both to one another and the surrounding neighbourhood.
EVR Architecten has renovated an office campus in Ghent
"Over the years, various interventions and renovations distorted and warped this cluster of buildings, resulting in a lack of functional coherence, interaction, and legibility," EVR Architecten project architect Wart Thys told Dezeen. "The existing buildings hardly interacted with their surroundings and with each other," he continued.
While the local studio looked to retain as much of the existing campus as possible, the main building required demolition, and has been replaced with a new timber-framed structure that creates a new front to the street.
The new building is wrapped by rotating wooden louvres
For the exterior of this new building, EVR Architecten worked with Bureau Bouwtechniek on a dynamic daylight and shading study to determine the size and organisation of a series of movable wooden louvres.
"The vertical deep wooden slats keep out direct sunlight, while the soft-white lacquered horizo...