Van De Pol Apartments – Turnhout

Merodelei 65, 2300 Turnhout
1964

The plot has a width of 5.50 m and is bordered by streets on three sides: a main street at the front, a side street at the back, and a narrow passage between both on the right. The ground floor is fully built up, with a shop at the front, followed by a two-bedroom apartment, and finally five garages. At the front, a block of four identical two-bedroom apartments is constructed to a depth of 18 m. The design follows the style of Vanhout’s previous buildings, such as the neighborhood in Gierle and the ACW office building. The concrete skeleton with a 3 m module is left visible throughout. The ground floor is filled with dark brown masonry. The concrete roof edge at the garages and bedrooms continues under the superstructure, extending into the façade. On top of this are protruding concrete blocks 30 cm high, with ribbon windows in between, making the upper structure appear completely detached from the base. This gives the shop and living room of the ground floor apartment a greater height than the bedrooms. The pattern of blocks and ribbon windows is repeated on the upper floors. Here, prefabricated concrete panels are used instead of masonry to achieve unity with the concrete skeleton. The shop elements (display windows and covered hall) are combined into a stack of elements in the façade. The expressive and Brutalist design represented a break from the austere and elegant apartment blocks by architects such as Eugène Wauters in Turnhout. It had both supporters and opponents. During those years, Vanhout & Schellekens designed various similar apartments in Turnhout. Towards the end of the 1960s, the concrete and relief effects gradually disappeared from their designs.

File Number: VS0359