Technical sheet

Feasibility Studies for the Commercial Development of Heritage

Making heritage profitable

Our country is scattered with heritage. This rich and abundant accumulation of history presents enormous opportunities for the future, yet also significant challenges. The activation of all heritage, even the small-scale kind, can play a crucial role both in circular renovation to meet climate goals and in addressing the looming housing crisis. For both challenges, in one of Europe's most densely built regions, significant attention must be given to the existing built environment. And within that, there is a wealth of heritage, whether protected or not.

However, activating this mass of small-scale heritage comes with additional complexities. Nearly all challenges converge on a single pain point: the economic feasibility of repurposing. Heritage often carries a minimum cost threshold, significantly higher than standard developments, precisely because of what makes it heritage: artisanal techniques, rich materials, complex interventions. Moreover, heritage projects almost always require balancing acts: balancing sustainability with heritage value, densification with architectural respect, and new functions within buildings originally designed for something else.

This is no simple task, but it is a necessary one. The heritage exists, thankfully, and must (if only due to its sheer volume) play a role in the future. Because of this complexity, a well-founded study is an essential starting point. These feasibility studies perform a broad scan across various aspects early in the process: structural condition, building history, permitting possibilities, design potential, diversification of commercial uses, and more. The goal is to move swiftly, covering broad ground while diving just deep enough to enable well-informed next steps.

Werk - 176 179

CASE 1: Stacked Worlds (for cliënt Esset in Antwerp)

Feasibility study for a multi-family dwelling in a historic rooftop landscape, unexpectedly floating above shopfronts and banners.

Look up. In a shopping street, our gaze moves horizontally. Displays demand attention, concealing shops behind them. On the ground floor, sometimes on the upper floors. The higher we look in such a street, the less we find. It is an old affliction of these streets: above the shops, there is often blind storage, or more often still—vacancy. The real tragedy is that these are often historic buildings.

We dare to look up. Our client dares to look up. The site is a historic archipelago of separate parcels and houses. Below, the succession of retail functions has already caused devastation. Hardly any historic elements remain—no longer even a sense that these were once distinct buildings.

But when we look up, we see a radically different picture: a fragmented rooftop landscape, worthy of Saint Nicholas, with historic stepped gables and windows. Beneath these roofs lie historic rooms, spared from the ground-floor destruction—ornate fireplaces, moldings, wide plank floors, and hand-hewn wooden roof trusses. An untapped heavenly realm. The possibility of stacking worlds.

The study explores the feasibility of organizing housing beneath these roofs. Housing in its broadest sense: individual apartments, co-housing, student studios. Opportunities and challenges are mapped out. The patchwork of rooftops is evocative but also presents significant complexities in terms of fire safety, accessibility, addressing, sustainability, and subdivision. Solving these challenges must, in turn, be tested against the economic feasibility of the project.

The study scans across all themes and housing types. Without being prescriptive, it provides a solid foundation for decision-making.

From "M’as-tu-vu" to "Invisible"

A city palace with a traditional core dating back to at least the 17th century, modified in a neoclassical style in the early 19th century. In 1850, Mr. Bouquillon commissioned architect Emmanuel Van Cuyck to make alterations to the building’s façade, which then had two floors. The two bays on the left were emphasized with a risalit, and a plinth, a doorway, and a window were added.

The current appearance is the result of renovations commissioned by Joannes Henricus Van Velthoven, a notary from 1879 to 1896, following a design by architect Frans Van Dijk in 1880. The renovation included the addition of a second floor and stucco decoration. The ground floor was converted into a shopfront in the mid-1950s. Of the original 17th-century building, at least the rear house with its deep façade and stepped gable has been preserved.

Above the banners

Above the commercial void below, a forgotten realm hovers. A floating archipelago of stepped gables, pitched roofs, decorated salons, and romantic trusses. Stunning and full of stories, yet also challenging on many organizational and technical levels.

179 KGSA voorbeeld van planschikking — Seeking possibilities. The strength of an iterative process lies in its breadth—no paths left unexplored.

179 KGSA dakenlandschap — In section, the true complexity reveals itself. In section, the study advances.

CASE 2: PALACE

Feasibility study for the repurposing of a city palace into a residence and business event space.

There is no row of houses across the street—only cobblestones that transition into the river, which in turn blends into the city's most iconic image: the medieval tower row. It faces south, where the light streams in, shimmering on the water, silhouetting the towers against the glow. Behind a relatively modest façade, the city palace hides a vast interior. That façade gives way to a gate, behind which a garden is concealed.

Visible on an old postcard—captured incidentally—we see the building in its past state. The façade has already been altered and tinkered with. The once-imposing double cornice has disappeared. The façade has been stripped of its plaster. The beautiful arched garden gate has been braced with a beam, likely to allow enough clearance for a car. Inside, the building has also suffered: countless partition walls, ad hoc rooms, a bizarre split-level extension, built so densely that daylight barely finds its way in.

The city palace will once again be a city palace. Public rooms for gathering, celebrating, conversing, and enjoying life together. At the garden and the gate, in contact with the street, there is always something happening. The upper floors become more private and intimate. Spacious floors for family life, slowing down, resting, and introspection. The attic as a firmament of thought. A study for concentration and reflection.

Strategic restoration and respectful renovation. The façade will be restored, certainly, but also reinterpreted—the double cornice will return, now as a horizontal band window. The arched gate will be restored, and a second, twin opening will be added, strengthening the connection to the street. The secret garden will become less secret. Pedestrians and residents alike will catch glimpses of each other through the foliage.