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In the post-war era, the arrival of the refrigerated truck revolutionized the meat industry. Where animals were once slaughtered at the place of consumption, now they could be killed at the site of production. From the 1970s onwards, urban abattoirs the world over began to close, attracting real-estate speculation. In the Belgian city of Antwerp, the Stedelijk Slachthuis lingered on longer than most—the slaughterhouse finally closed its doors in 2006—and is currently undergoing a 25-year redevelopment program. Drawn up in 2017 by Ghent-based firm De Smedt Vermeulen, the master plan specified the adaptive reuse of the abattoir’s two surviving concrete halls. The first of the redevelopment projects to complete is the larger of the two halls, which reopened last fall as a laboratory-teaching branch of Antwerp’s AP University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Brussels-based architects OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen undertook the conversion.

Photo © Bas Princen

Designed by municipal architect Andre Fivez and completed in the early 1950s, the hall is an impressive industrial structure with vaulting sawtooth roofs and a hanging concrete facade suspended 10 feet above grade. The floor area of approximately 82,000 square feet constituted slightly over a third of the 260,000 required by the program. A new tower at the northeast corner, provided for in the master plan, contains another 75,000 square feet, while the insertion of a column-mounted floor inside the original building supplies the rest. Closing the hall at ground level proved challenging—to ensure their new glass facade would sit flush with the hanging concrete above, OFFICE had to pare 4 inches from all the perimeter columns. The new floor, whose 16-inch-thick post-tensioned slab was engineered to carry heavy lab equipment, helps stabilize the original structure.

Photos © Bas Princen

Inside, classrooms and lecture halls fill the lower level, while laboratories and workshops are located above. Two ground-floor corridors contain stairs and allow views up to the roof, which peaks at 59 feet. To preserve the sense of a concrete cathedral, OFFICE insulated the roof from the outside. Three rows of circular perforations in the hanging concrete facades serve either as windows or vents. “We oversaw the positioning of every single duct,” says Kersten Geers of the voluminous visible HVAC system, “and chose the lab furniture from catalogs the university gave us.” Though staff were hesitant about the ubiquitous glass partitions, which maximize daylight penetration, prospective students were far more enthusiastic. “They loved how bright and light the building is and said it motivated them to choose AP,” recalls Geers. Reflective film, applied to a height of 4 feet, helps mitigate privacy issues.

Photos © Bas Princen

“If I tried to win a competition with a new structure that had this kind of spatiality, I would almost certainly lose,” says Geers of the building’s large footprint, soaring volumes, and horizontal organization. “People would say ‘That’s not economical or logical.’ By reusing this hall, we were able to achieve a typology you can’t make anymore. And that’s exciting!”

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