Open Analytics, a consultancy agency in Antwerp, acquired a large office building in a residential block in Berchem (Antwerp). The complex consists of a main building with a modernist facade and a rear extension that occupies the entire plot. The building used to house a recording studio of a video production company. The spaces in the back are therefore dark rooms without any contact with the open air or the surroundings.
Open Analytics is a consultancy firm specializing in data analysis, staffed by highly educated professionals with expertise in mathematics, statistics, engineering, and computer science. Therefore the client wished for an ideal working space, with people able to move freely between moments of utmost concentration and total relaxation: a flexible and contemporary working space with a diversity of spaces for work, meeting, lecture, conference call, ... supported by the design of the interior space.
The program includes three components:
1 work - flexible workspaces for employees, meeting rooms and offices for the staff
2 relaxation - playroom, dining room, library, changing rooms and showers for the personnel
3 public - workshop spaces and a lecture room
The design installs a clear separation between the working spaces and the more public zones. The workstations, the meeting rooms and the offices for the staff are housed in the main building, linked around a brightly lit atrium with a rooftop light.
The original spacious entrance hall is enhanced and extended to the back. Inside the residential block, the original constructions are removed and two new volumes house the new program, divided by a double-height space with a glazed roof construction, allowing natural light and offering a view on the inside of the residential block.
The entrance hall opens into this room for dining and relaxation, with a sculptural staircase that leads up to the lecture room, on top of the kitchen and changing rooms.
The spacious entrance hall is designed as a space linking front to back, dealing in a smart way with the difference in height on the plot. The hall is also used for receptions and expositions.
In 2021, this project was expanded with the development of Walter, a new building on Diksmuidelaan, which connects to the Jupiterstraat project at the rear, through a 'secret' garden.
