Kaai 37 apartments Antwerp

The architectural teams of META, advvt, NOA and OFFICE, working in collaboration with Project², present a building block that possesses an indirect but recognizable uniformity, yet does not forsake its own strong identity.

The complex consists of 4 buildings with a total surface area of 8,500 m² that group 72 apartments and duplex apartments, 5 houses and 4 commercial units around a courtyard.

META opted for a passive building with an exoskeleton. A first

META opted to use a concrete outer structure, or exoskeleton, for its building. The finished exterior is composed of grey-green, prefabricated concrete façade frames that also form the supporting structure of the building. The specific profiling of these frames makes it possible to position the floor plates in a thermally interrupted manner.

This building method not only ensures maximum flexibility for the interior layout, but also proves to be very quick and efficient in execution. It is a more intensive version of META’s core tenet that ‘structural work is finishing work’.

META is the first office to succeed in meeting passive standards with an exoskeleton.
In addition to this building, META also designed the underground car park and took responsibility for the on-site coordination of the project.

Colour nuances and mineral materials reveal a unified whole

The context, position and visibility of the ensemble required a specific approach to the materiality of the façade. The underlying grid, which is tailored to the warehouses in the district, creates an indirect uniformity.

Certified passive group housing project

KAAI 37 is the first passive group housing project to be certified by Pixii (formerly the Passiefhuis-Platform). The designers were assisted by Boydens engineering.

POLO Architects, PULS architecten, Vermeiren - De Coster Architecten & cuypers & Q architecten designed the northern part of the building block. A common garden between the two separate projects is the green centre of the block.