Renovation beguinage Hasselt

Located in Hasselt’s city centre, the beguinage surrounds a church that was once the tallest structure in the city. Having been bombed in the Second World War, the church now lies as a ruin within the site. Seeking to recover the historic balance of the site, DKA and Bovenbouw’s design reorganises the gardens to create a series of new outdoor spaces, the largest of which is a generous circular lawn. Combined with the sensitive refurbishment of the beguinage, the strategy seeks to reposition the complex as a destination for a broad range of users from students to local residents to regional tourists.With focus placed on restoring and refurbishing the existing buildings, the only built addition to the site is a panoramic belvedere in the southern corner, a bold intervention that rises above the beguinage wall. At 30 metres and taller than the original church, it is a confident statement of the relationship between the past and present, reinstating the centrality of the beguinage and acting as a wayfinder for visitors to the city.

Building a masonry tower with a height of 30 meters poses problems regarding the load capacity of the masonry. Because of this, when building a tower of this height, masonry towers aren’t built anymore. To resolve this problem, we introduced cavities in the walls so the self weight would drastically drop. We investigated the different bonds so the most cavities can be applied without changing the stability. The first 5,3m full masonry is used, the next 19,2m exists of 50% cavities and the last top part exists of 75% cavities. Because of the use of cavities, we can integrate drainage in the walls.