Project Details
- Project Name
- Hôtel de Police & Extension de Charleroi Danses
- Location
- Belgium
- Architect
- Ateliers Jean Nouvel
- Client/Owner
- Ville de Charleroi
- Project Types
- Cultural
- Project Scope
- Renovation/Remodel
- Size
- 366,393 sq. feet
- Year Completed
- 2014
- Project Status
- Built
- Cost
- $61,000,000
Text by Edward Keegan, AIA
With a population of just over 200,000, Charleroi is the fifth largest city in Belgium, but not a place of memorable skylines. The UNESCO-listed belfry of the Charleroi City Hall punctuates the center of the low-slung town. The surrounding landscape, long dominated by industry, remains lush and speckled with small green hills. Into this relatively tranquil setting, Paris-based Ateliers Jean Nouvel, with Brussels-based MDW Architecture, set a 75-meter-tall (246-foot-tall) ovoid blue tower whose gently curved form seems to mimic the natural landscape—while its scale is a bit out of place, if not out of time.
The 19,392-square-meter (208,734-square-foot) tower forms the most obvious talisman for an unusual, three-part program that opened in November 2014. The project revitalizes five 19th-century buildings with a police headquarters, expanded facilities for the dance company Charleroi Danses, and a brasserie—all configured within a V-shaped public square.
The police headquarters spans the new tower and two old cavalry barracks, attached at the ground level. Certain functions receive specialized spaces—three levels of parking, a detention area, and storage are below grade; a public auditorium and debriefing room are on the ground level; and 24-hour staffed technical services is on the third level. But most of the tower’s 20 floors are arranged to be flexible, so that departments can shift according to changing needs.
The tower’s egg-shaped floors, rising around an almost circular core, evolve towards a more circular form as the building rises. Generally free spans allow the most flexible accommodations on each level. Jean Nouvel, Hon. FAIA, employs a highly varied fenestration system—not unlike some of his previous studies in tall buildings—with a wider, double-height expression at the lower openings evolving into smaller ones above, and the top level is marked again by tall windows that express the floor’s additional height.
The red brick plaza, accessed from the Boulevard Pierre Mayence on the west side of the site, mimics the materials of the existing buildings, while the area adjacent to the tower continues the tower’s blue brick. The Charleroi Danses facilities are housed in existing buildings on the site’s south side, with the new pavilion for the brasserie on the north end.
Nouvel finds inspiration in many places, from the camera-lens façade of the 1987 Arab World Institute in Paris to the geyser form of Barcelona’s Torre Agbar. At Charleroi, dark blue symbolizes the police. “The idea was to create a city-scale landmark which is not too high, as a sort of dialogue with the City Hall belfry, and as a message stating that the police force services are open to all at all times,” Nouvel says.
Project Credits
Project: Hôtel de Police & Extension de Charleroi Danses, Charleroi, Belgium
Client/Owner: Ville de Charleroi
Architect: Ateliers Jean Nouvel, Paris . Jean Nouvel, Hon. FAIA; Julie Parmentier (project leader); Gaston Tolila (project leader, competition); Mélanie Doremus, Bernard Duprat, Stacy Eisenberg, Sophie Laromiguiere, Ludovic Magnifico, Kirsi Marjamaki-Mas, Anne Traband (architects); Eugénie Robert (graphic design); Benjamin Alcover, Jugulta Le Clerre, Benoit Patterlini, Sebastien Rageul, Adelaida Verastegui (perspectives); MDW Architecture, Brussels . Marie Moignot (project leader); Yvan Breithof, Miguel Camba, Liz Poggioli, Vincent Sainlez, Stéphanie Seldeslachts, Daniele Wagner
Engineer: VK Architects and Engineers, DTS & Co, MATRIciel, Venac
General Contractor: CFE (BPC – CFE Brabant)
Cost Consultant: CFE
Size: 19,392 square meters (208,734 square feet) (tower); 34,039 square meters (366,393 square feet) (total)
Cost: €55 million ($61 million)