Cadiz Mixed-Use Project

Antwerp, Belgium

Architects: POLO

Location: Antwerp, Belgium
Year: 2016
Client: Cores, Builprom, Westhoek
Architecture: Meta Architectuurbureau
Landscape architecture: Dirk Vandekerkhove

The construction of the Museum aan de Stroom (MAS), the opening of the Red Star Line Museum, and the makeover of streets, squares, and quays brought an end to the decades of dilapidation in Antwerp’s Eilandje district. The construction of the Cadiz project illustrates that transformation. A new, trendy urban neighbourhood is born.

UNPRECEDENTED TYPOLOGY
Cadiz is a mixed-use project with more than 26,000 m² of houses, a healthcare centre, a hotel, offices, and shops on a spacious block in the Cadix neighbourhood. The task at hand was complex: to create a large number of residential units in a deep block, while ensuring that each individual home still had sufficient light and a view. At the same time, the project had to bring life to the new city district. The architects found a way to untangle this knot. The result is a remarkable block with a typology that is unprecedented in Belgium.

TWO FACES
Cadiz has two faces. From close by, at the street level, one can only see the plinth of the building facade with its stores and offices. A trellis on the second and third floor encircles the entire building block, screening the apartments from the street. From the street, you can catch a glimpse of the communal inner garden. The entrances to the residential units are located here. From a distance, Cadiz offers a more monumental impression. Four towers are set further back from the building line, kneeling on the roof of the base with their feet in the garden of the inner courtyard, situated on a lower level. A sloping green surface connects the communal interior area with the private gardens on the base, from which the occupants enjoy distant vistas of the port and the city.

CITY WITHIN THE CITY
The plan integrates different types of residential units: apartments, luxurious duplexes, studios, and social housing. All residential units are equipped with balconies, roof terraces, or small gardens. The interweaving of residential units and other urban functions makes this building into a city within the city.