Out & About: Fire Station, Multi-Purpose Space, and Emergency Housing

Guided tours by the architect Sara Noel Costa de Araujo (ENG, FR) and by architecture journalist Olaf Winkler (NL) give you the chance to get to know this outstanding building and to meet the architect.

Fire Station, Multi-Purpose Space, and Emergency Housing by Studio SNCDA

Building with 3 distinct programmes built on the site of the former town hall: a fire station, a multi-purpose hall and emergency housing. In the context of the master plan for the core of peri-urban Dilbeek, these 3 urban functions constitute an important link in the interweaving of residential, civic, commercial, hospitality and employment uses.

The project locates in the outskirts of Brussels in peri-urban Flanders. The site functions as a strategic link between a traffic-intense intercommunal road and the residential heart of the municipality. The plot divides into public and private sections where 3 distinct urban programmes develop over the depth of the site, each one oriented around its outdoor space. The building has no backside, but 2 main façades. The fire station is turned to traffic, whereas the multi-purpose hall orients its forecourt towards the residential part of the town. The emergency housing develops around a communal garden, integrated into the existing building fabric of both streets. For reasons of future reuse of the bricks, the materials were chosen to create a robust building, easy to maintain while keeping finishings simple; without coating the building shows its structure. Furthermore, we chose not to use coatings, which are fragile and difficult to integrate into a recycling process for concrete bricks.

Guided tour: 1 June / 15:00 (ENG) | 16:30 (NL) | 18:00 (FR) – CET

Meeting point:
Oudesmidsestraat 38A,
1700 Dilbeek

◾Event partners: Sara Noel Costa de Araujo (Studio SNCDA); Korei Guided Tours vzw Brussels; Gemeente Dilbeek; Wallonie-Bruxelles Architectures

Language: English, Dutch & French

Register here: English tour, Dutch tour & French tour

Out & About 2024

“Out & About. Discovering Architecture. EUmies Awards 2024” will take place from April onwards in over 30 European places in which shortlisted works of the prize are located. Organised by Creative Europe, Fundació Mies van der Rohe and the indisputable expertise of Guiding Architects, everybody has the opportunity to know much more about buildings and public spaces in their cities or in places that they are visiting with the authors, clients and people who know them well.