Sports halls belong to the group of buildings that house in the collective memory. They are part of everyone's childhood, and for many it is a frequented place later too. The threshold there is low, the memories of it numerous. This commission consisted of rethinking the identity of all the entrance halls of Antwerp's sports halls and swimming pools. The design puts a new layer over the existing floors, walls and ceilings. Here, the edges are used as a tool so that the hall can remain as free of hassle as possible and function optimally as a circulation hub. The design proposal has the ambition to be all-encompassing and provide an overall answer to today's fragmentation. The composition of the material palette for the cladding of the entrance halls was based on materials familiar from sports halls. The aim of the project is to restyle a large number of entrance halls in Antwerp over the medium term to create a unity with a recognisable style.
In the entrance hall at the Ieperman swimming pool, a diagonal was introduced to clarify the entrance to the pool. The hall was stripped as much as possible of all the structures that had cluttered the space over time.
For this project, the entire exterior landscaping was also recreated: a slow slope sculpture runs along the café terrace. In addition, maximum revegetation and greening was carried out.