ELD partnership has been commissioned to design a new office building for Concentra, one of Belgium’s leading media groups.  The building will house the editorial and support services of the local newspaper ‘Gazet van Antwerpen’, as well as several other companies belonging to the group.  It is the first phase of a master plan to create an entirely new business area on the left bank of the river Schelde, just a stone’s throw away from the busy city-centre of Antwerp.

The future occupants of the first Concentra building will be media related businesses, such as periodicals and book publishers, a local radio station, a TV-production company, etc.  The architects have created a functional, innovative office building that is designed to encourage and facilitate cross media communication so that the new premises will fulfil the role of a true ‘multi-media house’.

The building has four levels, an underground parking floor and a rooftop technical plant area, creating an architectural accent.

The combination of two different grid systems caters for maximum flexibility for all kinds of interior and functional fitting-out options.

Because of the unusually large footprint of the complex, several ‘cut-outs’ have been made in the volume, starting from level +1, in order to allow generous amounts of daylight to access the work place.

The central part of the building contains a patio and an internal street. This two storey high street is accessible to all, stimulating informal meetings and communication between all of the actors of the world of media who work there.