The project involves extending the Anderlecht City Hall with the initial intention of completely reorganising its programme. Built between 1877 and 1879, in a style characteristic of eclecticism, now known as Flemish neo-renaissance, it has been partly listed as a Historic Monument since 1995 and is located in a very dense and mineralised urban context.

Over time, buildings of very different sizes and surface areas have been built here, often with their own entrance, to accommodate the successive expansion of municipal services. The result is a haphazard pile of buildings that are difficult to read and confusing to use. The Commune's request was to clarify the whole, to extend once again the spaces dedicated to the administration and to make the offices more appropriate to today's ways of organising work.

Our intervention can therefore be summed up in two steps:

Firstly, we are creating a plinth that connects all the buildings on the ground floor and centralises access, reserving the monumental entrance for its solemn use.The functions accessible to the public are located here. They are organised around two abundantly planted patios that let in plenty of light.One is dedicated exclusively to employees, while the second is a garden for visitors.These outdoor spaces also form the continuous, glazed interior façade of the project.

Next, two high volumes sit on top of the plinth to stitch the block together. They contain the offices of the aldermen and secretaries, as well as communal spaces and meeting rooms. Their facades are deliberately sober, composed of monochrome bricks and relatively abstract vertical window bands. Behind the glazing, the horizontal slabs are aligned with the openings in the City Hall, as a subtle reminder of this architecture. In this way, through this restrained material research and the way in which they are articulated, the volumes do not assert themselves but rather form a background to the heritage building.

In this way, thanks to a large-scale but delicate intervention, the Anderlecht City Hall is firmly anchored in its neighbourhood. It offers local residents welcoming, brighter spaces and recovers the clarity of its use, all qualities necessary for a public building.