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A medical office

In the Belgian village of Dudzele, architects Cristian Panaite and Katrien Devreese complete a medical office, replacing a derelict structure with a new building that develops over four separate volumes.

Architects Cristian Panaite and Katrien Devreese have recently completed a medical office in Dudzele, a village in the road that links Bruges to the North Sea shore, in Belgium. The village is centuries old but never grew enough to become a city. Here, the house typology respects the archetypal Belgian house: brick buildings with sloped roofs, with one or two floors. The main public space and the urban form of the village is defined by the main street, which was once a country road cutting through the landscape.

Cristian Panaite & Katrien Devreese, medical office in Dudzele, Belgium 2012

In a site that aligns with the main street, Panaite and Devreese replaced a derelict, modest previously existing house, with a renovated volume that now harbors the village's main medical facility. The architects sought to create a building that would not disturb the existing urban fabric, creating a volume that clearly distinguishes itself from the surroundings while respecting the traditional constructions around it.

The medical office materialises in a series of different volumes that interfere with the linear development of the main street — the office volume develops over four separate entities. The first one borrows the low scale of the neighboring context, and the second one reaches the highest point, giving visual independence to the whole ensemble. The final last two gently melt into the flat landscape of the backyard.

The medical office's interior spaces simultaneously shape and are shaped by different functions: waiting room, reception or consulting rooms, all developed and aligned along the access route to the backyard. "By reinterpreting the existent urban situation, the project creates a new open visual perspective perpendicular on the main road, offering more urban deepness to the main street," state the architects.

Cristian Panaite & Katrien Devreese: medical office in Dudzele

Architects: Cristian Panaite (architect) and Katrien Devreese (engineer architect)

Location: Dudzele, Bruges, Belgium

Structure: Util

Client: doctor Devreese; doctor Helegeer

Area: 215 square metres

Completion: 2012

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