Hasselt Beguinage – Contemporary Brick Layers in a Historic Ensemble
The revitalisation of the Hasselt Beguinage by Bovenbouw Architectuur and David Kohn Architects demonstrates how historic ensembles can be transformed through precise, context-aware architectural interventions. Rather than reconstructing what was lost, the project works with the existing layers—courtyards, brick shells, residual walls—and extends them through carefully calibrated additions.
For decades, the Beguinage existed as a spatial fragment, marked by the absence of its war-destroyed church. The architects treat this absence not as a void to be corrected, but as a condition to be interpreted. New pathways and spatial sequences open the site toward the university and the city, while the characteristic scale of the ensemble remains perceptible.
The most defining new element is the 30-metre panorama tower. Instead of replicating the form of the former church tower, the new structure introduces a contemporary typological response. Its monolithic massing, minimal openings and spiralling interior circulation create a vertical anchor that reorganises the site without resorting to historic imitation. The ascent becomes a spatial experience, tightening within the brick shell before revealing wide views over Hasselt.
For the tower and several newly inserted walls, our Wittmunder Brick Type 151 was selected. The brick does not function as a decorative gesture but as a material layer with structural and atmospheric relevance. Its dense firing texture, subtle colour variation and robust surface allow it to sit confidently among the older brickwork—neither mimicking the historic substance nor visually detaching from it. Instead, Brick 151 establishes a contemporary stratum within the ensemble, strengthening the material continuity of the site.
The newly built walls play a decisive spatial role. They articulate pathways, define courtyard edges and negotiate transitions between public and semi-public zones—elements that have always been integral to the typology of beguinages.
The Hasselt Beguinage project exemplifies how building within heritage today can succeed: through material clarity, architectural precision and a willingness to continue existing structures rather than overwrite them.
