The Vegetable Palace, Belgium Building, Images, Architecture, Architect

The Vegetable Palace in Belgium

Belgian Horticulture Building – design by van Bergen Kolpa Architects

24 Mar 2016

The Vegetable Palace

Design: van Bergen Kolpa Architects

Location: Belgium

The Vegetable Palace

Team van Bergen Kolpa Architects with Meta, Wageningen UR Horticulture, Smiemans en Tractebel Engineers has won the design competition for the largest rooftop research and demonstration center for food of Europe.

The Vegetable Palace is an ambitious project for research and demonstration of vegetable cultivation that will further connect Inagro, the Flemish institute for agriculture, to the agro-logistical sector and the food-consumer.

The Vegetable Palace will become the proud Landmark of the Green Hub along the ring road of the city of Roeselare. The building will be realized on the roof of the vegetable and fruit wholesale market REO; the food logistical heart of West-Flanders. The innovative design will be an example for future food production within the city, intensified use of space, circular energy and water usage and sustainable horticulture.

The 9.500 sqm building houses high-tech research facilities for fruit-vegetable and leaf-vegetable cultivation surrounded by an educational routing for a wider public. As a result one can experience the cultivation of vegetables such as tomatoes and lettuce as well as peppers and strawberries in four different climate zones. The buildings grand entrance stairs lead to the newly introduced level where the Urban Agriculture Square and visitor’s facilities are located in the heart of the building. The Vertical Greenhouse Gevelserre contains a double height Greenhouse for the innovation of stacked horticulture solutions. The base of the Gevelserre contains the rainwater storage and a reed filter for residual wastewater treatment.

The Vegetable Palace is a proud and transparent sculpture of steel and glass. Its architecture is defined by the thin greenhouse construction that silhouettes the sky, resting on the market’s concrete base. In this way the building will establish a prominent position for Urban Agriculture on industrial roofs in the city skyline of Roeselare. Construction will start early 2017 as the beginning of 2018 the building will open it’s doors to horticulturists, researchers and the wider public.

‘We are delighted being able to realize this ambitious project with such ambitious clients. Inagro and the REO market proof that professional food production and the city can be connected/ can be brought closer together.’ Says Architect Jago van Bergen, director of Van Bergen Kolpa Architects.

‘This is a huge leap in scale of rooftop urban horticulture; the largest in Europe, and we are keen to contribute with our knowledge’. According to Jan Willem de Vries , of Wageningen UR Horticulture.

‘The climate design offers innovative solutions for sustainable energy usage’ says Tineke Duysburgh of Tractabel Engineers .

‘For the Vegetable Palace we used the most advanced Venlo Greenhouse type and perfected it even further’. According to Jeroen Smiemans, director of Smiemans projects

‘A real Public Building for the city of Roeselare’. Says Niklaas Deboutte of Meta.

Van Bergen Kolpa Architects focuses on Architecture for Food. The office has an international scope and engages with clients, stakeholders and innovators that aspire sustainable developments for the city of today and tomorrow. Focus of van Bergen Kolpa’s working methodology is the making of a balance – a natural ecology – between program (economy), landscape (space) and natural resources (social relevance). The office works in multidisciplinary teams of experts on projects such as the Greenport Westland-Oostland in the Netherlands, the Metropolitan Food Valley Beijing, China and a 33.000sqm Food Expo building in Doha, Qatar.

Their work is exhibited and published world wide including CNN World News and the Architecture Biennale of São Paolo Brazil. Recently the office is short listed for the World Architecture Festival Awards and the Dutch Hedy d’Ancona prize for excellent health Architecture. The office was awarded the Charlotte Köhler Prize of the Prince Bernhard Cultural Fund and the Dutch Prix the Rome for Landscape and urban planning. Jago van Bergen and Evert Kolpa founded Van Bergen Kolpa Architects in 2000.

The Vegetable Palace in Belgium images / information from van Bergen Kolpa Architects

Location:Belgium ‘