



BOUWMATERIALENDORP THE PORT OF BRUSSELS
Location: Vergotedok, Brussels
Client: The Port of Brussels
Foto's: Filip Dujardin
The redevelopment of the Vergotedok western bank turns the site into a building materials hub that supports sustainable urban logistics and shifts freight from roads to inland waterways. This aligns with the Port of Brussels’ broader strategy to expand waterborne transport, reduce road traffic, and strengthen urban integration and circular logistics. The architectural concept opens the site visually and physically through interstitial spaces along the side streets, making the city’s metabolism visible across the canal zone. A continuous folded roof ties the sequence of modules together while reinterpreting the classic shed roof in a more expressive way. A 20-meter grid, based on the quay’s bollard spacing, organizes the site into 31 bays and supports a modular steel structure of 36 by 10 meters. This creates large column-free spaces that can host multiple port functions and different tenants, including retail, storage, and loading operations. Sustainability is built into the project through a layered, reversible design that can scale from an open zone to a canopy, cold storage, or insulated warehouse. This flexibility makes the building materials village adaptable and future-proof while reflecting the city’s industrial metabolism.