In Charleroi, the new building for the Walloon company Crédit Social, designed by RGPA (Reservoir A Goffart Polomé) and META, sits on the corner of Rue de l’Écluse and Boulevard Tirou, enclosing the block on which it stands. At the front of the façade, a colonnade emphasises the building’s flexibility by creating a clear distinction between the load-bearing structure and the usable space.

In this neighbourhood near the Sambre, the Walloon Society’s existing building no longer met current comfort standards, and the number of employees had increased considerably. The neighbouring plot was therefore acquired to construct a second building, intended to house offices and residential units. However, from the very early stages of the project, the idea of repurposing the existing building to include housing as well began to take shape. The focus on maximum flexibility was therefore intensified so that both buildings could adapt to these changes in the programme.

The shopping arcade on the ground floor of the existing building continues along the façade of the extension with a double-height section. It thus extends the urban fabric and the pedestrian walkway. This recess in the façade at ground level, designed to align with the existing shopping arcade and featuring concrete columns in the foreground, forms the starting point of the project, as the columns then extend the full height of the building, giving it a strong structural presence. Echoing its neighbours, the building features a tripartite composition with a brick façade inherited from the post-modernist context.

This concrete colonnade with round sections unfolds in the manner of an ancient peristyle. It marks a uniform and continuous threshold across all the façades, without directly revealing what the building contains. Thus, the various functions that make up the city—shops, offices and housing—can be delicately integrated into the background behind long glass walls. This recess within the façade’s depth affords a degree of privacy to the residential units in this neighbourhood, which is predominantly made up of offices. Meanwhile, the projecting concrete slabs serve both as continuous balconies and as sunshades.

The clear distinction between the structural and finishing works gives the building a flexibility that ensures its durability. Thanks to its open-plan layout, it is able to adapt to various changes in use, with a detached, point-supported structure that allows for flexibility.