The Baumans-Deffet practice has designed a new building in Herve comprising offices and consultation rooms for the local social welfare office, as well as a food bank and a charity shop for the non-profit organisation Télé-Entraide. It is a versatile building that can be used flexibly, both now and in the future.

According to Baumans-Deffet, the mixed-use nature of the building demonstrates precisely what they themselves call ‘their collective responsibility’: the ability of architecture to act as a unifying force and to bring people – clients, users, stakeholders, civic groups – together. ¹
The building houses all the OCMW services that were previously scattered across various locations. It also accommodates the workshops and the charity shop of the non-profit organisation Télé-Entraide. The building is situated on the N3, somewhere between Herve and Battice, next to an existing municipal car park. The architects have managed to preserve the landscape view. This is part of their broader urban and geographical vision for the site’s future. The project is, after all, part of a local development plan (ZACC – Zones d’Aménagement Communal Concerté), which involves re-examining the relationship between the built and natural environments and the boundaries of the towns of Herve and Battice. 1 Free translation of: Baumans, Arlette, Deffet, Bernard. ‘Pratiques architecturales et urbanistiques’, in Architexto. Baumans-Deffet, architects Géraldine Brausch, philosopher. Fourre-Tout, 2008.