The Gitschotelhof residential care campus (wzc) in Borgerhout, designed by Collectief Noord Architecten, is a remarkable project. The combination of 180 rooms for elderly people in need of care, a cluster of 32 supported housing units, a day centre and a ‘Children’s Centre’ is cleverly organised from a functional perspective. But there is more to it than that. The design reimagines the concept of ‘care’ through a fascinating, positive interpretation of the 20th-century beltway.

The project began with an Open Call. Zorgbedrijf Antwerpen was seeking a masterplan for an existing Care Campus – essentially a ‘care home’ – on a site between Bikschotelaan, Lodewijk Van Berckenlaan, Valkenputstraat and Vosstraat. That care home, with its H-shaped floor plan, stood in the middle of the site, far from the street frontages, as if to make it clear that it had nothing to do with its surroundings.