BELGIUM 067


2016. A town of around 43,000 inhabitants it sits 20 minutes’s drive south-west of Ghent. As part of a larger scheme for the restoration of the historic city centre, one of the most ambitious projects was for a new town hall. In choosing a pivotal location opposite a 14th-century church and on the edge of the town’s main park, the two buildings re-orientated the municipality towards the River Lys, a tributary of the Scheldt. One building contains a double-height council chamber that is adorned by a visible public artwork, T e Book of Hours, by Jorge Macchi. T e façades are confi gured as loggias to provide shade and informal spaces away from the working areas. T e larger building contains the offi ces and service centres. Both buildings benefi t from natural light, and are


naturally ventilated, with ground sourced heating and cooling. Together they enclose a public space along the river that has been integrated into the overall landscaping scheme that was devised by Marie-José Van Hee and Robbrecht en Daem.


Admired internationally, in 2019 Edwin Heathcote called Fretton Britain’s most unsung architect. On an earlier occasion he was asked to name the best new building in London, and he surprised himself by blurting out the Lisson Gallery – a place that opened in 1992. Mesmerising. 1992! ‘Sometimes the blurted out answers are the best,’ Heathcote admitted. A tiny but very infl uential project, alongside a considerable amount of work in Britain, Fretton’s ability has nevertheless, for a long time, been best observed outside the UK.


Above Located in the northern Dutch town of Den Helder, the Molenplein project occupies a long site between two canals


Left The Solid 11 project is a seven-storey, 8,000 sq m mixed-use development in central Amsterdam


Right A concept drawing for the proposed design of a mixed-use project by Tony Fretton in the Swiss town of Neuhausen Am Rheinfall


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