KIELDRECHT LOCK

The Kieldrecht Lock connects the River Schelde with the several Antwerp dockyards on the left Schelde dock. The sluice, with a length of 500 meter is the largest in the world. All activities on the sluice terrain are in service of sluice operations. Control from the nautical command, the driving mechanism of the sluice doors, storage of spare parts and machinery, and waiting facilities for personnel are organised according to their functional logic, and designed in coherence with the industrial landscape. A monotone raster of anthracite concrete frames make the shell for the different programs and unify a total of eleven buildings as an architectural family. Pushed in monochrome cassettes of concrete-, ventilation raster-, and glass fillings facilitate the programmes indside. Rationalistic simplicity is refined predominantly with pragmatic articulations of the façade raster in place of the important entrances, and the nautical command centre. The anthracite colour makes the relative tiny sluice buildings disappear in the landscape. The extent of the sluice plateau is denoted by a grid of lighting masts. Besides functional lighting of the terrain, this light grid is also equipped with signal lights on various height levels. They translate the operation of the sluice and sluice water levels over the entire terrain of the complex.