Two historic buildings on the station square in Ghent jointly house the Gent Ecological Centre. The ground floor will be completely opened up and given a single shared entrance. The massive extension on the first floor is supported by five slender steel columns. Only the existing stairwell informally divides the double-wide space into restaurant and shop.

A new kitchen volume is fitted in behind the extension. A light timber structure under a pitched gable roof is stretched across the full width of the double plot. Through the kitchen’s transparent curtain walls, the interior space visually extends into the wedge-shaped terrace. The open corners between the main building and the new rear extension bring daylight into the deepest point of the building.