Crowning glory: Zaha Hadid Architects complete Port House in Antwerp

Antwerp is Europe’s second largest shipping port, and now the Flemish city has a fitting new architectural landmark to highlight the fact, courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA). The Port House, a masterfully renovated and extended fire station, was designed to bring together under a single roof the Belgian city’s some 500 port authority staff, while referencing in its design some of Antwerp’s key features.
The city’s 12 km of docks handle an impressive 26 per cent of Europe’s container shipping, making Antwerp’s an extremely busy and growing port facility. In 2007, the Port of Antwerp decided to commission a purpose designed building for its technical and administrative offices, which used to be housed in several different locations.
Enter the famous London based practice, which was commissioned to redesign the derelict fire station at the point where the city meets the docklands – an area called Mexico Island. Combining historical research, the existing listed building’s features and the architecture office’s signature bold and flowing forms, ZHA crowned the refreshed structure with a glistening glass and metal new volume that appears to float at its very top.
Mimicking the nearby River Schelde’s waters and the windy city’s ever-changing skies, the 6,200 sq m new structure is partly transparent and partly opaque. Its triangular façade panels take their cue from the city’s reputation as an international hub for the diamond trade, also reflecting surrounding views.
Inside, the structure offers panoramic vistas of the Schelde, the city and the Port. An enclosed central courtyard leads to the building’s main reception area, a public reading room and a library. The office floors unfold above, including a restaurant, meeting rooms and an auditorium.
Combining sustainability with eye-catching design, Port House has achieved a ‘Very Good’ BREEAM environmental rating.
Crowning the historical building with a glistening new glass and metal structure, the architects added drama, marking fittingly the entrance to the city's dock area.
The extension is covered in triangular panels, which reference the city's reputation as a centre for the international diamond trade.
Inside, the structure offers panoramic vistas of the River Scheldt, the city and the Port.
The new structure includes five floors of office space, while the project also features a library, restaurant and auditorium.
Combining sustainability with eye-catching design, Port House has a ‘Very Good’ BREEAM environmental rating.
INFORMATION
For more information visit the ZHA website
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 winner is ‘a radical reimagining of later living’
Appleby Blue Almshouse wins the RIBA Stirling Prize 2025, crowning the social housing complex for over-65s by Witherford Watson Mann Architects, the best building of the year
-
A24 just opened a restaurant in New York, and no one knows it exists
Hidden in the West Village, Wild Cherry pairs a moody, arthouse sensibility with a supper-style menu devised by the team behind Frenchette
-
Yinka Ilori’s new foundation is dedicated to play and joy: ‘Play gave me freedom to dream’
Today, artist and designer Yinka Ilori announced the launch of a non-profit organisation that debuts with a playscape in Nigeria
-
RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 winner is ‘a radical reimagining of later living’
Appleby Blue Almshouse wins the RIBA Stirling Prize 2025, crowning the social housing complex for over-65s by Witherford Watson Mann Architects, the best building of the year
-
‘Belonging’ – the LFA 2026 theme is revealed, exploring how places can become personal
The idea of belonging and what it means in today’s world will be central at the London Festival of Architecture’s explorations, as the event’s 2026 theme has been announced today
-
Join us on a first look inside Regent’s View, the revamped canalside gasholder project in London
Regent's View, the RSHP-designed development for St William, situated on a former gasholder site on a canal in east London, has just completed its first phase
-
The Royal College of Art has announced plans for renewal of its Kensington campus
The Royal College of Art project, led by Witherford Watson Mann Architects, includes the revitalisation of the Darwin Building and more, in the hopes of establishing an open and future-facing place of creativity
-
Power Hall’s glow-up shines light on science and innovation in Manchester
Power Hall at The Science and Industry Museum in Manchester was given a spruce-up by Carmody Groarke, showcasing the past and future of machines, engineering and sustainable architecture
-
Celebrate the angular joys of 'Brutal Scotland', a new book from Simon Phipps
'Brutal Scotland' chronicles one country’s relationship with concrete; is brutalism an architectural bogeyman or a monument to a lost era of aspirational community design?
-
Max Creasy on the future of architectural photography and a shift to the ‘snapshot’
A show of photographer Max Creasy’s work opens at the AA in London, asking a key question: where is contemporary architectural photography heading?
-
Tour this immaculately composed Islington house for an art collector who loves entertaining
An Islington house by Emil Eve Architects, on coveted Thornhill Road, combines warm minimalism and some expert spatial planning