Renovation of Geldrop-Mierlo City Hall. A transparent building structure in order to communicate its civil service

Reset architecture completely renovates the town hall in Geldrop-Mierlo, which is also expanded with a multifunctional meeting center, a council chamber, and several meeting rooms. Renovation of the existing building was also needed to make it sustainable and a suitable workplace for today's needs. Architecture was also required to improve the aesthetic expression of the city hall because it lacked the appearance of a public building and did not clearly communicate its function

The city hall consisted of two connected buildings: a 19th-century villa and an anonymous 1980s office building that was carelessly connected to the former. Reset architecture detaches the villa to emphasize its historic qualities and to create a clearer entrance to the city hall. With this reorganization comes a new spatial clarity in which the villa and the newly added volume together form the public body, positioned centrally between the two office wings

The new extension gives continuity, with abstract and refined details, to the architecture of the eclectic villa, with its symmetrical order and vertical articulation. The interior of the bright new meeting center is open to the surroundings and connects to the green landscape with a splendid view of Geldrop Castle. The entire center has an open and spacious feel, with meeting rooms on two floors and a lower, more intimate part that houses the Council Chamber. The cohesion of the elegant space is enhanced by a continuous rhythm of columns in the four facades and the all-around light coming through the glass facades. This yoke of columns subtly positions the new space between the existing office wings

This project is an example of sustainable renovation: the building is all-electric, with the EU Class A+++ energy label. The new volume reduces the number of facades and has been insulated with triple glazing and a carefully insulated roof. Together with the various insulating measures in the existing parts, the required heating power was reduced by about 60 percent. Sustainability goes beyond energy conservation. The new building is made of a lightweight and removable structure in line with a circular way of thinking. During construction, (demolition) parts are reused immediately or made available for reuse