WET 89

WET89 is located on the Rue de la Loi, Brussels’ busiest boulevard, in the heart of the European Quarter. The site is situated in between Brussels’ two most important public parks: the Cinquantenaire and the Royal Park. Currently the boulevard is a high speed canyon for cars, formed by mute office facades, gutted of any kind of street life or representation. WET89 aims at a double impact: offering high end office space for the CD&V headquarters combined with a new public facility: a unique ground floor café-restaurant.

We believe that political headquarters, such as CD&V, hold a responsibility activating their European context and neighborhood. This is why we proposed to inject a seemingly foreign public facility into the office program. The café as a high-quality independent entity injected in the context could be the very first step to revive and re-empower this CBD, also at street level.


  • Location

    Brussels, Belgium

  • Client

    Unitas vzw

  • Design

    2005

  • Completion

    2008

  • 51N4E project team

    Johan Anrys, Freek Persyn, Peter Swinnen, Tine Cooreman, Joram Van den Brande, Joost Körver, Sotiria Kornaropoulou, Karol Wawrzyniak, Jan Das, Bob De Wispelaere

  • 51N4E involvement

    Full process

  • Consultant

    MDA Consult

  • Structural engineer

    Babel Ingenieurscollectief

  • Technical engineer

    Studiebureau Boydens

  • Acoustics

    Daidalos-Peutz

  • Artist

    Paul Casaer (sculptures)

  • Safety management

    IVW-Consult

  • Construction costs

    € 2.900.000

  • Programme

    café & renovation headquarters

  • Site surface

    840 m²

  • Built surface

    2,390 m²

  • Photography

    Stijn Bollaert