Notary Van Damme / Govaert & Vanhoutte Architects

Three notaries employ 24 employees in the Van Damme notary in Bruges. The building was designed around a number of essential spaces, such as auditoriums, meeting rooms, closed and open offices. This functional approach was aesthetically conceived to be reduced to its bare essentials. Minimal is combined with warmth, with an emphasis on line formation and proportions. The main materials that dominate both inside and outside are glass & concrete. The facade is largely glazed, alternately combined with concrete. Above the entrance, an overhanging glass cube provides shelter from the rain. The facade is a pattern of beam shapes in glass and concrete with well-considered proportions.