Aires Mateus to design architecture school with a house-shaped entrance
News: Portuguese brothers Manuel and Francisco Aires Mateus have won a competition to design a new school of architecture in the Belgian city of Tournai, with plans for a complex featuring a house-shaped entrance void.
![School of Architecture, Tournai by Aires Mateus](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/04/School-of-Architecture-Tournai-by-Aires-Mateus_dezeen_2.jpg)
Lisbon-based Aires Mateus saw off competition from Belgian studio Robbrecht & Daem and French firm Lacaton & Vassal to win the commission to create a 7000-square-metre architecture faculty for 600 students at the Catholic University of Louvain.
![School of Architecture, Tournai by Aires Mateus](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/04/School-of-Architecture-Tournai-by-Aires-Mateus_dezeen_3.jpg)
Located within the city's historic quarter, the project will involve renovating an eighteenth-century hospital to accommodate administrative services as well as converting two industrial buildings to create space for classrooms and a library.
![School of Architecture, Tournai by Aires Mateus](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/04/School-of-Architecture-Tournai-by-Aires-Mateus_dezeen_4.jpg)
The architects also plan to demolish some existing buildings, making room for a tree-lined courtyard and a new structure that will serve as the spine of the complex.
![School of Architecture, Tournai by Aires Mateus](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/04/School-of-Architecture-Tournai-by-Aires-Mateus_dezeen_5.jpg)
Weaving between the renovated blocks, the new building will link different departments and provide a distinctive entrance. According to the architects, it will make contact with the existing brick volumes in as few places as possible.
![School of Architecture, Tournai by Aires Mateus](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/04/School-of-Architecture-Tournai-by-Aires-Mateus_dezeen_6.jpg)
"The design evokes the existing iconography in the architectural heritage of Tournai," said the architects.
![School of Architecture, Tournai by Aires Mateus](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/04/School-of-Architecture-Tournai-by-Aires-Mateus_dezeen_7.gif)
"Its geometry causes various urban plazas and produces a large interior space which will house all academic activities, as well as establishing a close collaboration with the community," they added.
![School of Architecture, Tournai by Aires Mateus](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/04/School-of-Architecture-Tournai-by-Aires-Mateus_dezeen_8.jpg)
Work is set to begin on the project later this year and students are expected to start occupying the facility in 2015.
![School of Architecture, Tournai by Aires Mateus](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/04/School-of-Architecture-Tournai-by-Aires-Mateus_dezeen_9.jpg)