latticed SILT middelkerke venue officially opens on belgian coast

SILT Middelkerke by delva and Zja unveiled in belgium

The event venue in Middelkerke, Belgium, known as SILT, was ceremoniously unveiled on Friday, March 22. Completed as a sculptural wood lattice landmark, the building takes over the Flemish coast by integrating into a new experiential landscape inspired by the former island of Testerep, characterized by dunes and channels. Such integration ensures coastal reinforcement, livability, and sustainability along the seascape. Dutch practices DELVA Landscape Architecture and ZJA led the design in collaboration with OZ and Bureau Bouwtechniek, alongside a team of experts forming the Nautilus Construction Team. At the heart of the landscape, the hotel tower stands as a new beacon by the sea. SILT also houses a casino, restaurant, multifunctional event space, and an underground parking garage. Read our previous coverage here.

all images © Sebastian van Damme

creating a ‘landscraper’

Steven Delva, founder and partner at DELVA, comments on the design, describing it as a new architectural typology: Skyscrapers, also known as skyscrapers, define the skyline of a modern city. For SILT, the design team sought a landscraper’ a new and unique horizontal dune landscape with a program within it. We leverage this distinctive landscape to seamlessly integrate all assigned tasks in an apparently natural way, resulting in a new experiential dune landscape. A landscape where residents and visitors can once again enjoy the views, the sea, the skies, and the dunes.’ An underground parking garage creates a car-free zone at SILT, allowing the open space above to flourish. Marram grass, dune hollows, and sand channels leading to the beach restore Middelkerke’s distinctive landscape. The climb to the top of the new dune offers scenic vistas and serves as a tourist attraction in itself.

SILT Middelkerke ceremoniously unveiled on March 22

To anchor SILT Middelkerke in its spatial, social, and economic context, the team at ZJA and DELVA opted for a high-quality integration, forming a sustainable connection with the surroundings in every aspect. ‘The design rewrites the historical relationship of the resort town with the sea and adds a modest hotel tower with a relatively small footprint, providing much new public space to the location,’ shares Reinald Top, partner-architect at ZJA. ‘At the same time, the hotel tower is also a striking building, with its distinctive shape and wooden facade structure. Visible along the entire historical coastline of the former island of Testerep, from Oostende to Westende. SILT is understated with maximum impact.’

inspired by the sea and dunes

silt Middelkerke boasts a skin made of wood beam lattice

The hotel, connected to the event venue, adorns the coastline with its sculptural silhouette covered in an open lattice of curved Accoya wood beams — a design touch aimed at optimizing energy supply, waste management, and production processes. Furthermore, SILT Middelkerke received a new seawall resistant to a 1000-year storm, able to withstand extremely stormy weather with exceptionally high waves and water levels exceeding two meters above the current high tide level. In other words, the building is currently the most protected place along the Belgian coast.

the facade boasts a lattice of Accoya wood beams

SILT Middelkerke built remarkably quickly thanks to an incredibly dedicated team led by ZJA and DELVA. In February 2022, the construction team began digging the immense pit; just two years later, the building is complete. SILT Middelkerke received the prestigious International Architecture Award 2022. Then, in 2023, the project won another accolade — a World Landscape Award of Honour in the category ‘Concept – Large Design.’

Dutch practices DELVA and ZJA led on the design of SILT Middelkerke