new town hall for municipality of buren

The current town hall of Buren is located in a park on the outskirts of Maurik. cepezed is designing a new town hall a little further away. Because of the estate-like setting, we arrived at the character of an orangery.

selection procedure
The municipality of Buren wants a modern, efficient and sustainable new town hall. It asked seven architectural firms to present a vision, which was then assessed on criteria such as experience, design vision and planning. Our proposal stood out partly because it matched the municipality's ambition to realise a compact and transparent new town hall, which is at the same time a meeting place for all inhabitants.

orangery
The new building will soon be located in an estate-like setting, on a pond near the existing town hall. That building was designed by Alberts & Van Huut in their characteristic, anthroposophical style. We were looking for a building that fits on a country estate, but is opposite to the closed, castle-like character of the existing town hall. So we ended up with a pavilion or orangery. The tree-shaped, wooden columns in our vision refer to Alberts & Van Huut's organic structure, but - like the building type 'orangery' - also to local fruit cultivation.

participation
Based on our vision, we will now start working on the sketch design. A sounding board group of residents, employees and councillors will be involved in this phase through an extensive participation process. The alderman involved, Karl Maier, calls cepezed 'a renowned agency with a solid track record in designing town halls. Especially in the light of our experience, we think this is a nice new assignment, with its own scale, location, cultural history and participation procedure.

2026
Construction of the new town hall is expected to start in early 2025, after which it can be occupied in mid-2026. Buren's existing town hall will then be given a new function as a residential building.