• location: Kinrooi, Belgium
• program: Food-Incubator, Visitor Centre Agropolis
• client: Municipality Kinrooi, VZW Boterakker w/ Vlaams Bouwmeester
• design: 2015
• design team: Bekkering Adams architecten: Monica Adams, Juliette Bekkering, Frank de Vleeschhouwer, UÄŸur Sütcü, Siwen Liu, Kenny Kwong Qualityplan: Group A: Adams Visser, Greetje van den Nouweland

The site for the Agropolis Kinrooi is located in the agricultural and horticultural area in the east of the province Limburg, in the municipality of Kinrooi.

The ambition of the client is to develop a unique area for new farming technologies and agricultural lifestyle. The Agropolis campus will house a cluster of companies, where sustainable agriculture is linked to Cleantech and renewable energy. For this an urban plan has been made for the entire site, strengthening the landscape qualities of the area and accommodating the future development of buildings in a harmonious way in the over-all design.

In the heart of the site an appealing incubator building is projected where spaces for small start-up companies are combined /strengthened with a visitor centre, which serves as a public attraction and as an example where future buildings and companies may apply.

The Agropolis incubator building is a striking, sculptural building, which makes it ideal to strengthen the identity of this yet to be developed area. It combines a large multi-purpose hall, suitable for food production and a fresh market combined with a climbing tower, accessible by an outside route via a ramp. This creates both a tourist attraction and a meeting place for the ‘food experience’, where local products can be enjoyed. The various functions – visitor centre, workstations, meeting areas, business hall/ market hall and offices- are bind together to create synergy by proximity.