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| Company |
| Mission |
| osar is an architectural firm that creates and realises buildings. It focuses on the subsidized sector and uses fully integrated expertise for each project.
At osar, we think every assignment is an opportunity rather than a problem, and we always believe in a happy end.
Based on this positive attitude, our projects become pure, efficient, reliable buildings that are adapted to the requirements of real life.
Every project is a unique challenge and starts with the search for honest answers to two crucial questions: "What should we build?" and "Who are we building it for?".
To this end, we submit every assignment to continuous quality research and surround ourselves with diverse, experienced, innovative, critical partners. As the turning point of this network, we at osar wish to provide them with the resources to remain critical throughout the entire process so that we, as an organization, can always question everything, time and again.
In this way, osar can be the passionate, inspiring team that creates the stimulating environment in which employees, partners and customers can work together to turn built space into a high-performance building which meets the highest expectations, now and in the future. |
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| Method |
osar applies a twofold method to its projects. The manner in which the firm's internal organisation is structured directly impacts the work process which osar applies to each project.
Internal organisation
osar's main office is in Antwerp. The company has a second branch in Hasselt, and a third in Gent.
All general organization is controlled from Antwerp, where each of the osar partners has an office and where the firm's administrative services are located.
The partners are in charge of finding and conceiving projects. Their vision on (potential) architecture projects is jointly determined by the findings of the research team, which is also based in Antwerp. Within this innovation unit, three permanent workers carry out research and work on (funded) studies with regard to architecture, usually in combination with external, well-known research institutions.
By investing in a research team, osar wishes to position itself more explicitly within a network of universities and close the gap between the academic world and practice.
Another task of the innovation unit consists of reviewing and answering any question as it arises in the frame of a project. As a result, there is a permanent exchange of information between the innovation unit on the one hand and the partners and a second group of employees on the other hand. The second group of employees is split in project teams and design teams.
- osar has seven project teams. Each is headed by a project architect or project manager. He or she is the single contact between osar and the customer and guarantees process continuity, even when there are structural changes or HR changes on the client side. The project architect works with an architect and a trainee.
Project management is a specific role, which consists of providing the customer with guidance for the complete duration of the building process, from the first exploratory meeting right up to and including the aftercare. This also includes site follow-up. The project architect determines the strategy in order to realize the vision, which has been laid down with the entire team. It is his duty to safeguard this vision.
- The project architect directs a creative team for the design and the development. In house engineers, architects and interior architects take care of the creation and realisation of a building project, with the support of external partners such as consulting firms. The combination of project teams and creative teams results in integrated expertise, which will incite the customer to always keep the future in mind. The system prevents the project architect from finding himself in a situation where he can insufficiently fulfill his coordinating function.
Work process
At osar, each project starts with programme research, meaning we look for honest answers to two questions:
- What do we need to build?
- For whom do we need to build, now and in the future?
At the same time, contextual research is carried out into the environment in which we will be building.
More specifically, we try to optimize existing qualities or even solve environmental defects as much as possible.
The results of this analysis are then gathered in a synthesis, which is submitted to a quality unit*. The findings of our quality unit are summarized in a vision. Based on this vision, we draw up a number of objectives, which are distilled into a preliminary design. This is then re-submitted to the quality unit. The committee has to test whether the preliminary design is still in line with the previously proposed synthesis.
By presenting the project to a quality unit at pre-determined moments, osar hopes to generate criticism and find solutions, before the project is at a stage where there is no way back.
Quality unit
The quality unit, introduced by osar, is a broad, cross-competition consultation platform, which allows experts to be critical about one another's work. A quality unit is made up of the customer and of a number of experts, who represent various disciplines within one industry.
The aim is for them to reflect together on how an organization operates and, more specifically, on the feasibility of innovative applications in the organization without endangering its proper functioning. The interventions of the quality units are usually round-table discussions, which generate a certain dynamic within the industry. They help make a project fascinating, contribute to realizing ideas that were deemed unrealistic and offer a joint feeling of support for osar and the customer. Thanks to the work of the quality units, osar often knows beforehand which problems can/may arise in the course of the building process, as well as afterwards, when the building is in use. This awareness leaves everyone the option of rising to the challenge, long before a project is in the decisive stages. osar's experience has shown that this method tends to turn the principal into an ally, who will push the architect's firm even more into a given (innovative) direction. |
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| Value |
| osar's mission, method and realizations are determined by five values: optimism, criticism, an eagerness to learn, openness and courage. This is osar's backbone; without this, our organization does not meet the requirements of our own vision on architecture.
Criticism underpins the entire building process. Only by questioning ourselves can we fulfil our own ambitions. We prefer critical principals who constantly challenge our proposals. We are convinced that a system of experienced builders that gives rise to reflection and also gives new players the margin to be critical provides all parties with a certain guarantee.
Optimism is a moral duty. Realizing complex, usually public buildings adds something to an environment at the least, but often also determines that same environment for a long time. We build for the future, which is why we feel obliged to society to use our belief in a favourable outcome as our starting point.
An Eagerness to learn is very important within our organization. In our aspiration to only provide quality, research into architecture is essential. By linking the work of our permanent research team to that of external research institutions, osar's dream is to become a knowledge centre for architecture. In order to achieve this, we do not hesitate to let osar push the leading edge.
Openness is about the transparent relationship that we have with our customers, our partners and our employees. Openness also stands for the honesty, which sometimes pushes us to make difficult decisions that are nevertheless justified. Finally, openness stands for our evolving vision on our organization and on society in the broadest sense of the term.
Courage is an indispensable property for anyone who wants to be innovative. osar dares to submit groundbreaking proposals that also require courage on behalf of our partners and customers to go along with. Setting up quality units helps generate certainty among our customers and encourage them to make courageous decisions. |
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| Research |
| Team |
| Ensuring that the projects that osar creates and realises are high-quality, efficient, high-performance buildings requires a clear vision and a great deal of knowledge.
osar has a research team that allows us to achieve the goals and standards that we set.
The scale of the company makes it possible to permanently assign 3 staff members to research and (subsidised) architecture related studies. These studies are situated strictly within osar’s area of activity, but are carried out separately from specific design assignments. Green building, energy, sustainable materials, visual quality, urban planning, accessibility, human-centred design and Architectural Technology are just a few of the keywords that can be applied to these studies.
Another task of the research team is to research and answer all questions that arise in the course of a project. This means that there is a permanent information exchange between the research department on one hand and the project activities on the other.
By linking the results generated by the research team to those of external research institutions, osar aims to develop into a knowledge centre for architecture. This will enhance osar’s vision of (potential) architectural assignments, and increase the quality of the buildings we deliver as well as having a positive influence on the service for our clients.
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| Goals |
| osar is not afraid to come up with revolutionary proposals that require a certain measure of courage on the part of our partners and clients. The creation of a stimulating environment in which clients, staff and partners can jointly arrive at high-performance, innovative creations that meet the highest expectations is only possible if the following goals are pursued:
1. Open innovation
As an ‘open studio for architecture’ osar aims to innovate in the broadest possible sense of the word. By setting up the research team, which collaborates with external, established research institutions, the company goes in search of knowledge wherever it can be found. Sources may include our ‘in house’ talents as well as the academic world (universities and colleges), innovative companies, the Flemish Institute for Technical Research (VITO) etc.
Examples of what osar has realised in the area of collaboration and knowledge exchange with external partners include the merged hospital complex AZ Groeninge in Kortrijk and the Assisted Care Living facility (ACLF) in Balen.
osar’s international ambitions also form part of this open innovation.
2. Learning organisation
If osar wants to continue to live up to its ambition to be an initiator of innovative architecture, it is not enough to have only our project architects involved in ‘research & development’. A company structure of this type involving a double workload can only have an inhibiting effect on their various activities. That is why osar set up a research team in which three people are free to focus exclusively on research.
This initiative is reinforced by a general personnel policy geared towards the ongoing development of our staff. Individual education and additional training forms an important part of the approach that osar brings to its ‘human resources’.
3. Partner within the care sector
No matter how excellent healthcare may be in Belgium, the increasingly aging population and the rapid developments in the provision of care are confronting the entire sector with major challenges. As a knowledge centre, osar wants to contribute to the optimisation of existing facilities, making newly constructed buildings ‘future proof’ and to increase the effectiveness of the working processes and the service provided to the client. By creating the research team, which forms the link between the academic world and practice, osar is meeting a major demand from the care sector.
Investment
Osar is an SME that consciously invests in innovation. The organisation has made a commitment to devote 3% of its turnover to innovation by the year 2014. It is our ambition as a knowledge centre to enter into partnerships with other companies. The government can play a supporting role in this process. By making subsidies available to companies such as osar, innovation teams will be able to deliver even better results.
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| Projects |
| Vision on care for the elderly |
| At osar, each project starts with a programmatic study in which we seek to honestly answer two questions:
- What do we need to build?
- For whom do we need to build, now and in the future?
If we apply the second question to the care for senior citizens, we come to the following conclusions:
We are building for an exponentially growing group which differs in many ways from the senior citizens of the previous generation. The senior citizens of today and tomorrow are accustomed to a high-tech, rapidly evolving society. They have greater mobility and communicate with ease by mobile phone and Internet. Therefore, we can safely assume that the senior citizens for whom we need to build have every reason to be (or aspire to be) assertive, exacting and independent.
The population is aging to such an extent that no public authority is going to be able to meet the total demand for elder housing and elder care single-handedly. For this reason, governmental policy is to allow the senior citizens to remain in their homes as long as possible or in an assisted living facility where the appropriate support can be provided through home care.
The average age at which a senior citizen moves into a residential care facility is 87. The average duration of the occupancy is only 2 years.
The conclusions that we can draw from these considerations form part of the answer to the first question.
We need to realize buildings in which 'normal' living can be supported by care.
We need to create residential environments that do not look like clinical institutions, but which display all the characteristics of a contemporary home. A home that could be just as suitable for a young couple or a family with children as for a single senior citizen.
osar regards it as a duty to see to it that the living comfort of the senior citizen comes first in our architectural designs, in every space, whatever the physical and/or mental condition of the resident may be.
Realistic innovations
In order to achieve this, osar encourages 'thinking small', whereby every design decision is taken based on the needs of the individual resident. The elderly resident plays a central role, with the aim being to reproduce the familiar household atmosphere as closely as possible. The care is provided discreetly in the background - without sacrificing efficiency or quality. This decentralization is not possible without expanding the vision as well as the powers and responsibilities of the team providing the care. The period of the construction process must be used by the client to instil a spirit of responsibility in the future staff.
The assisted living landscape in Balen, the assisted living towers in Hoogstraten, the assisted living strip in Tienen and the assisted living flats in Schoten are four projects through which osar demonstrates that our spatial conception of care for senior citizens is a liveable and practicable vision.
Although the external appearance of these projects differs depending on the context, in terms of content, the buildings all meet the same criteria.
Each residence is built for 9 or 10 people.
Living and care is generally distributed over two stories. This is a typology that reflects the majority of Belgian homes and therefore gives a familiar feeling to the residents.
The common living spaces are designed as living rooms. On the same floor there is an integrated kitchen which generally forms the link between two units.
The individual living spaces or assisted living studios are generally located on the upper floor and cover approximately 30 m2 per studio. There is a functional bathroom with maximum privacy close by.
We strive to create an optimal relationship between the building and the environment. Security and recognisability of the 'outside world' are of great importance here. Staff and visitors do not have to park their cars or bicycles in an impersonal parking lot, but in front of the door of the residence, as they would do at home. Administrative and logistical services, physical therapy and revalidation rooms, cafeteria etc. are kept to a strict minimum in order to place maximum emphasis on the residences. In each project, the common spaces are kept separate from the residences; this motivates the residents to go outside and in so doing, to practice instinctive habits (putting on a coat and going outside in order to do an activity).
The residential units are linked with discreet passages which enable the (night-time) staff to quickly and efficiently move from one unit to the next.
The future: assisted living zones
As a result of the rapidly increasing number of senior citizens and the diverse nature of this population group (newly composed families, various cultures,...) in the coming years, care for senior citizens will have to continue to evolve. If the new concept of 'assisted living centres' is to take the place of the more institutional 'nursing home', this will ultimately call for a shift towards assisted living zones or districts. These will feature a mix of different types of residents in order to enhance the feeling that the assisted living unit is simply an ideal residence in the middle of a 'normal' setting. |
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