FortyFour - Belsele (BE)

FortyFour is a full-experience fashion shop for him and for her, located in the West Flemish town of Beselare. The shop is located on the entire ground floor of a contemporary architectural building that also houses a number of flats and office space. DUCO was pleased to contribute to the realisation of this gem of architectural creativity and functionality.

Contemporary architecture with clean lines

The first floor of the building houses two spacious flats and an office space. The second floor houses a penthouse. Each with a large south-facing terrace. The basement houses the garages for the flats and storage space for the commercial building. A cool element in the bar is the glass floor that gives visual contact with some vintage cars on display in the basement.

The shop window of the FortyFour retail space on the ground floor extends the full width of the façade, interrupted by the entrance for the flats above. Here, DucoSun Cubic vertical louvres were gratefully used to keep the entrance door somewhat out of sight. The combination of the concrete canopies and the vertical DucoSun louvres provide an ideal filter/transition to the flats, as well as a clean line of the whole.

Wim Vanacker, VAMarchitects: "The DucoSun Cubic louvres give the building its specific look. This is reinforced by the coloured LED lighting at the bottom of the louvre blades in the colours of the FortyFour house style, which gives the building a very elegant look."

Full privacy and playful buffer

DucoSun Cubic vertical elements were also used for privacy on the roof terraces, bedroom windows and so on. They create a playful buffer between the street, parking and shop and the private spaces of the various flats. Both from outside to inside and vice versa.

Wim Vanacker, VAMarchitects: "The positioning of the vertical louvre blade was completely dictated by the spaces and functions behind, but at the same time it creates a refined overall appearance of the building. Both in the front and side facades."

Smooth cooperation between parties

Thanks to the smooth cooperation between the various building partners and good preparation, the very tight timing could be met and the FortyFour shop was able to open its doors on the proposed date. The result is a beautiful contemporary building where the trendy clothing shop is perfectly at home and where a unique experience and lots of shopping fun awaits many visitors.

"The parties involved managed to work out the concept of the experience and layout of the shop, the architecture of the building, the design of the flats, ... with one and the same vision down to the last detail. This makes the total story true and we are convinced we made the right choices in the design phase," Wim Vanacker concludes.