Hasselt's historic town hall with its Groenplein square is currently flanked by a strikingly closed urban block. The linear arrangement of apartments and school buildings constitutes a massive volume that completely absorbs the historic Ursuline Convent. In the new situation, the urban block is transformed and an attempt is made to create a public and semi-public link with the existing urban routing. The urban renewal project is characterised by a separation of the convent and its garden by means of the incision of a central passageway. As a public gesture, the incision links the Groenplein with the convent. In due course, an opening can be made to the currently inaccessible landscape garden of the Gouverneurswoning. Within the new urban block, a semi-public enclosed garden is created, with lush green, accessible from and visually linked with the passageway. Around the garden, a framework of architectural concrete will be erected that links the rear parts of the existing and new buildings into a coherent whole. The space between the framework and the rears of the buildings will be filled with terraces, while the framework itself can be used to support plants.

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