Since 1901

Nowadays such a building would be called a residential care center (WZC), also something in which the Verstraetes are still a leading player to this day. But Kampenhout, between Leuven and Mechelen, is a long way 'off the track' , and it was not that they had nothing to do in that period, on the contrary! Architect Goethals from Aalst was (again) involved in something, une fois n'est pas coutume. 

After 1906, further improvements were carried out. In 1920 electric light was installed everywhere in the building, and in 1924 the water pipe followed...

The construction of this crêche in the Vosstraat was supervised by the architects Cols-De Roeck, who later built another chapel, and after WW2 rebuilt the tower of the chapel. The clients were the sisters der Kleinen, with the aim of providing healthy food/milk to needy parents with young children and childcare, especially during the war years 1914-1918 for orphans up to 12 years old. In addition, they also founded a home for unmarried mothers, and later also a private school for childcare workers. Today, the building is still a nursery, 'De Kleine Vos'.

The Sisters Kindsheid Jesu, established in Antwerp's Left Bank since 1895, focused primarily on caring for sick and abandoned children, and later on for orphans and neglected youth. When their school was expropriated in 1923 (the first tunnel under the Scheldt aka 'the Rabbit Pipe' just came above ground on their property) the congregation moved to a new residential area, the Koningshof in  Schoten . Bouwmeester Gustave Voets drew the design for the "Boarding school for little boys", and the Verstraete brothers started construction in 1930. During WW2 a black period started, the monastery was confiscated and used as "Heimschule Flandern" for the Flemish Hitler youth. Today the building is once again a free primary school.

In Andenne, Bonneville, the last monastery in the Verstraete History was built under the leadership of Luc Verstraete. We suspect that this must have been one of the very last monasteries to be built in Belgium! In addition to a monastery, a school was also established, in a total of nine blocks. Today, the building is part of the Belgian organization 'Brothers of Charity', and the Sint-Lambertus Center is the residence and activity center for almost 240 adults with a mental handicap.

The former Sint-Mariaschool, later the Sint-Andrieskliniek, also known as "Woon- en Zorgcentrum Sint-Andries" with convent house was transformed in 1975-1980 into the new Sint-Andriesziekenhuis according to the plans of architects Albert Impe (Tielt) and L Luyten (Wilrijk)

We renovated the old people's home and kept the convent chapel of the poor lads. This pre-war monastery complex dates from 1900.

The original convent and the "Poor School of Saint Vincent" were built in 1822 on the initiative of the Pastor of Handzame, on tax grounds of the Commission for Public Welfare. In 1996 a new wing was added and Sint-Jan became an institution for the mentally handicapped.

The site of Domein ter Scheut carries a whole history with it. The notary house on the Koningsstraat side was bought in the 1960s by Jozef Camerlynck and Simonne Vanneste, who donated the house to the non-profit organization Our Children. Scheut bought the property in 1976 and in 2004 we converted the villa into communal living areas and built a new building in the garden with rooms and sanitary facilities for the fathers. 

We have expanded RVT WIntershove with an additional wing.
This extension included 26 rooms with beautiful living areas with plenty of natural light.
The steel structure roof structure was special because it was curved with a zinc roof finish.

This file consisted of 3 parts that had to be executed simultaneously: the operational RVT building had to be expanded with 6 rooms and had to be in the same style as the main building, a residence of 22 service flats had to be built, the ground plan of which resembles a cochlea. A service apartment building with 10 service flats was also realized.

The Binnenhof, formerly 'Regenboog Roeselare', opened its doors in 2012. The Binnenhof is a group of assisted living apartments (service flats) in the heart of Roeselare. The building can be recognized by its 'red tiles', an innovative architecture for the city.

Verstraete.team designed the concept, built the project and still operates the GAW itself. This makes Binnenhof the first care concept developed by Verstraete. Based on the experiences in the Binnenhof, Verstraete can now respond even better to the needs of the older population. This encourages the development of new concepts and adapted housing. 

Vzw KMI is a long-term customer where we carried out different phases from the cafeteria to the kitchens and the expansion of the restaurant.
Here we carried out both the construction work and the wooden structures as well as the finishing and techniques.
The expansion of the restaurant with kitchen was done in a later phase in the period 2012 – 2015 -2017

The existing residential care center was replaced in phases by a new building and was connected to the service flats and the existing chapel. The building volume (three layers) connects to the existing school building. The new WZC was built in the vicinity of the service flats. The entrance to the WZC is located in the street across the Kouterstraat. The building consists of a service block with a spacious lounge on the ground floor, on which the reception desk, a hairdresser's salon and the cafeteria are located. This recognized residential care center has 90 residential units. 

On a plot next to the old residential care center Ter Leen, the VZW Sint-Vincentius Aaigem built a new residential care center in collaboration with the OCMW Herzele.
The residential care center consists of three wings in which there are 116 rooms (good for 120 beds). 70 of these beds are operated by OCMW Herzele, the other 50 beds are in the hands of the Eclips care group.

Childcare in Westrozebeke needed new accommodation and SK Westrozebeke needed a new football canteen. The plan was conceived to combine both. Between the childcare and the canteen is a multipurpose room that can be used by both, childcare and football. The nursery can accommodate 60 children. 

This new building consists of 19 apartments, divided into 2 separate residential units with separate elevator and staircase core, of which 5 homes on the ground floor with accompanying outdoor terrace, 5 homes on the first/second floor that are identical to each other and 4 homes on the third floor.

Sint-Henricus is bursting at the seams, which is why Motena decided to invest heavily in the site. The rest home will have a new wing and an extra floor on the existing south wing for 37 residents.
The kitchen of Sint-Henricus will also be renovated and the preparation capacity will be increased to 250 afternoon meals. Furthermore, a brand new day care center for 50 visitors is being built. The new building will be a sustainable project with solar panels, an energy-efficient outer shell, a Soil Energy storage field and a combined heat and power system.

HelloHelp is a concept developed by Verstraete.team. It is a communication system with a strong team behind it, implemented in new-build apartments. It guarantees to help the resident when he really needs it. The reliable technology can be activated at the request of the customer, at the moment he wishes. The application, both software and hardware, are included in the purchase of the apartment. 

The first projects where HelloHelp is being rolled out are : 't goed (Roeselare), de Brouwery (Rumbeke), Pietershof (Ieper) and Berenice (Lauwe). HelloHelp is an initiative of Verstraete.team, Z-plus, Televic Healthcare and Smartwatcher.