TRANSFORMATION, EXTENSION & BUILDING OF 397 HOUSING UNITS (OF WHICH 277 SOCIAL UNITS, 120 CONVENTIONED UNITS), 2 FRENCHSPEAKING SCHOOLS & 14.600 M² ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES | OPEN COMPETITION ORGANISED BY THE CLIENT
The brief of this competition asks for an entirely new productive city quarter, made up of a various functions like housing, production and schools.
Given the condition of urban unclearness, we seek consistency, readability, structure and quality for the various functions and their users. We read 5 parcels, each of them similar in scale, forming a building block. A ladderfigure, reaching from the Veterinary School to the campus City Dox.
The unbuilt spaces between the parcels become the rungs of this ladder. They stitch the built space and her program together: a residential garden, a schoolstreet, a new Dantestreet as an urban space and finally a flexible space in the east, inviting for future interaction. We aim for a unity in diversity, with nuances and architectural differentiation. The project becomes a series of 3 projects in a row of 5.
We resolutely choose for a re-use of all existing buildings because of heritage, structural and ecological reasons. The existing becomes our hold to design the new volumes, reinterpreting the rich pallet of materials and imagery of yesterday.
Different flows are seperated where necessary, and enhanced where possible. A visual link between the different actors in this exiting wedding seems appropriate, educational and to be encouraged.
Conflicts (visual, acoustic, scents, etc) are avoided as much as possible, by canopies, rows of trees, loggias, wintergardens, unbuilt space or other local, architectural smart measures.
Living together is in this project essential: the mix between functions offers a lot of opportunities for meeting, encountering, learning, making and living, but it also gives the opportunity for anonimity: the freedom to be alone, to not always be surrounded. Also this is primordial in a new vibrant piece of the city.