Designed for ProWinko and in collaboration with Belgian architects Jaspers-Eyers, Le Toison d’Or is a hybridisation of a traditional building-block typology and a mixed-use development with a retail podium.
UNStudio: Ben van Berkel, Gerard Loozekoot with Wesley Lanckriet, Jacques van Wijk and Hans Kooij, Tina Kortmann, Tatjana Gorbachewskaja, Philipp Meise, Jaap-Willem Kleijwegt, Marie Prunault, Tomas Mokry, Nanang Santoso, Olivier Yebra, Thomas Harms, Rene Wysk, Todd Ebeltoft, Patrick Noome, Charlotte Guyaux, Johanna Mencia, Machiel Wafelbakker, Bartek Winnicki, Aurelie Krotoff, Ondrei Kyjanek, Wendy van der Knijff
Belgian architect: Jaspers-Eyers Architects, Brussels (BE)
Although we now think spontaneously of symmetry as being the perfect replication of two sides around a central axis, originally, to cite Vitruvius, “symmetry is a proper agreement between the members of the work itself and relation between the different parts and the whole general scheme”. There is no mention of bilateral symmetry. In Greek, summetria quite simply means “proportion” or “measure”. But since ancient times, sensible to balance and stability, mankind has built edifices that adopt the rules of bilateral symmetry: pyramids, temples, cathedrals, etc., along with vases, bifaces and steles. Yet too perfect symmetry induces boredom. Emotion leaps out from imperfections, the unforeseen and discrepancies.
Taking into account the city’s urban tissue, the project is the renovation of a Brussels typical terraced-house. Originally inhabited by a single family, the house appeared too big and difficult to take care of after the children grew up and left. The owner of the house then decided to sell the last two floors to a friend, in order for him to convert them into his own appartement.
Train World, the new Belgian railway museum, opened on September 25 after ten years of work and an investment of 25 million euros. Lightemotion, creative office in Montreal, is pleased to have participated in the lighting of this new past, present and future railway showcase, which exhibits the most beautiful original pieces of the country’s history collection.
The Herman Teirlinck building is located along the canal on the site of Tour&Taxis,of the final large‐scale development locations in the heart of Brussels.This site, within walking distance of the North Station and the lively urban and historic charm of the former port area,will become a new high–‐quality green urban district with mixed functions.
Little Willy is the name of a multifunctional complex combining a bed and breakfast, a penthouse, a shop and a restaurant. Special about this project is the dialogue between the old and new, located on a small corner plot. However Little Willy is more than just a striking corner building: it is part of the urban renewal that is going on for some years in the Brussels Dansaert district.
The projects’ brief consisted off the increase of capacity of the existing daycare center in urban context of 35 to 75 child places. The existing daycare center was housed in a decrepit church. ZAmpone chooses to demolish and start with a new build.
Article source: OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severe
The center of Brussels has a periphery inside. A piece of landscape, green, open, idyllic, as if it were on the fringes of the city (where it touches the forest) is to be found in the midst of it. This particular condition is easy to destroy. In order to double the surface of a seemingly freestanding house in this strangely lush environment, it was decided to elegantly underline the existence of everything there already was, to celebrate the status quo and to simultaneously make the addition disappear by making it extremely visible, making it, in a sense, the protagonist. The new addition is projected under the existing house, not adding any new volume, but effectively creating its pedestal. The pedestal turns the existing house into an exhibited object: maintained, cleaned and restored—undone of its original importance. The existing house becomes a night house, a ghost house on top of a new, excavated villa. The villa is simultaneously new and old. It is a house designed as a set of different spaces traced by columns. The column rhythm defines plan and sequence: a set of spaces which are not functionally defined. The villa presents itself as a remnant of a house; a set of tectonic elements crating different spatial hierarchies. Sometimes the spaces are open to the sky; sometimes they get their light indirectly. The structure is made of massive concrete beams and columns, measured with maximal tectonic effect. The structure is translated into a spatial idea. Concrete columns become stained wooden columns as soon as one crosses from inside to outside, effectively creating a spatial construct, a spatial sequence of hypothetical places to stay. The villa thus exists in the green island that is maintained by its very existence, a conscious contribution to an urban tissue on the verge of extinction.
The new program includes: the seat of Brussels Parliament (PFB : French speaking part) and the restoration of the former Postal Relay (Renaissance 1694) as a polyvalent space. It would have been risky to chose the easy way by the creation of a mimetic building right wing of The Parliament or propose a dissonant solution with a draft bill only contemporary. Skope’s approach was different; inspired by the history of the place while assuming contemporary issues.
One of the most innovative office buildings designed by architect Leon Stynen is located above the underground north-south railway connection in the heart of Brussels. When this building was completed in 1958, it was a technological tour de force, but 50 years later, it needs some adjustments.
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