SET - Field studies in Belgium part 1

SET -

Field studies in Belgium

2016

I

Field studies in Belgium This book shows the inspiring outcome of the fall semester of 2016 by the candidate program; SET: Settlements, Ecology & Tectonics. This year we opened with a series of field studies in Belgium. These studies focused particularly on the themes; Resilience and Re-industrialization, which were meant to form the backdrop for critical discussions about contemporary building culture in both a European and a Danish context, and in the students work.

Resilience & Re_Industrialization Over the last couple of years the concept of resilience has become an important part of different discussions across society. This counts for fields of sustainability, psychology and not the least of future climate changes.

Common to all fields is the very definition of resilience as; the capacity of a system to absorb disturbances and to reorganize itself while it is undergoing changes.

Central to this understanding of resilience is that the system continues to obtain fundamentally similar functions, structures and identities as the original ones. In other words it is all about a system’s (a city’s, a person’s a ecosystem’ etc.) ability to resist serious impact from external factors – the robustness of the system. In regard of developing future construction and architecture the ecological resilience is of great importance.

How do we ensure the balance of nature’s ecosystems that make them resilient to human intervention?

This question points to a greater awareness of which materials we will build with in the future and how we ensure that they can be reused, and thus included in metabolisms that extend beyond the life of the individual building?

When developing future building methods and systems this understanding must be integrated and form point of departure for new ways of thinking in terms of improving todays industrialized production of building components and systems. There is a need for re-industrialization’ og the building industry, where the knowledge from former generations of industrialization can form the basis for new design solutions that can be disassembled (design for disassembly) to make sure that the embedded qualities and ressources are handled optimally.

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Field Studies Under the heading of resilience and re_industrialization the field studies in Belgium were planned as deep investigations into a series of selected architectural offices and their projects. The students were divided into groups of 4-5 persons who selected each their architectural office. This way the groups could make a comprehensive mapping of Belgian architecture and collect data about how the offices worked, their particularities and through this identitfy different types of strategies within the field.

Two weeks were entitled to prepare the field studies and two full days were planned to engage ‘on-site’ with the architectural offices and their projects. The rest of the time was planned for visits at university of Delft and Eindhoven and site visits in Germany.

Research design To make sure that we can compare and discuss the field studies across the various groups a common research design has been developed. This way the field studies become a a collective project where all groups feed their work into a larger mapping of the questions at hand. The aim is to develop a comprehensive archive of various strategies regarding resilience and re-industrialization that each of the selected architectural offices represent.

The shared archive thus forms a foundation for the subsequent semester projects. The research design is divided into two parts: - A systematic description of the architectural office and their profle within the field of resilience and re-industrialization - A tectonic analysis of the projects characterizing the architectural office and how tectonics shows in the final work.

The two analyses have been conducted accordingly: The profile of the architectural office examined through a semi-structured interview All groups contacted each their architectural office and made appointments in order to visit the office, conduct the semi-structures interviews and discuss the selected projects. To make sure that the interviews were comparable they were following the same guidelines and questionnaire. This sort of interview is characterized by being structured, but still offering an open dialogue about topics selected beforehand by the interviewer. The questionn-

aire then becomes the Read Thread in the conversation although it is not defining how the interview person will answer to the question or prioritize the various questions.

The questionnaire then helps to secure that all topics are touched upon but also leave the opportunity to spend more time with one question over the other. The interview is to be considered as a conversation where the interview person does not know the questonaire before the meeting and does not learn that it exist.

The questionnaire was structured as following: Background How was the office founded, what is the background of the owners/partners, where are they educated, what is the size of the office?

Scope What types of projects does the office angage with (one family houses/ Housing developemnts/ public building / urban planning/ landscape/ other) Vision What is the vision of the office - how does it feed into the work of the office – what is the focus in the projects?

Resilience / robustness How does the office work with the concepts resilience, robustness, resistancy in your practice and what do they think it means for future construction industry?

Industrialization / the making of buildings What is the role of the construction industry in regard of the projects of the office and how do they see future construction develop in regard of new strategies as design for disassembly and new types of production (ex.

Factory manufactured building) ?

Based on the interview each group was asked to write a profile describing the architectural office. Each themes of the five themes was to be summarized. Also based on the methodologies presented in the book; ”Quality goals in the architectural design process – a focus on industrialized construction”.

A tectonic analysis of a selected project The second field study in Belgium was a tectonic analysis of a selected project of the offices.

The aim of the analysis was to map and discuss how the specific profile (that is based on the interview) can be read in the approach to a certain built project. The groups were then to select a project that seemed typical for the office and they had to make sure to get access to drawings and other important background material. Most importantly the groups had to make sure that they could visit the buidings and register details by use of photos, and drawings that depict particular qualities or atmospheres.

The analysis of the various projects focused at the tectonic dimension of the building. How the architecture tells the story about how it is built. To be able to discuss themes or problems across the buildings the analyses had to follow the same structure – divided into three parts: The load bearing structure A description of the building’s load bearing elments, the structural logics and principles. How can it be read, its material character, how does it affect the plan, spatial organization etc.

Facade / building envelope The construction of the building envelope, its materiality and how it affects the correlation of indoor / outdoor (including indoor comfort, daylight, ventilation, thermal / heating systems), and the correlation between the load bearing structure and the facade.

Service systems Organization of the service systems, how do they play a part in the overall architectural expression (visible / hidden), are they designed with regards to the load bearing structure and do they communicate how they work in terms of the indoor environment? Are they imbedded in the architectural concept?

Each of these three analyses are structured as a link between a redrawng of the building focusing on the specific theme and supplementary short descriptions that discuss the selected solutions in relation to the particular profile of the office.

Frans Drewniak, Anne Beim & Ulrik Stylsvig Madsen

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BeL Founders Anne-Julchen Bernhardt Jรถrg Leeser Location Cologne, Germany Interview by Group 1 Ida Jensen Agnes Garnow Casper Ebbesen Oliver Mogensen Kasper Panum

COLOPHON Editorial & layout: Anne Beim & Helene Skotte Wied Programme Direction: Frans Drewniak & Anne Beim Authors: Ida Jensen, Agnes Garnow, Casper Ebbesen, Oliver Mogensen & Kasper Panum Published by: The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation Masters programe - Settlement, Ecology and Tectonics Institute of Architecture and Tecnology Philip de Langes Alle 10 DK- 1435 Copenhagen K Denmark

Table of Context Field studies in Belgium - an introduction

2

Interview

4

Case studies

5

Drawing Index

9

Site Plan

11

Sections

12

Plan drawings

13

Facade

14

Section

15

Isometric drawings

16

Photos

19

Interview Background Anne-Julchen Bernhardt and Jörg Leeser established, BeL Sozietät für Architektur (BeL Associates) in year 2000. Anne studied Architecture at RWTH Aachen and at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and Jörg attended RWTH Aachen and the Bartlett School of Architecture.

They both graduated from RWTH Aachen in 1997. After a couple of years as freelance architects and working as project architects in Berlin, and New York, they relocated to Cologne and founded BeL Associates.

In addition to their work as partners at BeL Associates, they are both active as professors at various prominent universities. Anne-Julchen Bernhardt is vice dean of academic affairs and teaches building and design basics, Jörg Leeser is professor in architecture and design at the university in Düsseldorf.

In spite of what seems to be a heavy workload, Jörg argues that the duality of practicing and teaching is highly beneficiary. First, in terms of the economic freedom, which gives them a somewhat artistic freedom as practicing architects. But also, when they bring the theoretical approach from the academic studies into consideration at the office and vice versa, when they implement practical knowledge obtained at BeL Associates in their teaching at the university.

We met Anne and Jörg in their office/ home in Cologne.

Jörg told us that they were in the process of taking over and converting the flat downstairs into an office. In the meantime, the two partners, their children, co-workers and giant dog Otto shared the lovely space upstairs. Our group sat down with Jörg for a conversation about their thoughts, vision and work.

Work As for BeL Associates’s working method, Jörg describes a “split mind” in the office. Two approaches that vary, depending on the scale and extent of a project. Initially and during a design process, they consider whether it is a structural or a contextual project. If interpreted as structural, they work according to a strong systematic order.

These projects are often defined within a grid, simplified and repetitive, says Jörg.

Approximately, half of BeL Associates’s built projects are transformations of existing buildings. These projects are categorized as contextual, taking other design parameters into account, and being more ambiguous in 4

their architectural design and construction.

Jörg himself describes this ambiguousness, as fiddling.

Fiddling is a way of distorting the planned structural order, something that is regularly done in BeL Associates’s projects. Whether it is a conversion of a single-family house or a new 9000 m3 office building, it seems to be arranged in a systematic order, but nevertheless it contains some “fiddling”.

Vision In the beginning of their practice, Jörg explains, it was more by coincidence than choice, that they were assigned low-budget projects. They took on the challenge and took pride in how to be inventive in the use of lowcost materials. By attention to detail, they attempt to assign them nobility, usually reserved for far more expensive materials.

“The quality of architecture has a lot to do with the physicality of things and the simplicity of details.”

In the past, BeL Associates has primarily worked with private customers and for the most part, in small scale housing. Moving forward, the office wants to proof the ideas they have developed during the course of their practice in large scale housing.

“Base and Settler, it has 12 apartments, so really it is a small prototype building and we want to show that you can do it in a larger scale.”

Resilience/Robustness Like many architects today, BeL Associates is a part of a movement, taking a stand against the overuse of materials in constructing buildings.

“I think this movement exists because the reality of constructing buildings, with all the regulations, produces so much crap. All buildings have to be airtight, they are full of plastic foil, with mechanical ventilation. It is just a massive amount of junk that can never be taken apart and recycled. The regulations are reaching a point where even politicians are saying: We have to lower the standards, because this is going nowhere, this is not resilient.”

Case / Kaufhaus

Kaufhaus Breuer BeL

3. OG 1 : 100

Kaufhaus Breuer BeL

2. OG 1 : 100

Kaufhaus Breuer BeL

1. OG 1 : 100

Kaufhaus Breuer BeL

EG 1 : 100

BR 2,375m

Facade / Building envelope To accommodate regulations around access to outside areas, while preserving the facade, they introduced multiple atriums that each serve as a courtyard and entrance for apartments on the second and third floor. The atriums facilitate the building’s indoor environment with natural light, ventilation and a draft/ chimney effect. Since the access from staircase to apartments are through the outdoor courtyards, the staircase itself becomes an exterior space. Fire regulations are therefore met, without taking expensive measures like pressurizing the space, which would be required if the common staircase was indoors.

Dachterrasse 1 : 100

The load bearing structure While reusing and reinterpreting the existing load bearing structure, they “carved out mass” to fit the functional elements; the staircase, access areas and courtyards.

These spatial volumes (or voids) penetrate the strict orthogonal levels of the building, much like a worm eating its way through an apple.

The basic column structure is based on three prior buildings that was destroyed during WWII. Therefore, the placement of columns in the plan is irregular, this is especially visible in the two upper levels. These have been converted into senior citizen apartments, divided into two typologies. The second floor is thought out as one large apartment. Each resident has their own room with kitchen and bathroom. Additionally, they have access to a large shared living room with a communal kitchen and dining area. The third-floor apartments are not shared but planned as apartments with private living rooms. All four levels are designed with flexibility in the layout of the plan, making further conversion possible if future tenants should have other needs or demands.

Kaufhaus Breuer BeL

In the case of the Kaufhaus Breuer, one of three key projects in this analysis, the structural and contextual approach are mixed. The building is a former department store built in 1946 and has a construction made of concrete beams and slabs with a systematic structure, enabling a flexible or “free plan”. BeL Associates used this free plan as they would have done in a structural project.

From a contextual perspective, they took its historical and urban importance into account in order to preserve the facade.

Trappeopgang

1 : 500

Lysgård

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Case / Grundbau und Siedler The constructive premise given in the Kaufhaus Breuer is later created by BeL Associates in a project called Grundbau & Siedler (Base building and Settler). It combines the simple construction type of Le Corbusier’s Maison Dom-ino and its “free plan” much similar to the concrete beams and slabs of Kaufhaus Breuers – with an idea of the inventiveness of self-build traditions and informal housing.

The load bearing structure BeL Associates attempts to let go of the architect’s control shows in the flexibility of the plan organization, which is further developed than the possibility to convert in the future. The constant, the Grundbau (the base building), is cast-in-situ concrete and consists of a beam-to-column-system. The slabs are mounded together with the beams. The structural framing is built with clear references to the Dom-ino system, but differs as the free spanning slab is cast upon rectangular columns within an irregular grid. The five-story base is not completed beyond structure, basic plumbing and a single staircase that serve three units on each floor.

The variable, the Siedler (the settler), can decide how the floor plan of their unit is carried out. The organization of the units is independent of the load-bearing structure and the neighboring storys. The architects supply a wide range of solutions in a detailed handbook that describes which steps the settlers can carry out themselves, and which ones require approval from a specialist. The settlers are provided with suggestions for possible plans, but the overall intention is to facilitate a variation from the basic framework and a personalization of each apartment.

The settlers decide what the rooms will be used for.

Flexibility results from use and not through adaptation.

Functionally indeterminate spaces in a floor plan without corridors require the settlers to interpret and conquer their own space.

120 120

120 120

6

1:500 1:500 1:500 1:500

Case / Neubau In 2016, the principles of the Grundbau und Siedler are carried on and transformed into an urban scale in BeL Associates’s contribution to the 15th Architecture Biennale in Venice.

The project addresses the current, and future, housing shortage in Germany. The office exhibits a large model of the Neubau, where four imaginative urban districts showcase an extended development of the Grundbau & Siedler concept.

The units contain the basic necessities for living, in average 6m2 per person including bathroom and kitchen. When there are need, and means, the settlers can extend their unit beyond the mere basics. As in the concept of Grundbau & Siedler these self-build housings can be erected by the residents and evolve as a free creation within the structure.

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Drawing Index 01.01 Site plan 1:2000 01.02 Section 1:200 01.03 Section and plan

1:200

01.04 Facade 1:100 01.05 Section 1:100 01.06 Isometric 01.07 Exploded Isometric

9

Kaufhaus

01.01

Architects: BeL Year: 2006 Site plan

1:2000

11

Kaufhaus

01.02

Architects: BeL Year: 2006 Section

12

1:200

Kaufhaus

01.03

Architects: BeL Year: 2006 Section and plan

1:200

13

Kaufhaus

01.04

Architects: BeL Year: 2006 Facade

14

1:100

Kaufhaus

01.05

Architects: BeL Year: 2006 Section

1:100

15

16

Kaufhaus

01.06

Architects: BeL Year: 2006 Isometric

17

Kaufhaus Architects: BeL Year: 2006 Exploded isometric

18

01.07

19

20

21

HUB Founders Koen Drossaert Bart Biermans Location Antwerpen, Belgium Interview by Group 2 Lau Corvind Christensen Julie Zepernick Jensen Andreas Ilstad Aron Wigh Nicolai Daniel Christensen

COLOPHON Editorial & layout: Anne Beim & Helene Skotte Wied Programme Direction: Frans Drewniak & Anne Beim Authors: Lau Corvind Christensen, Julie Zepernick Jensen, Andreas Ilstad, Aron Wigh & Nicolai Daniel Christensen Published by: The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation Masters programe - Settlement, Ecology and Tectonics Institute of Architecture and Tecnology Philip de Langes Alle 10 DK- 1435 Copenhagen K Denmark

Table of Context Field studies in Belgium - an introduction

2

Interview

5

Case study

6

Drawing Index

9

Site Plan

11

Office plans

12

Facade

14

Section

16

Isometric drawings

17

Photos

23

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Interview Background The Belgian office HUB is a relatively young architectural office, located in the city of Antwerp, Belgium. They were founded in 2004 and have realized a number of projects since then. The office is growing and today HUB counts 29 employees, of which 2 are managing partners, 4 are team leaders, 22 are project architects and 1 is of-fice manager. They work with projects across many different scales and strive to “develop architecture that creates structure within the urban context”.

The interview with the HUB office was obtained in two parts, the first was made at their office in Antwerp with Mr. David Jacobs, (project architect and team leader) and the second was made through an email correspondence with the project architect of the IOK Headquarters Mr. Hans Caarls. The interview has been edited so the first part in each paragraph contains quotes from the interview or email correspondence, and the second part is the inter-viewers (the groups) comment to what is discussed in the project.

Scope The office likes to be part of every step of the process – all the way from the urban planning stage and down to the detailing and the tectonics of their buildings. They prefer to work within a network of partners with complemen-tary expertise. That is where the name HUB comes from; their idea of being the connecting hub between different participants in the process of realizing a project.

The office won the Belgian Architecture Award in 2015 for the IOK Headquarters in Geel, Belgium.

The entrance facade without sun shades

Resilience / Robustness The IOK Headquarters holds the ambition to be flexible and reversible. It started with a clear idea of ‘a solid core with basic functions’. A facade where the removable elements can be replaced. In addition, it has worked well with the service systems to be exposed and therefore as flexible as possible.

Unfortunately, HUB has only partly succeeded in implementing this. The most striking problem is here that the heating system is located inside the concrete deck.

The intention was to work with this principle as an architectural motif.

This design works well in many places and is clear, however in other places it seems more confusing. The most evident examples of lack of clarity are the details where the core is covered with veneer and wood facade with interior concrete.

The entrance facade with sun shades

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Case / IOK Headquarters IOK Headquarters is an office building located west of Antwerp in the small community of Geel. The classic office building is referred to as a ‘doughnut’.

“The IOK Headquarters is an office building that is situated on the side of a highway.... It has an urban setting on the other side of the highway and a rural landscape going all the way up to the building on the other side. So, on this border we wanted to make something that would emphasize both.”

HUB worked with a building program that was very rigid and a lot of restrictions determined the design. So, they decided to design a structure, that provided a lot of flexibility to the future organization of office space.

The plan principle places all the working zones towards the facade. The central part of the building consists of a core which contains lifts, stairs, toilets and archives. Next to the core functions as, storage, kitchenette and technology shaft are situated. An in-situ concrete structure defines the skeleton of the building and prefab elements of concrete, isolation and a wooden grid makes up the facades that mimics the rural landscape that set in the background of the building.

The IOK office is a low-energy building, which means it can be regarded as a ‘climate machine’. Due to the spe-cific requirements and principles of low energy construction the building is planned to run with a minimal supply of energy to cope with a good indoor climate.

However, since this means to reduce the energy consumption to balance the indoor climate the heating system is very slow. Yet the system itself also functions by shielding the sun long before the building becomes overheated. All the indoor climatic control happens via specific air condi-tioners. Besides the technical solutions that have been chosen for the air conditioning of the building, it can be said that the buildings geometry, the doughnut, create good daylight conditions throughout the spatial zones for social activities.

The load bearing structure The building is constructed with a structural core and pillars along the facade. This allows for organizing an open plan where it will be possible to set up partitions in a fixed module of 1200mm, which is determined by the size of the windows.

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“The structure of the IOK building is quite straightforward: it has a concrete core, which contains the flight stairs, elevators, sanitary and archives. The floor plates are without beams and rest on the core and columns which are placed on the perimeter of the building.

The add-ons in the ground floor are semi-autonomous wooden structures. The facade consists of prefabricated concrete slabs on the inside, insulation, and a prefabricated wooden cladding. The facade acts as a skin without a load bearing function. This is emphasized by the difference in rhythm of the columns and facade and the small gap between both elements. The way all the different parts of the facade are joined to each other is completely demountable since no glue or adhesives has been used.”

Facade / Building Envelope At first glance you get the impression that the office building is a structure consisting of a concrete core with a wooden building that surrounds it. But when looking clo-

ser you find that the office building is a classic concrete structure with a thin wooden cladding.

The sun shade has been incorporated into the facade elements, creating a façade that can both act as a closed screen with separate holes into an almost dissolved filigree-like structure that looks like a card house through its brittleness in the dimensions.

“The sun shading is like an ornament integrated in the architecture when in open position. When closed – it re-duces the facade in a graphical way, which again shows the facade as a skin.”

In terms of the indoor climate the building has a tendency to passivate the users. The building has a distinct disad-vantage in the fixed windows and the fact that one cannot open the windows to regulate the indoor climate.

They have also chosen not to give access to the balconies on the 1. floor and instead planted sedum roofs.

Service systems Cooling and heating of the house is made by means of heat exchange water based on geothermal energy.

The ventilation system has not been mounted on the floors that are not occupied yet. The ventilation is not constructed in the same way if the floor is a large office landscape, as it would be if divided into many smaller offices.

Final comments The architectural strength of the building is linked to the facades. Both in terms of their structural lightness, the use of materials and composition. The facade elements are moved by a half a module (element) for each floor, which adds rhythm and architectonic composition to the façade when open, but when it is closed it appears as one large smooth surface. It is clear why the architects would give primary attention to the façade elements, but the interior of the building could have benefitted from equal attention to the detailing. This may well be due to finan-cial aspects, but it takes away from the overall impression of the building.

“The concrete structure not only has a load bearing function, but also acts as a heating and cooling instrument. Water pipes are running through the concrete floor slabs which makes the ceiling work as a giant radiator for heating and cooling. The water pipes are connected with water stored subterranean, in wintertime warm water, which was heated in summer is collected, and vice versa” Inside the building there are acoustic panels hanging down from the bae concrete ceiling, but only mounted to handle the acoustics. They allow the heat inside the building to rise to the concrete ceilings where the heating/cooling system handles the heat that settles in the concrete. Together with the sunscreen it helps to regulate the buildings temperature without using conventional air-conditioning.

Cooling and heating of the house is handled by a geothermal energy system.

The mechanical ventilation is also part of the heating system, which is based on an exchange mechanism between local exhaust and intake. The intake goes in to channels and is blown out the nozzles in the office zones, while the extractors bring the air back to the core.

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Drawing Index 02.01 Site plan

1:2000

02.02 Site plan

1:500

02.03 Flexible office plans

1:500

02.04 Facade diagram 02.05 Facade

1:200

02.06 Section East-West

1:200

02.07 Isometric 02.08 Exploded facade isometric 02.09 Structure isometric 02.10 Core isometric 02.11 Heating/cooling isometric

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IOK Headquarters

02.01

Architects: HUB Year: 2014 Site plan

1:2000

11

IOK Headquarters

02.02

Architects: HUB Year: 2014 Site plan

12

1:500

1 - Open floorplan

2 - Semi open floorplan

3 - Cubicle floorplan

IOK Headquarters

02.03

Architects: HUB Year: 2014 Flexible office plans

1:500

13

IOK Headquarters Architects: HUB Year: 2014 Facade diagram

14

02.04

IOK Headquarters

02.05

Architects: HUB Year: 2014 Facade

1:200

15

IOK Headquarters

02.06

Architects: HUB Year: 2014 Section East West

16

1:200

IOK Headquarters

02.07

Architects: HUB Year: 2014 Isometric

17

2 - Prefab concrete element 1- Windows

4 - Prefab wooden panel 3 - Sun shade

IOK Headquarters Architects: HUB Year: 2014 Exploded facade isometric

18

02.08

IOK Headquarters

02.09

Architects: HUB Year: 2014 Structure isometric

19

5 - Staircase 3 - Installation shaft 2 - Sanitation 4 - Elevator shaft

1 - Archive

IOK Headquarters Architects: HUB Year: 2014 Core isometric

20

02.10

1 - Pipes for the heating/cooling system in the concrete floor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Duqsno75g-Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Duqsno75g-Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Duqsno75g-Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Duqsno75g-Y

IOK Headquarters

02.11

Architects: HUB Year: 2014 Heating/cooling isometric

21

23

25

Architecten de Vylder Vinck Tallieau Founders Jan de Vylder Inge Vinck Jo Taillieu Location Ghent, Belgium Interview by Group 3 Niels Christian Zipelius Rebecka Petersen Fredrik Walentin Sandbu

COLOPHON Editorial & layout: Anne Beim & Helene Skotte Wied Programme Direction: Frans Drewniak & Anne Beim Authors: Niels Christian Zipelius, Rebecka Petersen & Fredrik Walentin Sandbu Published by: The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation Masters programe - Settlement, Ecology and Tectonics Institute of Architecture and Tecnology Philip de Langes Alle 10 DK- 1435 Copenhagen K Denmark

Table of Context Introduction

2

Interview

4

Case study

8

Drawing Index 10 Site plan 11 Facade 12 Isometric drawing 14 Sections 15 Plan drawings 19 Section 21 Detail isometrics 22

Interview Background Architecten de Vylder Vinck Taillieu was officially founded in 2010 by the Flemish architects Jan de Vylder, Inge Vinck and Jo Taillieu. De Vylder and Vinck have collaborated since 2007 under the name “Jan de Vylder Architecten” - a company which de Vylder had previously founded. Two years later Jo Taillieu joined the team and the new name was created.

The office is based in a historic building in central Gent and has 25 employees. Despite being a relatively young office, Architecten de Vylder Vinck Taillieu has quickly gained recognition for their original take on industrialized architecture and their aesthetics of the “unfinished”.

“We didn’t have a clear vision when we created the office.

We had some projects that we could start from and we just made our things, not knowing where we would end up. […] Les Ballets C de la B was an important building for a lot of the projects that we got later on. Before we started we didn’t know what the outcome would be, or that it would give us opportunities later. We were just

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working on it in a way that we liked and that made sense, and then you just see what the future brings”.

Work The office has quickly created a diverse portfolio of smalland large scale housing and a wide range of public, commercial, cultural and educational projects. Vinck underlines the importance of working on different types of projects, rather than specializing in a specific field.

Many of DVVT’s most prominent projects are single family homes – both new buildings and renovation projects.

The single-family house is deeply rooted in Belgian culture and Belgium has one of the largest shares of detached- and semi-detached houses in the EU. Young people often strive to settle down and build or renovate a house big enough for a family.

“It’s important for us to be able to continue making single family homes. You get a special relationship with your clients - the work you do together is both close and very specific. Every person has their own idea of how they want to live.”

Vision Despite not having an official agenda, DVVT’s flexible approach to the design- and building process sets their work apart from many other offices. Rather than maintaining an initial concept, they gradually adapt their projects to the local circumstances – technical, aesthetical and economical. The unforeseen changes and discoveries only nourish the creative process.

“We believe that when in that moment, the right choices are made. In that moment, we dare to place conventions between brackets, or dare to put them aside — We suddenly come to a number of decisions where we at first also have to try to understand what the exact meanings of the decisions are, or even more what we want accomplish with them. “(Jan de Vylder, Interview in C-3, volume 339, 2012)

hesitant to label themselves as a “sustainable office”, since the term is often used by other companies for branding purposes. When talking about sustainability, Vinck mentions that low energy housing can be achieved not only by adding insulation, but also by reconsidering the size of a building.

“In Belgium, a lot of people want to enlarge their buildings.

Often, we come along and explain to them that it might be interesting to make the house a little bit smaller instead.”

By using conventional, industrialized building materials like block masonry in new ways, their work becomes both unique and ordinary at the same time. The projects are built up around a clear logic, with precise details that balance beauty and pragmatism. Materials and details are often introduced early in the process, and then adapted as circumstances change.

Vinck argues that only by drawing precise details you will know how to adapt them later, allowing you to be more flexible on the building site. This type of approach is especially important in renovation projects where existing situations can be complex and new things discovered along the way. Sometimes even trivial details can influence design decisions.

“Sometimes we pick colors based on what we find on the building site or in the surroundings. Like in Les Ballets C de la B we have used for example orange, and blue at certain places. And that’s because at one moment there were two cranes in orange and blue on the building site, and we found flowers which were blue and orange on the site as well. Then we decided to integrate – or reintegrate – those colors in the building. Sometimes the relationships we find are very simple.”

Resilience / Sustainability DVVT considers sustainability as something obvious, which should be integrated holistically in both new buildings and renovation projects. Despite this, they are

Ceiling 1st floor

5

In the Rot Ellen Berg House the office shows that a reduced building volume can be achieved also in a renovation project. By placing a smaller glass volume inside of the existing brick building, the heated area has been reduced.

“In the Rot Ellen Berg House, we reduced the big volume and made it smaller inside. So, in summer they can live in the entire house and in winter in a smaller part. By changing approach to your house during the seasons you can rediscover your home, which is a very nice idea. I think that we should live more in contact with the seasons again, we don’t do it enough anymore.”

Another important factor in resilient construction is adaptability. By using “rough” materials like solid brickwork or, like in the Rot Ellen Berg House, a prefabricated scaffolding system, it is possible to create honest structures that are less complex and thereby easier to adapt or disassemble. In a time of “intelligent buildings” and ever more complex building components, DVVT’s building practice can seem almost provocatively simple.

By separating building elements, individual parts can be changed or moved without affecting the rest of the building. In the Rot Ellen Berg House the decks/columns, inner glass walls and installations are independent from each other and from the outer brick walls.

“You have to be able to adapt your house. In the Rot Ellen Berg House, we left a double height space on the first floor to let the light in, but as a matter of fact they are free to install another room in it. The beams are there and they would just have to place the floor on top of it. That’s one way we consider flexibility of program.”

DVVT is very open about how economic factors play an important role in their design process. When dealing with limited budgets the office uses pre- or mass fabricated products, which enables home owners to build quality homes without taking a large loan, and thus making them more resilient to economical change.

6

Re-industrialization In many of their projects, DVVT shows that massproduced industrial products can be used to create unique and precise solutions. Fewer elements and exposed structures do not only reduce building costs and increase the level of flexibility, but can also create beautiful and sometimes unconventional results.

The separation of building elements often includes installations. Exposed installations are easier to remove or change in the future without damaging the rest of the building.

“We could hide the installations, but then we would have to build in another way. In some projects, we don’t have plasterworks. In order to hide the installations, we would have to cut the bricks and put a big gap in the wall. So instead, we can place the electrical wiring along the top part of the wall. [...] Since we use rough materials, we have to deal with the finishing in another way.”

DVVT sees industrialized building and pre-fabricated elements as an obvious part of future Belgian architecture.

But Vinck also insists on the need for craftsmanship today. In this year’s, Venice Biennale (2016), the office has focused on craftsmanship in an industrialized context. Together with Doorzon Interieur Architecten and photographer/artist Filip Dujardin, DVVT were selected by the Flanders Architecture Institute to create an exhibition in the Belgian pavilion about craftsmanship in times of economic scarcity.

“For us it’s important to talk about craftsmanship today.

Architecture today is still about craftsmanship but in another way and on another level. It can’t be like craftsmanship in the past. They had money and we don’t anymore. The craftsmen don’t exist anymore, they’re all gone. So, we have to deal with it in a different way. [...]

It’s about using industrialized products in another way, to create something very precise.”

Rot Ellen Berg House - the scaffolding system creates a flexibile space on a limited budget. (foto Filip Dujardin) 7

Case / Rot Ellen Berg House Tectonic analysis The Rot Ellen Berg House is a single-family home situated in Braives, Belgium. It is a typical Flemish village of brick houses, a 30-minute drive south of Gent. The family inherited an old café building from the mid 1800’s with a significant family history and sentimental value, and decided to renovate it to a new family home.

The family wanted the building to be renovated on a relatively small budget, and they wanted to build it themselves. That set the perimeters of the design process, as they came in contact with Architecten de Vylder Vinck Taillieu. The family was highly involved with the development of the design process, as they started the project in 2007 and moved in to the house in 2010.

The process of renovation is still on-going, and the building change constantly as the family lives in, and develops the house.

The load bearing structure The old building was stripped of all its interior including the decks, leaving only the outer brick-shell and roof, and a small inner area of only 86m2. The shell was reinforced with beams and rods where necessary, given a new wooden roof system, and stands as an independent structure. A new structure of glass was built inside the original shell, creating a smaller winter home inside a larger summer house. This reduction of the floor plan creates a smaller dwelling which requires less energy to heat. Leaning towards the northern, post insulated facade, the new building creates a layering of old and new structures, and establishes a space between inside and outside. This in-between space keeps the building ventilated during summer, and performs as a buffer from the cold during winter.

The inner house consists of two parts, with decks in three levels, separated from each other. The two parts are connected by an inner steel staircase, leading you from level to level without direct visual contact with the next or previous level in the other part of the house.

The ground floor is an inviting social area with kitchen and living room. The upper floors are more private with functions like bedrooms and bathroom. The interior of the house is an open and connected space, without any interior doors. Bedrooms are simply covered by green drapes, and the toilet is covered by a thin curtain made by strips of paper. A centrally placed stone stove 8

functions as the main heat source of the building. Using wood from their own land, it distributes heat through the building while facing the old fireplace as a reference to the original structure.

The new, inner house is constructed of recycled industrial elements which are more often associated to construction site rather than finished buildings. Scaffolding columns, yellow wooden beams, steel framed glass walls and exposed insulation, gives the building a structural honesty and an almost unfinished or temporary expression. This simplicity in structure makes it possible to add or remove layers and rooms in the building over time, and functions as an example of “design for disassembly”.

9

Drawing Index 03.01 Site plan

1:2000

03.02 Facade 1:100 03.03 Facade 1:100 03.04 Exploded isometric 03.05 Section 1:100 03.06 Section 1:50 03.07 Plan drawings

1:100

03.08 Section 1:50 03.09 Detail isometric 03.10 Detail isometric

10

Rot Ellen Berg House

03.01

Architects: Architecten de Vylder Vinck Tallieu Year: 2010 Site plan

1:2000

11

0 m

1 m

2 m

3 m

4 m

5m

Rot Ellen Berg House

03.02

Architects: Architecten de Vylder Vinck Tallieu Year: 2010 Facade

12

1:100

Rot Ellen Berg House

03.03

Architects: Architecten de Vylder Vinck Tallieu Year: 2010 Facade

1:100

13

Roof Roof

Glass Glasswalls walls

Pre-fab of of decks andand columns Pre-fabsystem system decks columns

Brick Brickwalls walls

Concrete Concretebase base

Rot Ellen Berg House Architects: Architecten de Vylder Vinck Tallieu Year: 2010 Exploded isometric

14

03.04

Rot Ellen Berg House

03.05

Architects: Architecten de Vylder Vinck Tallieu Year: 2010 Section

1:100

15

16

Rot Ellen Berg House

03.06

Architects: Architecten de Vylder Vinck Tallieu Year: 2010 Section

1:50

17

1

9

7

5 2

4

4

8

9

3

Ground floor

18

A

1. Floor

6

6

9

1 Garden 2 Terrace 3 Entrance 4 Living room 5 Kitchen 6 Bedroom 7 Bathroom 8 Office 9 Double-height space

6

2. Floor

0m

1m

2m

3m

4m

5m

N

Rot Ellen Berg House

03.07

Architects: Architecten de Vylder Vinck Tallieu Year: 2010 Plan drawings

1:100

19

20

Rot Ellen Berg House

03.08

Architects: Architecten de Vylder Vinck Tallieu Year: 2010 Section

1:50

21

Rot Ellen Berg House Architects: Architecten de Vylder Vinck Tallieu Year: 2010 Detail isometric

22

03.09

Hallway 23

Rot Ellen Berg House Architects: Architecten de Vylder Vinck Tallieu Year: 2010 Detail isometric

24

03.10

25

BLAF Founders Bart Vanden Driessche Lieven Nijs Location Lokeren, Belgium Interview by Group 4 Benjamin Molin Foged Casper Ravn Johan Stenbeck Nathalie Christine Wathne

COLOPHON Editorial & layout: Anne Beim & Helene Skotte Wied Programme Direction: Frans Drewniak & Anne Beim Authors: Benjamin Molin Foged, Casper Ravn, Johan Stenbeck & Nathalie Christine Walthne Published by: The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation Masters programe - Settlement, Ecology and Tectonics Institute of Architecture and Tecnology Philip de Langes Alle 10 DK- 1435 Copenhagen K Denmark

Table of Context Field studies in Belgium - an introduction

2

Interview

4

Case study

8

Drawing Index

10

Site Plan

11

Sun diagram

13

Floor plans

14

Section

16

Isometric drawings

17

Interview Background Bart Vanden Dreissche and Lieven Nijs started BLAF in 1999, immediately after completing their studies in architecture in Ghent. They started off working on smaller projects, mostly renovations of houses, which they still do today. In Belgium, there is a tradition of building single-family detached houses, which is seen as the ideal family home.

Common housing is not a traditional way of living, but it is now starting to become more popular, as it is very expensive to build private houses. Around 20 single-family houses are built every year by BLAF, in addition to about 400 already built houses around Belgium and Germany. From the very start it was clear to the two partners that they wanted to evolve in a slow and easy while simultaneously building a great deal.

BLAF strongly respond to the ecological and sustainable aspects of architecture, relating to the themes at Settlement, Ecology and Tectonics. Bart expresses that he believes they were one of the first practices in Belgium to have a strong approach to ecological and energy designs.

In 2009 BLAF gained a new colleague in the practice who had important knowledge for the future of BLAF. This was Barbara Oelbrandt. Bart knew Barbara from beforehand and asked her to join the practice because of her knowledge in zero-energy housing and together they built her own private house, “Textile House” in 2009. She began studying zero-energy houses 10 years earlier, a time in Belgium where knowledge within this field was limited or non- existing. She studied mostly German books and gained knowledge about zero-energy housing, which she brought with her to BLAF, making BLAF one of the first practices in Belgium to fully integrate this knowledge into their practice. After building the “Textile House”, other Belgian practices followed a similar approach using sustainable strategies in their projects.

Work The term “zero-energy housing” has a strong influence on the work of BLAF as they try to build every house with zero-energy in mind. The “Textile House” won the Belgium Prize of Energy, leading to both the house as well as the practice getting a lot of attention in the media. This led to more clients who were interested in 4

zero-energy houses and who wanted to build in similar ways. The overall cost of building this way is cheaper in the long run than building in traditional sense.

“I often find I have to convince my clients to build lowenergy houses, but I now know how to convince them to build in this particular way.

The key when building low-energy houses is to change small things from the traditional building method in order to make it adaptable to zero-energy house standards.”

Vision “We can’t change Belgium, but we do what we can to make a change, however small it may be. It’s about our services not being too expensive, but it also concerns the production of better products, because a house is a product for investors or clients. Making beautiful buildings is an important aspect within the practice, but maintaining a feeling of responsibility towards future generations as well as considering the footprint left behind after every project is at the core of our practice. I think that a feeling of responsibility as well as logic solutions change our point of view about aesthetics” Some has the idea that re-using old existing bricks are more aesthetically beautiful than creating new ones because of its ecological value, as in the case of the DnA House. With the DnA House Bart had the idea that it was to be the very first building on the street to be built and then other houses followed, which of course was not the case.

The reason for this is because of the ruin-like re-used bricks, the way the house follows the sloping site, and the way it is orientated in relation to the sun. When the neighbors asked if the house were to be cladded and BLAF told them no, they found it strange as the brick was exposed to the environment, which they were not used to. This shows the ever-changing view people have in terms of what is aesthetically compelling. In 15 years BLAF still hopes to be producing architecture in the same way as they do today, but they also hope to have a stronger influence on a larger scale. When discussing the process of building Bart says they strongly believe that one architect can’t build a house

5

her their own; there need to be collaboration between people with different skills and knowledge in order to produce truly good architecture.

“Diversity within the office is key, so that you can handle every problem or situation within your own office as a united team. This means that if I have a specific question, I need to have someone in the office who can give me the answer to this question. I hope in that 15 years there is someone who is similar to me who can replace me when the time comes.”

Resilience The architect can also make a difference by the choice of materials, as they have done in the DnA House. The bricks are re-used from a local company that collects used materials and sells them in order for them to be re-purposed. These bricks were 80 years old and is actually from a demolished house in the neighborhood.

The bricks have a better quality than new ones; the material properties were better back then than they DnA House - Facade

6

are now; bricks made today are usually a mix of paper and other materials, weakening the performance of the brick.

By looking at the work by BLAF it is apparent that many of their projects have a sort of “raw look”. Bart explains that this quality has emerged from an idea of building logically.

“When building with brick you need to think; how do you build with brick? The same goes for wood, how do you work with wood? What’s the best way to insulate?

The structure of having external brick walls and a wooden structure internally, like in the DnA House, is a structure we have re-used in about ten projects now” Most of the clients contact BLAF because of their knowledge in passive housing, but also because of their honest way of using materials. An energy- and ecological approach to architecture can be cheaper than standard housing and that is why one has to consider everything, including the materials used and DnA House - Material

their properties. In the DnA House, the external wall is very expensive, but as a result the inside is a lot cheaper than in standard houses. The office constantly strives to make efficient solutions so that the total cost is cheaper than in previous projects.

When asking who is driving the movement forward in regards of building sustainable and efficient, Bart expresses that he does not believe there is one driving movement; he believes on the contrary of collaboration between the client, government and the architect, where all parts have certain responsibilities. The client needs to be open for spending a bit more at first, knowing they will save in the long run. BLAF’s intention is to inspire their clients and influence them to make better choices when building houses by using lowenergy principles rather than standard constructions.

Bart expresses that his idea of architecture is that aesthetics is changing and that things are beautiful in their own logical way. Therefore, one needs to combine the ecological, energy, contextual, material and financial aspects in a sensible way. BLAF has a very open approach towards architecture and aims to be regarded as not having a particular style. This becomes clear by looking at the DnA House and the Textile House.

Re-Industrialisation When discussing the future potential of Belgium’s existing housing, Bart says he believes that these houses are more often than not seen as an opportunity, due to the fact that the private house is still the ideal home, however it is becoming too expensive for most people. Existing buildings are very expensive to buy and renovate, therefore he hopes that prices will go down in order to make it easier and more affordable to renovate. The government keeps the situation under control and prices high to minimize the demand for the single-family house and allow new types of housing to blossom to reduce the ecological footprint of the average Belgian citizen.

In order to make sure their buildings are sustainable for future use, BLAF has a hard and realistic approach towards their clients. They try to open the client’s eyes in order to make them understand the important choices that has to be made in an early stage when building sustainable.

“As architects, we are not only building for the current client, but also for next generations and potential future inhabitants. When building a house, you have to analyze everything; each component needs to be considered in order to create good architecture. You have to perform a thorough research of the context, the budget, which building structure to use, what materials to use, how they weather etc.”

7

Case / DNA House, Asse The DNA House by BLAF architects is a low- energy single family house of 260 m2 located in Asse Belgium 16 km outside of Brussels. It was completed in 2013. The house is situated in a suburban “sprawl” environment - a mix between a rural and an urban organization of space. The total cost of the house was €278.000, excluding VAT´s, resulting in a building cost close to €1000 m2.

The concept of the DnA House can be understood as a self-supporting shell with a light wooden structure that easily can be changed and adapted for future needs. The exterior is built as an independent frame of re-used bricks, acting as the structural component with a stripped interior, all in order to permit the idea of the interchangeable rooms and structure within the shell. The re-used bricks also make the facades of the house look familiar in regards to the existing surroundings, since the traces of the past and the aspect of time becomes inherent to the story of the building.

BLAF use the term “intelligent ruin” to describe the project, which covers both the concept and the potential of the imperishable shell detached from the exchangeable interior. The ecological way of thinking materials, having future generations and processes in mind is something that BLAF incorporated in the design process at an early state, and it is a direct result of the studio’s ideas and approach to architectural practice.

The DnA House’s cross shaped footprint is planned and oriented so that it follows the orientation of the sun and the natural slope of the terrain, which results in a ca 45° rotation towards the street. This is also addressing the privacy of the house as the site is not enclosed by a fence or vegetation.

One enters the house from the east and walks into an open ground floor level that bypasses the slope in three steps. Here is a kitchen, living rooms, a patio, storage room as well as a bathroom. At the first floor is sleeping areas and a common room. The building is supported by a central structure comprised of four L-shaped structures, which again support the floor above. All installations are also incor8

porated into these four central structures. Another principle of the DnA House is that the floors can function independently making it possible to house two generations in one house. BLAF defines this as “kangaroo living”.

The only heating source in the building is integrated in the floor at ground level, from there the heat is spread throughout the building. The heat is capsuled within the thick walls of the first and second structure of the building, resulting in a very energy efficient solution regarding energy consumption.

The limited budget and the idea of replaceable elements have, however, resulted in poor details and finish inside the house, and it looks incomplete in certain places. Cheap materials and gaps appear when studying details, making the overall impression of the house weaker than first expected. Since all the structural elements needed to make the structure completely autonomous this is articulated on the outside of the brick walls. The inner structure is liberated and becomes easily changeable and adaptable to new needs and demands. A quality that gives the houses eligibility in times of ecological crisis and it highly relates to be debate on resilience in architecture.

DnA House - Interior, first floor

DnA House - Interior, first floor

9

Drawing Index 04.01 Site plan 1:2000 04.02 Site plan 1:200 04.03 Sun diagram 04.04 Ground floor plan

1:200

04.05 First floor plan

1:200

04.06 Section 1:200 04.07 Exploded isometric 04.08 Isometric 04.09 Isometric detail 04.10 Isometric wall detail 04.11 Isometric wall detail

10

DnA House

04.01

Architects: BLAF Year: 2013 Site plan

1:2000

11

-0.40

-0.20

-0.60 -0.80 -1.00 -1.20

-0.0

-1.40 -1.60 -1.80

BERGESTRAAT 40, 1 730 ASSE

-2.00

DnA House

04.02

Architects: BLAF Year: 2013 Site Plan

12

1:200

rientation diagram 330°

340°

350°

360°

320°

0°

310°

10°

300° Open view to west

20°

° 290°

30°

° °

270°

40°

° °

260°

50°

°

Summer / 21 & 22 Juni

Summer - 21 & 22 June

° 250°

°

60°

240° 70°

230° 80°

220° 90°

210° 100° 200°

110° Vinter / 21 & 22 December 190°

Winter - 21 & 22 December

120° 180°

130° 170°

160°

150°

140° Sun rotation

DnA House

04.03

Architects: BLAF Year: 2013 Sun Diagram

13

7.

8.

6.

C.

4.

5.

2.

1.

3.

B.

1.

Entrance

B.

Isometric II

2.

Bath

C.

3.

Office

Isometric III

4.

Toilet

5.

Living room

6.

Kitchen

7.

Storage

8.

Patio

DnA House

04.04

Architects: BLAF Year: 2013 Ground floor plan

14

1:200

4.

8.

9.

C. 10.

9.

9.

4.

4.

Toilet/bath

C.

Isometric III

8.

Patio

9.

Bed room

10 .

9.

Kids area DnA House

04.05

Architects: BLAF Year: 2013 First floor plan

1:200

15

C. D.

1.

DnA House C.

Isometric III

1.

Installations

16

D.

Isometric IIII

04.06

Architects: BLAF Architecten Year: 2013 Section

1:200

DnA House

04.07

Architects: BLAF Architecten Year: 2013 Exploded isometric

17

DnA House

04.08

Architects: BLAF Architecten Year: 2013 Isometric

18

1:200

B-1.

B-2.

B-3.

B-4.

B-5.

B-6.

B-7.

B-8.

B-4.

B-9.

B-10.

B-5.

DnA House

04.09

Architects: BLAF Architecten Year: 2013 Isometric detail

19

C-1.

C-2.

C-3.

C-4.

C-5.

C-6.

C-1.

C-11.

C-7.

C-8.

C-9.

C-10.

C-11.

C-12.

C-13.

C-14.

C-1.

C-15.

C-16.

C-16.

DnA House Architects: BLAF Architecten Year: 2013 Isometric wall detail

20

04.10

D-1.

D-2.

D-3.

D-4.

D-5.

D-6.

D-7.

D-8.

D-2.

D-9.

D-10.

D-11.

D-10.

D-12.

D-13.

D-14.

DnA House

04.11

Architects: BLAF Architecten Year: 2013 Isometric wall detail

21

GAFPA Founders Floris De Bruyn Philippe De Berlangeer Frederick Verschueren

Location Gent, Belgium

Interview by Group 5 Simon Sköld Rasmus Schatter Strøyberg Emil Bruun Meyer Camille Tan

COLOPHON Editorial & layout: Anne Beim & Helene Skotte Wied Programme Direction: Frans Drewniak & Anne Beim Authors: Simon SkÜld, Rasmus Schatter Strøyberg, Emil Bruun Meyer & Camille Tan Published by: The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation Masters programe - Settlement, Ecology and Tectonics Institute of Architecture and Tecnology Philip de Langes Alle 10 DK- 1435 Copenhagen K Denmark

Table of Context Field studies in Belgium - an introduction

2

Interview

4

Case study

8

Drawing Index

11

Site Plan

13

Isometric

14

Floor plans

15

Sections

17

Details

19

Isometric drawings

20

Interview Background GAFPA was established in 2008 by the architects; Floris De Bruyn, Philippe De Berlangeer and Frederick Verschueren, shortly after finishing their architectural studies at Sint-Lucas in Gent. The office is known for its pragmatic approach. They dismantle an existing context and transform it into a new reality. This method of ‘systematic deconstruction’ results invariably in new interpretations of architecture, a vocabulary all of their own.

“Well, why did I start my own practice? A career in architecture can have many trajectories. But me and my colleagues always knew that we had a common vison on how we saw architecture. Although, we all had a brief experience in an architectural office, we still had the goal of pursuing our own visons rather than to work for someone else. I think that’s the reason for why many architects start their own practice. And that is what we did, without any connections.

There weren’t many clients in the beginning, and if they were, they didn’t know much about architecture.

But we tried to dig deeper into a new form for communication by sneaking in the architectural parts, and then sell the projects - indiscreetly. We wanted to promote quality. But initially, our budget was too low, and we didn’t have enough money. So, we had to be smart and work straightforwardly with what we had. Due to low budget-projects, there were some projects that didn’t even have a finishing. But when we look back at our projects now, we realize that our architectural visions were already there, meaning; using materials that only have a necessity and a useful purpose. The structure is an essential part of the building. Conversely, to an expensive finishing. That is why we try to convince contractors and clients to leave the building exposed.

Architects have to make architecture with the structure, with things that cannot be removed, otherwise, the building will collapse. This principle should be compulsory among all architects, and it shouldn’t be something you can just cut out because the costs are too high” Vision Their idea of an architectural approach is based on making architecture without design, but rather on the logic of the built environment.

4

“The vision we have about architecture, is a product of time and economy. We saw how the value on architecture changed when firms became successful. The architecture doesn’t touch you anymore, because they prioritize profit over quality.

If it’s bad they will just break it down and build something new. We weren’t interested in such mentality, which was something we all agreed on. Our intention is not to be the “grand art architects”. However, good, rational architects. Our work is most satisfying when we can use our abilities in a way that makes a real difference -like creating meaningful architecture, as a team. We accomplish far more as a team than if you’ve take us apart. That’s the strength. You learn how to put your ego aside, put everything on the table, bad ideas, good ideas and then something emerges.

If there is one thing that we love a lot, that is anonymous architecture like objects made for a specific function.

Things that are made for necessity. Everybody likes that. To a lot of people that’s just a basic thing. But if you are in spaces that are made like that, you really become convinced that that’s a good way of making architecture, just simply making spaces. When some architects draw a building, you tend to feel that there’s a kind of intentional design behind it. We hate that, we don’t even know where it’s coming from. In some way of course, we understand, but we feel that such design approach will not last. This disturbs the true architecture.

If there is one thing that we love a lot, that is anonymous architecture like objects made for a specific function.

Things that are made for necessity.”

Resilience GAFPAs resilient design has the ability to adapt to unknown sites, but also extending the lifespan of buildings. By doing so, they add sustainable solutions that are site-specific.

“We intervene on different levels, ranging from private houses to public buildings, but regardless the project size, we try to use the materials in their most logical way. Zwin natuur centre, for example, is a project that is not a project that extends an existing building, but rather refitting an existing nature park. We incorporated a sustainable design practice by using long lasting

Zwin Natuur Centre 5

solid wood. The timber frame is insulated with mineral wool and the overall building has an automatic control system and energy monitoring, making the building adaptable to the different climate changes.

To extend the life of the visitor center we chose to implement green roofs with various type of plant species, providing a source of additional biodiversity.

solid wood beams at second floor. Every component is site-specific. That’s the beauty of prefabrication. It is easy and quick assembled. It also reduces the total cost of production and transport.

“We always try to establish a relationship with the place to achieve the maximum results with a minimum of architecture.”

In project G1203, our sustainable approach is a bit different. Much of the new building envelope is of prefabricated cross-laminated beams, but cut on site. Not only is this efficient but it also sets a higher standard to the building. Wood is an extremely robust material that could be prefabricated and custom-cut in any length.

Re-Industrialization According to Floris, materials should be portrayed in a simple and rational way. Project G1203, the family house and studio, has a tectonic aesthetic because the loadbearing structure is turned into an integral part of the visual design, though installations are carefully hidden. Unfortunately, many clients put very little thought to this idea. They would prefer a flooring that is aesthetic pleasing, but usually not logic nor functional.

Solutions of having prefabricated cross-laminated beams makes it possible to have a hardwood floor as thin as 4 centimeters. The deck construction is simple: concrete floor slab at ground level and 60 centimeters wide prefabricated wood flooring with

The south facade towards courtyard 6

“Many people don’t know this, but it’s actually the foundation of a building that’s your internal floor. We tend to polish it to see the grains in the concrete.

Existing structure meets new timber wall

The house and its open courtyard

Although, this shouldn’t be a choice, neither in color nor in grain. It should be what it is; pure concrete.

I really had to convince my client to keep it simple.

Which brings me to my next point; the structure of project G1203. The house is cut in 3 parts. Why? Well, first of all, the industrial metal solution between the concrete slabs provides flexibility so the floor can move horizontally.

We like these structures, but we still see them as living structures. It’s not something dead that you need to restore. then it’s gone. No, it still needs to have this kind of power. Jonas, owner of the house, has his offices there and he makes furniture there. The site is still booming as a factory kind of thing and we really wanted to keep this idea.”

If it would move vertically your structure will break, out if it moves to that, making the structure more flexible.

There is no aesthetic choice in here. It is pure logic.

That is why the engineers need to know what they are doing.

I mean, normally these features are never present.

Usually what you see in a house is often all aesthetic.

And this is completely the opposite.

7

Case / Project G1203, A former stonemason’s atelier is transformed into a family home and studio. The site is redeveloped as an inner courtyard with a cluster of new entities and small workshops. Existing structures consists of an old steel structure with a steel-framed shed and a smaller concrete outbuilding.

Facade / Climate screen The facade combines glazing with vertical wooden shutters. All windows can be fully open allowing good, natural ventilation and maximum exposure to the garden.

The owner and client of the house works as a carpenter. The client wanted to renovate the whole structure, but the architects convinced him to build a smaller structure inside the steel shed. In that way, they were able to reduce cost and also make a usable outdoor space with a higher architectonic quality.

Logic solutions Most design decision done in the process of making the house, is made without the sense of design. They strive only to build with the sense of logic given by the materials and the context.

The house consists of a solid rectangular shaped wood beam-column design. The placement of the columns comes from the existing structure, and the length of the house derives from the length of the existing wall.

Load bearing structure The concrete foundation where the building is placed is used directly as the floor, without any other layering except for surface polish. The floor above was initially thought as a solid wooden slab, but since it was not possible to bring it on to the site, they decided to use 60 cm prefabricated wooden planks. Because of the constraints and the pragmatic approach, the process of project G1203 develops a rational design.

The existing concrete structure is retained in the garden and is copied in the wooden support structure of the house. The new compact two- story residential volume is covered by the existing corrugated tin roof.

Materials They use solid wood throughout the new building, without any coating. The reason why this is possible is that the existing structure functions as a second skin, protecting the facade from rain. It also creates a nice ventilated area around the new building, due to the two openings in the existing building.

8

Main entrance

Interior space on second floor 9

Drawing Index 05.01 Site plan 1:2000 05.02 Isometric 05.03 Floor plans

1:200

05.04 Section 1:200 05.05 Section 1:200 05.06 Details 1:50 05.07 Exploded axometric 05.08 Isometric

11

Project G1203

05.01

Architects: GAFPA Year: 2012 Site plan

1:2000

13

Project G1203

05.03

Architects: GAFPA Year: 2012 Floor plans

1:200

15

16

Project G1203

05.04

Architects: GAFPA Year: 2012 Section

1:200

17

Project G1203

05.05

Architects: GAFPA Year: 2012 Cross section

18

1:200

1

1

2

2 3

3

4 5 6

8

10. Existing concrete wall 11. Laminated wood panel 12. Gypsum 13. Insulation 14. Laminated wood column

10. Existing c 11. Laminate 12. Gypsum 13. Insulation 14. Laminate

4 5 6

8

10

10

1

1

4

4

11

11 1 13

9

1. Existing steel-structure 2. Moist barrier 3. Firm insulation 4. Plywood 5. Gluelam beam 6. Solid wood window-frame 9 8. Glumlam floorboards 9. In situ concrete slab w heating

1. Existing steel-structure 2. Moist barrier 3. Firm insulation 4. Plywood 5. Gluelam beam 6. Solid wood window-frame 8. Glumlam floorboards 9. In situ concrete slab w heating

14

14 6

6

Project G1203

05.06

Architects: GAFPA Year: 2012 Details

1:50

19

Project G1203 Architects: GAFPA Year: 2012 Exploded axometric

20

05.07

Project G1203

05.08

Architects: GAFPA Year: 2012 Isometric

21

URA

Partners Kiki Verbeeck Yves Malysse

Location Brussels, Belgium Interview by Group 6 Kasper Prochownik Kim Anouti Pรถrรถsai Mikael Rex Helene Skotte Wied

COLOPHON Editorial & layout: Anne Beim & Helene Skotte Wied Programme Direction: Frans Drewniak & Anne Beim Authors: Kim Pรถrรถsei, Kasper Propowich, Mikael Rex og Helene Skotte Wied Front page photo credit: Filip Dujardin Published by: The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation Masters programe - Settlement, Ecology and Tectonics Institute of Architecture and Tecnology Philip de Langes Alle 10 DK- 1435 Copenhagen K Denmark

Table of Context Field studies in Belgium - an introduction

2

Interview

4

Case study

6

Drawing Index

9

Site Plan

11

Floor plans

12

Sections

14

Photos

17

Facades 18 Exploded isometric

20

Details

22

Photos

24

Interview Background URA is a small office with 8-10 employees located in Brussels. The office was founded in 2002 and is led by the two partners Yves Malysse and Kiki Verbeeck.

The office took its name after an old Mesopotamian city and also the Flemish expression of basic needs and yearnings. This is very well matched with the interests and goals of the office. They define themselves as part of a generation of young Belgian architects that graduated during a period of economic decline. They all went abroad around the entire world and are now returned to Belgium. For this generation building cheap has always been a given condition.

Work The work of the office is anchored in a belief that architecture is for the people who use it and while the office might have their own agendas and focus the goal is always to communicate this as direct and clearly as possible.

Thus, the office creates architecture focusing on regular people and its use and it is not designed to be

looked at and praised by professors.

The office has a broad span of projects ranging from bus stops to houses and healthcare centers.

But what all these have in common is that the work starts out very pragmatic by analyzing everything like a kind of dissection of context, program, mixing uses and the users, and the people.

“New project means new program, a new way of thinking. We force ourselves to go back to the basics with every new project and figure out the core values of a project” After a phase of analyzing the buildings demands and needs completely they take a more intuitive approach when designing the building. The process shifts from the very pragmatic to a far more intuitive and emotional process. In the process of sculpting the building model making plays a crucial role.

In designing they take a step back and look at the building with a kind of distance and abstract thinking.

They believe in the process of going from the specific to the generic as a way to create strong images and spaces.

The models are used as what they call a “reality check”.

They prefer the physical model to Photoshop images to make sure that their work is a representation of real life and not a manipulated image. The models act as a proof of their concepts and a means to build up the architecture step by step.

Foto: Filip Dujardin 4

Vision When asked about what mark they seek to leave on the industry they state that in the first place they are architects and they are interested in making good functional buildings with a certain esthetic feel.

Architects who build and who want to show their work by building. They don not want to be “paper architects”, who make nice images but they want people to visit the buildings and feel the building and its atmosphere.

Something else they try to explore in their projects and are when a space gets a kind of new meaning that differs from what the program wants, a separation of function and program.

When they had finished the gym hall, KAU in 2014 they had a very enlightening experience when showing the hall to the faculty.

The Latin teacher of the school came up to them and

said that the gym hall was such a nice room that he intended to use it for his teaching of repetitions.

This is the experiences that the office works towards; The point when the architecture lets people go further in their experiences of the building and the spaces. This is a very ambitious and idealistic goal that the office works on.

To mention another project that show their visionary work URA made a small booklet called ‘Brussels100’ in 2008. It was a way of dealing with the politics in Brussels and show ways to improve daily life and life quality by making small subtle and sometimes comic interventions. The booklet contained 100 examples of small interventions in Brussels and 1000 copies were put in Bars around Brussels for people to get inspired.

Resiliens When working with durability the office has their own take on the meaning of the word. For them durability has a lot more do to with the social aspects than the use of materials. It is all about making a building that belongs and that creates a good environment for the users over a long period of time.

The office often works with what they call economic durability. This concept is rooted in the fact that they often design with a very strict budget. Building a facade with low priced materials that might have a shorter lifespan than more resilient materials like brick, but it is cheap to replace, that is the approach the office.

Even though URA often works with low priced materials they try to keep an honest approach to the materials. The materials used in a building are often defined by the construction. The goal is to end up at a point where the materiality of the construction and program merges in to one.

URA does not limit themselves to use specific materials. Instead they like to explore new materials all the time both in 1:1 and in a smaller scale in form of models. It is important for them to keep evolving as architects and they are constantly in search for new materials with tactility.

For URA the choice of materials and construction is somewhat separated from the design process.

After having designed the building they evaluate what is the best option in terms of constructing the building. They are open to industrialized ways of thinking like prefabrication, but only if it is the best way

of construction.

“Is prefabrication the best way? If we think it is then we use it. We first make the building in our heads, on paper and in model and then we think of how we can build it now. Otherwise you can’t find the twining of the out and inside”.

Re(Industrialization There is a lot of transformation going on in Belgium, but also in Brussels at the moment. URA is taking part in some of this transformation and the debate that follows.

They define transformation as the future for architecture, but they also have created their own spin on it with the term; re-densification. This is based on a number of small projects that they are currently working on that is about reinterpreting the city blocks but cutting out a small part of the city block and an inclusion as a way of adding an inner program to the old city blocks. While they admit that it is a challenging task when the context is so rigid they prefer this way of re-densification to building high-rises. This is a more humane way of thinking and more about the inner connections and what happens on the inside of a building.

But the office also recognizes the many challenges in the art of transformation and industrialization. They are currently working on a project in a new masterplan for the harbor area in Brussels. The masterplan seeks to densify the harbor area with housing while still keeping the productivity. On paper, it is simple to create a housing block next to a concrete building but in order for this to happen in a successful manner both parties need to be a bit flexible. The people moving in to the harbor area needs to accept that given its history, it’s a different place of living.

“That is also about reindustrialization; it’s easy to say but how to do it, that’s something different. It’s easy in planning to put this and then to put a housing block here and make a park in between - fantastic, but it doesn’t work like this. You have to really be very careful and realistic”.

5

Case / KAU, Brussels Background In 2009 the URA studio took part in a competition to build a new gym hall for the Koninklijk Atheneum Ukkel School located in the forest.

The studio did not win the competition at first but when the original winner of the competition stepped back URA were commissioned to build the 500 m2 gym hall which was completed in 2013.

Organization The building is built into a small hillside and a concrete staircase guides towards the first floor when arriving. The changing rooms and related baths are located on this floor. In the middle of the building a big concrete staircase opens up and introduces the gym area located below. The staircase doubles as a seating area. This way it can also be used as a tribune in the gym hall.

A couple of storage rooms with room for equipment and building installations are located behind the gym area underneath the changing rooms on the first floor.

Tectonics, Exterior The main entrance to the gym hall is located in the North facade, which consists of prefabricated concrete elements also called ‘sandwich elements’.

The elements consist of an exterior layer of solid concrete, an intermediate layer of insulation and an inner layer of solid concrete. The North-facing facade spreads over 2 floors, partly above and below the ground, and is part of the load-bearing system. The concrete elements run from the North facade to the East facade and further on to the South facade, but only at the ground level.

South, East and West facades are divided into two parts with an upper and a lower section. These sections are again divided into a number of smaller parts framed in by Afzelia lists. Afzelia is a very durable wood type ideal for outdoor use.

The south-facing facade is divided into two sections. The top section consists partially of large windows and of sections closed with black trapezoidal plates made of galvanized steel sheet coated with a weather-resistant surface.

The steel provides strength while the galvanizing and surface coating ensure a long duration and minimal need for maintenance. The West facade is also divided into two sections.

6

Here the top section is closed with steel trapezoid plates, and the bottom panels consist of large windows.

Tectonics, Interior The gym hall’s concrete floor is covered with linoleum. Linoleum is an organic and durable material and with proper maintenance linoleum has a long duration. The gym hall’s overall load-bearing structure consists of a steel column and beam system. In the first original idea the load bearing construction were made of wood but due to the long span this was later changed to steel. The loadbearing facade system is constructed in construction timber and connects to the overall load-bearing system in steel.

Large parts of the walls at the gym hall are covered with plywood. The thickness of the plywood is 15 mm. Thickness is chosen based on an expected impact from the use of the gym hall. In the area of the building where the changing-, installation-, storage- and cleaning rooms are located, the walls

Foto: Filip Dujardin

consist of raw concrete blocks. The ceiling is made of a steel profile ceiling and consists of trapezoidal steel plates with a very distinctive profile.

The ceiling is chosen based on its function in a gym hall, where it is exposed to a great impact from its users. All hand- and decoration lists are made in Afzelia because of its appearance, durability and stability.

Installations and Energy The water that is used in the gym hall’s baths, toilets, etc., is water collected from the roof of the gym hall, cleaned and then recycled. The water is led through the roof and into the gym hall through drainpipes on the inside of the facade (this is done to avoid disturbing the simple expression in the facade).

The drainpipes then pass through the ground floor deck and the water is collected in a big tank underground.

Then the water is lead back into the gym hall where it is cleaned and ready to use in restrooms, bathrooms, etc.

Expression The building is located in the middle of a green luscious forest and it is evident that the location inspired URA to exhibit the contradictions of the site. The KAU building illustrates the feeling of being deep into the woods by working with both heavy and light-weight materials, creating facades that balance the closed and transparent expression.

The raw, simple and carefully selected materials used for the construction of the gym hall give it an expression of simplicity. It is put together with an eye for aesthetics, and shows a high architectural ability. At first glance, you get caught by the simplicity of the gym hall. All the simple materials selected also have a degree of robustness, which, with minimal maintenance, give the gym hall a long lifespan in the woods of Ukkel.

Foto: Filip Dujardin 7

Drawing Index 06.01 Site plan 1:2000 06.02 First floor plan

1:200

06.03 Second floor plan

1:200

06.04 Section 1:200

06.05 Section 1:200 06.06 Facades 1:200 06.07 Exploded isometric 06.08 Detail isometrics

1:50/1:20

9

KAU

06.01

Architects: URA Year: 2014 Site plan

1:2000

11

Level 1

KAU

06.02

Architects: URA Year: 2014 Ground floor plan

12

1:200

Level 2

KAU

06.03

Architects: URA Year: 2014 First floor plan

1:200

13

14

KAU

06.04

Architects: URA Year: 2014 Section

1:200

15

KAU

06.05

Architects: URA Year: 2014 Cross section

16

1:200

Foto: Filip Dujardin

Foto: Filip Dujardin 17

East

West

18

South

North

KAU

06.06

Architects: URA Year: 2014 Facades

1:200

19

20

Facade

Konstruktion

Installationer

KAU

06.07

Architects: URA Year: 2014 Exploded isometric

21

22

KAU

06.08

Architects: URA Year: 2014 Detail isometric

1:50/1:20

23

24

25

Bouwenbouw Founders Dirk Somers Location Antwerpen, Belgium Interview by Group 7 Joachim Makholm Marianne Gjรถrtz Gustav J. Jeppsson Lise H. Garval

COLOPHON Editorial & layout: Anne Beim & Helene Skotte Wied Programme Direction: Frans Drewniak & Anne Beim Authors: Joachim Makholm, Marianne Gjรถrtz, Gustav J. Jeppsson & Lise H. Garval Published by: The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation Masters programe - Settlement, Ecology and Tectonics Institute of Architecture and Tecnology Philip de Langes Alle 10 DK- 1435 Copenhagen K Denmark

Table of Context Field studies in Belgium - an introduction

2

Interview

4

Case study

6

Drawing Index

9

Site Plan

11

Exploded isometric

15

First level floor plan

17

Second level floor plan

19

Perpective section

21

Interview Background Bovenbouw Architectuur is a rather small office, with 15 employees, owned by the renowned architect Dirk Somers (f. 1976). Dirk graduated as an architect from KU Leuven University after extensive studies, both in Antwerp and Milan. In 2001, he founded his first office, Huiswerk Architecten together with architect Erik Wieërs. The office achieved great recognition both nationally and internationally.

After a decade, the two partners went in different directions, and in 2011 Dirk Somers founded Bovenbouw.

The office has exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2012, at the Architekturegalerie in Munich 2013 and at the Singel in Antwerp 2014. Besides Dirks work at the office, he regularly holds lectures and publishes essays on topics such as tectonics, representation and urban architecture. Since 2003 Dirk has been teaching architectural design at Delft University and in 2011 he became Design professor at Gent university.

Work Bovenbouw Architects works in several scales, from urban planning to small house extensions. A key focus in all Bovenbouws projects, regards the scale and a particular sensibility towards context, transparency and tectonics. There is always a thinking beyond the individual building. All projects are approached with a particular and equal attention to the various parts and the whole.

Vision Dirk Somers works a lot with the concept of transparency. Not in the cliché understanding of glass facades, but in a metaphoric way, where the inside reflects on the outside facade. He describes this as a backlash of his generation’s excessive focus on vertical cladding, where facades just ended up becoming wrappings on buildings.

Dirk is very intrigued by the honest relationship between construction, tectonics and ornament. This is something that is evident in all the Bovenbouws projects. There is always an architectural thinking beyond the standard, especially in the relationship between ornament and tectonics. To point at an example; Bovenbouw could treat a beam as a tectonic ornament and by doing that the architecture gets deeper, richer and more honest in Dirks opinion.

“There is ornament and decoration…. but to me, ornament means that there is a tectonic substance and that makes it an architectural element. While decoration is just anything….it doesn’t have an architectural component. As well as logic solutions change our point of view about aesthetics.”

Bovenbauw is not an office that designs expressive formalistic architecture. Their built environments are instead often taking on simple geometries together with restrained material palettes that prioritize the spatial conditions and that rely on their correlation to context. In a way, their projects try to show an honest way of building in a world with tight budgets and bureaucracy.

Resilience One could argue that it is this sort of honesty in the tectonics and construction that make the buildings of Bovenbouw robust and resilient. According to Dirk Somers there are too much paint and plastered walls in buildings nowadays. He argues that this is often due to extremely tight budgets and because of this, we end up with rather immaterial buildings that completely disregard its context. Bovenbouw takes a different approach, where they always try to be true to the materials they are using. For example, they do not try to cover it with paint or hiding it with plastered walls. This makes the architecture, in their eyes, more present and more resilient. Not only resilient in the obvious way but also visually resilient.

“Bovenbouw builds relevant buildings that convey the right things about the city. Bovenbouw makes architecture that can be itself, freed from the compulsive desire to be avant- garde.”

Another way the office works with the concept of resilience is through their contextuality. This makes the architecture naturally connected to a local physical environment.

4

“What I mainly like about contextuality, is when it is sort of unexpected. You have to find a way to make contextuality fresh and surprising, it does not just draw from its environment…. It also brings something extra, new and surprising”.

If we take the fire station as an example. There are many contextual concerns working together. The neighboring big boxes, the harbor and the thousands of containers. Bovenbouw suggested something completely different, but still very much in dialog with its context through its architectural language. Dirk further explains, “If you were supposed to build on a street with only white houses and you build a white house as well.

Everyone will agree that it sort of fits, but no one is really happy. It just doesn’t look as nice as the old houses” Re-Industrialization According to Dirk, there is not any tradition in making prefabricated elements in Belgium, this as a contrast to Holland and many other countries in the EU. The industrialization is always on the scale of a small contractor that has a more hands-on approach to building. According to Sidse Hald, a Danish architect working in the office the builders have not forgotten their old craft and therefore value good quality details while still using local materials and old school building techniques.

In the beginning Bovenbouw was very obsessed with thinking in sustainable solutions. Nowadays Dirk is more vigilant. He thinks the way we measure sustainability is way too rigid.

“In Belgium, it’s a lot about scoring points, this concept of sustainability is all over Europe. Nobody cares if you are using too much polyurethane or any cheap and bad materials….it is just the same points you get. I find it a little bit disappointing, because I would have hoped that the life cycle analysis and the carbon print of production energy would be calculated, and counted as well. But that is not happening. It is just about getting good points. This have become such a burden obviously, to match all the specifications that one now feels: we’ve scoured the right points - thank you, enough”.

5

Case / Fire Station, Berendrecht Background Due to capacity problems with an existing fire station in Antwerp, an expansion was required. Instead of extending the existing fire station, a satellite fire station named Berendrecht, that mainly could cover the port area in the North of Antwerp, was proposed. In 2010, the emitted competition was won by Bovenbouws design team; It consisted of Sidse Hald, Eline Aerts and Dirk Somers.

The local firemen were involved during the entire process and they were very ambitious regarding the project. They requested a sustainable building, and generally highenergy standards. As for materials - they wanted wood.

Concept In an interview with architect Sidse Hald, she explained that the challenge of the project was to combine a rational fire station with dwelling space - and design the station in an industrial harbor context. The two parts had to be efficient. It was important that the firemen used a minimal amount of time to get to their trucks. Because the firemen work in 24 hours shifts, they also need space to sleep, cook, rest, socialize and work out.

Organizing The utilitarian floor span over the two first levels. It consists of a garage, dressing room, storage, technical room and an office. The third-floor works as the dwelling space.

With a big kitchen, living room, sleeping rooms, fitness and an outdoor sport field, the third-floor is designed to feel as a home to the firemen. The domestic floor is organized around a centered backyard, where the firemen have the opportunity to barbeque, hang out and isolate themselves from the traffic around the station. The backyard has windows on all sides; besides giving the surrounding rooms more natural light, it also connects the rooms and gives a sense of transparency to the whole floor. An open stairwell and two poles connects the domestic level to the lower levels.

Expression As a consequence of the chosen materials (primarily wood) and it´s mixed typology, the fire station stands in contrast to its context. The building typology is a fusion between several characters of the harbor – the containers and the hangars nearby. It appears as one big volume composed of several smaller volumes. This gives associations to the containers in a sophisticated 6

way. The volumes also indicate different functions and spaces on the inside of the building, without revealing them completely. This results in a sensitive differentiation in the facade, something the architects worked a lot with.

Load bearing structure and construction.

The service level consists of a supporting structure in concrete. The choice of material is a result of the necessary height and the span of the garage volume.

The walls are insulated with prefabricated sandwich elements, which have been a dimensioning factor for the building.

The outside wall has a thermally treated timber cladding and the inside is cladded with OSB. The stairwell wall is made of big concrete bricks; its stairs and landings are made in concrete. The third-floor has a supporting structure in timber, which also separates the workspace and the dwelling space. The inner walls are cladded in lacquered OSB to make it more robust. The outdoor wooden cladding is the same as the one on the lower levels, but here it is vertically structured, not horizontal.

Installations For heating, the main intention was to use pellet heating.

However, it later turned out that the system was not successful. For ventilation, the station uses HEKI windows. As a budgetary result, all installations are visible in the building.

Energy At the request of the firemen, the initial intention was to make the station completely passive.

It ended up with energy class 27, which is considered a very high energy standard - especially in Belgium, where the energy standard is relatively low.

Building process At first glance, the facade may seem prefabricated.

However, it is built on site. The only prefabricated component is the sandwich insulation. Belgium has a great tradition for craftsmanship in the construction industry. This opens up for more flexibility for changes during the building process, compared to when big parts of the components are prefabricated solutions. As a result of this they obtain a deeper presence in their projects state, and is a direct result of the studio’s ideas and approach to the architecture practice.

7

Drawing Index 07.01 Siteplan

1:2000

07.02 Exploded isometric 07.03 First level floor plan

1:150

07.04 Second lev el floor plan

1:150

07.05 Perspective section

1:200

9

Fire Station

07.01

Architects: Bouwenbouw Year: 2011 Site plan

1:2000

11

Neighbouring industrial container harbour

Neighbouring large scale industrial warehouses

Stacked combination

13

Fire Station

07.02

Architects: Bouwenbouw Year: 2011 Exploded isometric

15

Fire Station

07.03

Architects: Bouwenbouw Year: 2011 First level floor plan1:150

17

Fire Station

07.04

Architects: Bouwenbouw Year: 2011 Second level floor plan

1:150

19

20

Fire Station

07.05

Architects: Bouwenbouw Year: 2011 Perspective Section

1:100

21