Emanation of the Commons by Denis Zeman

EMANATION OF THE COMMONS

By Patrick Moyersoen & Jasmien Wouters Denis Zeman

ACADEMIC YEAR 2021-22 BRUSSELS

Presence in the City Landscape...................................................................02 Observation and ambition..............................................................03 Exploration......................................................................13 Proposal of the urban intervention...................................................25 Re-Defining the Common..............................................................................30 Observation and exploration.............................................................31 Manifesto......................................................................36 Working progress.............................................................................37 Final Panel.......................................................................................40 Make it Tangible............................................................................................44 Exploration......................................................................45 The void............................................................................................53 Materiality......................................................................63 Atmospheres......................................................................65

PRESENCE IN THE CITY LANDSCAPE phase 1

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botanical garden

finance tower

D sector – Berlaimont

national bank

cathedral

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finance tower

Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula

OBSERVATION OF THE SITE repetitiveness of space no motivation to stay used only for transit no connection with buildings on street level

Boulevard de Berlaimont office building

national bank

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1935

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1953

1961

1987

1996

2004

today

The site went through radical changes in its urban structure in the mid 20th century, today it is dominated by the National Bank of Belgium building and other administrative buildings. The site lacks a sense of living city space due to its functional and formal non-inviting character.

office buildings

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National Bank of Belgium building

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Feeling of cultivated man-created world that is empty and disconnected from life that is happening elsewhere. painting by Giorgio de Chirico The Red Tower, 1913

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?

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POSSIBLE APPROACHES AND FORMS

adding new form into the street

activating the facade by carving out the mass

activating the facade by adding new elements

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activating the existing office building

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Creating an urban scale intervention that would change the perception of the street LOKOMOTIV.archs

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Creating openings into the building and revealing the structure The Piranesi Variations / Peter Eisenman

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Animating the walls

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The street today functions as a unidirectional monotonous corridor.

By creating voids connected by walkways the monotonous rythm gets broken, the silhouette of the building is also changed.

The proposed approach opens the building and creates both horizontal and vertical continuous path through it.

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RE(DEFINING) THE COMMON phase 2

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reference Retable of the Virgin Mary, called the Retable of Saluzzo Valentin Van Orley (attributed to), painter / Jan II Borman (attributed to), sculptor ca. 1500, Maison du Roi, Brussels 31

understanding rituals in a city without majorities circle of life: namegiving, adulthood, love, death circle of earth: midwinter, carnival, spring, midsummer, autumn

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MIDSUMMER Leaving the everyday life for something special... ...for celebrating magical experiences... ...for finding joy in the moment... ...for being free.

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LEAVING WHERE? ...to the nature? ...to the hills? ...into the water?

Into other state of mind that can be initiated by different urban scenarios?

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Panel variatons on a theme of leaving into magical spaces within the urban environment

Structure of spaces representing scenes of the midsummer.

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Leaving the villages for the midsummer rituals.

Stage for the rituals above the structure of spaces (villages).

MIDSUMMER MANIFESTO

During the midsummer we used to leave our villages to share together the joy of the incoming summer. We were leaving the ordinary of our lives to celebrate the magical moment.

Villages, in a sense of enclosed cultures and different relationships, are still present, maybe more than anywhere else, in todays Brussels. On the panel they are presented as individual rooms.

Through time these social villages formed complex structure while still remaining independent and present with their differences, in them we spend most of our time, they represent our everyday lives.

For the joyful celebration of midsummer we no longer leave our villages for the woods. We leave these closed spaces to the public sphere that we share with every other person in the city. Public spaces - streets, squares, parks and public halls - became the woods of today.In them we can be united, celebrate our differences, our passions, fears or ambitions, we can make ourselves heard in them.

That is where the magical ritual of midsummer takes place today.

May we celebrate the coming of the summer and with it the sun, love, air, time, community, city, life in these spaces that we share.

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Working progress on the panel

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spring - adulthood

midwinter - midsummer - midsummer - love

namegiving - death - death - carnival 41

MAKE IT TANGIBLE phase 3

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touching the sky

touching the ground Three strategically placed voids piercing through the building to make a radical breaks in the facade.

Exposing the existing structue.

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Breaking the strictness of a plan with organic form?

NO-STOP CITY, ARCHIZOOM, 1969

Introducing free form inside of the strict frame?

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Glass cube added inside of the void to create unique spatial qualities.

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STRUCTURE AND ORDER

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By exposing the existing structure the architectural order is revealed and the connection with National Bank building is strengthened.

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LIGHT

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DEPTH

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MOVEMENT

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Supporting the horizontal and vertical movement through the building with walkways and voids.

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MATERIALITY

GLASS BLOCKS

EXPOSED CONCRETE

GALVANIZED STEEL 63

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path through the void offers spaces with different qualities and atmospheres

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