WESTSTATION MOLENBEEK ELABORATION
PROJECT TEAM Nicolaas Van Orshoven Olivier Van Calster [BE] DATE february - may 2012 [16 weeks] LOCATION Molenbeek, Brussels, Belgium MENTORS Brecht Verstraete, Ivo Vanhamme, Han Vandevyvere, Joost Ruland TYPE residential architecture SCALE medium TRIVIA Exhibited at yearly ASRO Open Studio Exhibition [june 2012] 56
DESCRIPTION Starting from the masterplan in the previous section we zoom in on the more private part of the site that accomodates around fifty families: the collective garden and building volumes around it. CONCEPT This target group is deliberately chosen to assure the conversion of the current, temporary character of the neighbourhood to a dynamic living environment in which growing up is a delight and where the concepts of ‘neighbour’ and ‘community’ still actually have meaning. The gradation between public/collective/ private is explored carefully because we want the building block to function as a social organ that both controlls and socializes with the neighbourhood, aided by the community center and urban terrace on the crossroads of two quiet streets which expands the site to the adjacent buildings. Despite the representation of the project as a sequence of ‘places’ they do not function separately, to the contrary. Combined they create an exciting but still moderate whole.
Physical model