Hasta La Ideas

Broei is a Belgian youth organization that offers workshop space and six-month residencies in the Castle of Gerald the Devil, a 13th-century Gothic castle in Ghent.

ConstructLab, an architecture-based creative collective that describes themselves as a “collaborative construction practice,” assisted Broei by “initiating modular pioneering structures that make it possible for youth organisations to develop themselves in this formerly cold, inhospitable medieval environment,” they write.

“The issue of transforming the historical Devil Castle into a temporary work and exhibition place for young organisations first raised a different question for ConstructLab: How to conceive temporary structures that harbor and foster collective actions without losing human or material energy if the program has to be (re)moved?”

“ConstructLab wants to investigate how to eliminate the link between temporary infill and the single-use of wood. To this end, we developed a simple yet effective Connector piece that combines the versatility of scaffolding connections with affordable wood sections.”

Here’s what they came up with, along with a comprehensive user manual:

“The Connector was drawn, cut and then ‘mass-produced’ from stainless steel sheets. We chose SLS wood (the Scandinavian Lumber Standard) which is a widely available construction wood produced from fast-growing sustainable pine. One of those Connectors is capable of connecting three SLS beams in three directions, as well as attaching additional materials to the structure (textiles, ropes, etc).”

The Connectors get the youth participants “Inventing and building something new, adding/modifying a structure built by ConstructLab or [being able to] easily move structures to a new location.”

“The aim is to stimulate the act of building as a liberating tool in the rather harsh landscape of temporary occupations.”