Hasta La Ideas

Slideshow: French architects Ateliers Jean Nouvel and Belgian studio MDW Architecture have collaborated on designs for a new police headquarters on a former police cavalry site in Charleroi, Belgium, which now also accommodates a dance school.

The Charleroi Danses occupy the two remaining wings of the cavalry buildings and will be extended as part of the proposals, while the 75-metre-high Hôtel de Police tower will be positioned between them.

Although the retained buildings feature red brick walls, the new tower will have a tapered form constructed from blue engineering bricks.

A public plaza will be created in the enclosed central spaces, while an adjacent series of smaller brick buildings will create studios for artists as well as dancers.

Other projects by Jean Nouvel we’ve featured on Dezeen include an open-air aquatic centre and a bright red pavilion – see all the stories here.

Here’s some explanation in French from Ateliers Jean Nouvel:

Hôtel de Police / Extension de Charleroi Danses

Un repère dans la ville

Un site déjà marqué par un bâti datant du XIXe siècle, la caserne de cavalerie occupée depuis longtemps par la gendarmerie. Comme de nombreuses friches investies par un programme culturel, l’ancien manège est occupé par une troupe de danse contemporaine internationalement reconnue. Un programme de regroupement de tous les services pour compléter la fusion de la police et de la gendarmerie, et de plus l’extension de Charleroi Danses…

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L’hôtel de police

Notre proposition est de créer une image publique et accessible de la police, de dégager une place ouverte vers la rue, vers la ville, et un bâtiment repère sur ce site ainsi libéré.

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Pour dégager le site, il faut d’abord démolir toutes les petites annexes qui furent construites au fil des ans à flanc du porche. On dégage ainsi la grande cour de « manœuvres » en la rendant directement accessible depuis la rue : c’est la place publique. Les deux corps de bâtiments de l’ancienne cavalerie sont de beaux édifices tout en longueur, tout en briques, abritant deux larges espaces d’écuries au rez-de-chaussée: ils méritent d’être conservés, ce seront les deux premières ailes du projet. Derrière ces deux bâtiments, un large espace, puis un mur d’enceinte en briques : cette configuration permet de faire circuler l’ensemble des voitures, livraisons, parkings à l’arrière du site, entre le bâti et le mur, libérant totalement la place publique de ces contraintes. Le programme est important, la surface demandée est grande. Les deux corps de bâtiment conservés couvrent à peine un tiers de la demande. Il faut créer une troisième aile pour l’ensemble : elle sera verticale. Les trois ailes sont reliées au rez-de-chaussée, par l’intermédiaire d’un hall où s’effectuent tous les contrôles nécessaires à la sécurité du fonctionnement du programme.

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Pour la tour, la proposition faite est celle d’un immeuble d’une grande flexibilité et compacité où l’on peut, très facilement, changer d’affectation les niveaux ou les relations entre les services. Pour les bâtiments existants, c’est un lieu où l’on cherche à utiliser les qualités du bâti : peu de modifications dans les principes des espaces existants pour conserver leurs qualités spatiales: distribution généreuse, belle hauteur sous plafond…

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Il s’agit avant tout de la constitution d’un repère dans la ville. La tour qui s’élève n’est pas trop haute pour ne pas être impressionnante. Pour jouer comme une réponse au beffroi de l’Hôtel de ville, elle sera limitée à environ 75 mètres. Elle est de forme elliptique, pour la rendre conviviale. La couleur du logo de la police est bleu foncé : c’est cette couleur qui va habiller la tour. Cela va permettre une appropriation rapide du bâtiment par la population. La place est pavée de briques comme l’environnement ancien, de grandes bandes de couleur bleue peintes sur le sol vont lier la tour avec la place. Cette place est active : les piétons sont dirigés vers l’auvent qui marque l’entrée, les voitures d’urgence policières sont autorisées à circuler, les vélos aussi, c’est un lieu vivant de la ville.

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Charleroi Danses

La place est bordée au Nord et à l’Est par le bâti ancien, à l’Ouest par la rue et au Sud par Charleroi Danses. Les locaux de Charleroi Danses sont caractérisés par un esprit «village» donné par une succession de petits bâtiments en briques desservis par une voirie intérieure. Cette atmosphère est propice pour garder une échelle humaine, par exemple lors d’événements type spectacles de rues… Cet esprit village sera conservé et continué en introduisant les nouveaux programmes sous forme de bâtiments du même type que l’existant distribués le long de la voirie intérieure : petits bâtiments de briques abritant les logements d’artistes et les studios de danse. Le lieu conservera son identité paisible et créative.

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L’entrée a été faite par des architectes belges reconnus, Lhoas et Lhoas, et nous proposons de la conserver: on conserve le mur d’enceinte et les grandes baies qui ont été percées pour accéder à la salle. Cependant l’accès est aménagé de plein pied avec la rue pour inviter le promeneur à pénétrer à l’intérieur, attiré par un atrium en transparence sur la rue sur toute la hauteur de la baie. Une baie vitrée sur la façade opposée de l’atrium laisse deviner la continuité du site en surplomb. Le grand mur de briques qui longe la rue est conservé: il devient la façade sur rue du grand studio de danse, accessible depuis l’atrium et depuis les loges-vestiaires. Un nouvel accès dans la salle de spectacle est aménagé au niveau du balcon haut de la salle: ceci permet au public de découvrir l’ensemble de la salle par le haut en entrant au spectacle. Ce nouvel accès est aussi le niveau du Foyer.

Sur la terrasse formée par la dalle haute du grand studio de danse, petite construction légère, le Foyer est posé comme une tente nomade renvoyant à la vie des artistes, à la légèreté des danseurs. Sur la bâche qui recouvre cette tente, le logo et la typo de Charleroi Danses sont imprimés, signal contemporain. La terrasse est ouverte sur trois côtés : la rue, le village, et la place. Jouant avec l’ambiguïté de la proximité de ces deux programmes (Police / Danse).

Belgian practice MDW Architecture has completed a residential complex in Brussels using industrial materials that reference the site’s former use as a scrap metal dealership (photos by Julien Lanoo).

An apartment building and terrace containing three maisonettes are clad in galvanised steel sheeting normally found in factories and warehouses.

The original street front has been maintained and a layer of steel mesh added for protection and for climbing plants to grow on.

The homes are arranged around a central courtyard with meeting and play areas for the residents.

Wood is used for the terraces, benches and window frames to soften the industrial aesthetic.

Apartments at the front of the site are raised to improve light quality, with parking incorporated underneath.

More photography by Julien Lanoo on Dezeen »

The following text is from the architects:

Residential complex Le Lorrain, Brussels – Belgium

Renovation of the former Brumétal dealer of old iron into a social housing complex composed of a 4-flat building connected by a large common open space to 3 maisonettes at the rear of the site.

Urban scale

This residential beacon project for the district contract « Maritime » consists in clearing and opening up the interior of the plot that was entirely built and making this portion of the street “breathe” thanks to a wide opening. It aims at giving the neighbourhood a new spring through a both strong and suitable contemporary architectural and urban intervention that benefits the community while keeping a trace of the industrial past of the neighbourhood.

Architectural design

The general design reflects a contemporary approach based on the genius loci and on the requirements from the program. It includes different typologies of accommodations: simplex, duplex and triplex from 2 to 4 bedrooms and organised in one apartment building and 3 terrace houses at the rear of the site. Architectural and environmental quality is privileged.

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Because the site was tightly enclosed by high party walls it was decided to clear the interior of the plot and to raise the maisonettes in order to maximise the amount of light captured and to take advantage of the best sunlight. This also allowed to accommodate a garage at street level and to avoid a total depollution of the site.

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On the street front, the apartments have been raised and pushed back to create a first visual sequence between the road and the complex. By lowering the eastern party wall the oppressing feeling of the interior of the plot is reduced and more light penetrates into the interior of the plot.

A large circulation area is carved within the site and creates a wide meeting and playing area for residents. Each house also features a private garden and a recessed entrance to put some distance between the front door and the public space.

Materials

The existing street front has been kept and it dialogues with the apartments through the volumes and the bridges/terraces. Hot dip galvanised steel fencing fixed to the old façade creates a vandal-proof filter between the street and the internal space and serves as support for creeping plants.

The buildings are clad with grey metallic sheets whose aspect reminds of the industrial character of the plot. A light alternation of their shade and treatment reinforces the volumes: In particular, hot dip galvanised steel sheets identify the distribution and circulation functions.

The choice of internal and external materials is induced by the necessity of robustness and durability, but warm wooden elements are used for contrast in more tactile areas like doors, windows, railings, terraces or benches.

Another important element of the architectural composition is the vegetation: creeping plants along the street font and the party walls, planted common space that includes a tree, private gardens and green roofs.

Project information:

Client : Commune de Molenbeek-St-Jean (public)

Team : MDW ARCHITECTURE, Waterman TCA (Structural Engineer), MK Engineering (M&E Engineer)

Dates : 2009-2011 Surface : 835 m2

Budget : 1.5M €

Bringing together contemporary art and an iconic beer vessel

Advertorial content:

As part of a new competition, Duvel invited graphic artists from around the world to customize beer goblets with their work. The winning entry will become part of the Duvel Collection and will be available through their shop for enthusiasts. Building on more than a century of brewing experience, the collaboration with contemporary graphic artists puts a modern veneer on a classic object.

Duvel, a long-time supporter of contemporary art museums, started the collection in an effort to bring the company’s interest in design to the forefront. The first came from Belgian artist Arne Quinze in 2007, after which the company enlisted artists Denis Meyers, Parra, and Eley Kishimoto. The next installment once again featured Quinze, along with Daan Stuyven and Stefan Glerum. Released this year, the current series sells from the Duvel shop.

Past designs have included a futurist-inspired banner complete with Dutch orange from Netherlands native Stefan Glerum, while Daan Stuyven opted for a selection of mug shot-style self-portraits around the glass, and Quinze, a conceptual artist known for massive linear structures, kept his design simple and abstract.

This year’s competition is open to artists from Belgium, The Netherlands, England and France. Interested parties can enter through The Studio and check out the Duvel Collection site to view past work. The winner’s glass will be added to the collection, and three people from each country will be chosen for the second-place prize, which includes a trip to Paris and 50 glasses of their own design. Third-place winners (10 per country) will receive six glasses with their design. Find out more by watching the video.

Belgian architects Pieterjan Gijs and Arnout Van Vaerenbergh have completed a see-through church in Limburg, Belgium.

The ten metre-high church is constructed from 100 stacked layers of weathered steel plates.

Gaps between these plates allow visitors to through through the walls.

With its pointed spire, the building imitates the form of traditional churches in the region.

Entitled Reading between the Lines, the project forms part of the Z-OUT programme coordinated by the Z33 gallery, which aims to bring art into public space.

Gijs Van Vaerenbergh were also responsible for creating an upside dome inside an existing church in Leuven – see our earlier story here.

Photography is by Kristof Vrancken.

Here are some more details from Gijs Van Vaerenbergh:

Gijs Van Vaerenbergh makes church sculpture as part of art in public space project

Gijs Van Vaerenbergh, a collaboration between young Belgian architects Pieterjan Gijs and Arnout Van Vaerenbergh, have built a see-through church in the Belgian region of Haspengouw. The church is a part of the Z-OUT project of Z33, house for contemporary art based in Hasselt, Belgium. Z-OUT is an ambitious long-term art in public space project that will be realised on different locations in the Flemish region of Limburg over the next five years.

The church is 10 meters high and is made of 100 layers and 2000 columns of steel. Depending on the perspective of the viewer, the church is either perceived as a massive building or seems to dissolve – partly or entirely – in the landscape. On the other hand, looking at the landscape from within the church, the surrounding countryside is redefined by abstract lines.

The design of the church is based on the architecture of the multitude of churches in the region, but through the use of horizontal plates, the concept of the traditional church is transformed into a transparent object of art.

The project is called ‘Reading between the Lines’ and is a project by the duo Gijs Van Vaerenbergh, a collaboration between young Belgian architects Pieterjan Gijs (Leuven, 1983) and Arnout Van Vaerenbergh (Leuven, 1983).Since 2007, they have been realizing projects in the public space that derive from their architectural background, but clearly display an artistic intention. As such, their projects do not always originate from the customary commission and carry a large degree of autonomy. Their primary concerns are experiment, reflection, a physical involvement with the end result and the input of the viewer.

See also:

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Shiv Temple by Sameep Padora & Associates	Church by Beton	Sta Columbina Chapel by Luis Ferreira Rodrigues

This house near Brussels by architects Samyn and Partners has a glass wall at the front and a plant-covered wall by French botanical artist Patrick Blanc at the back.

Blanc, who is widely regarded as the pioneer of the green wall, created the flourishing facade and roof from a selection of exotic plants.

Completed in 2007, the four-storey house is both a home and workplace for a cinematographer and his family.

A deep furrow circling the house provides a glimpse down to another row of windows, revealing the basement studios below.

The fully glazed west elevation exposes the interiors of the ground, first and second floors, but can be screened by a wall of translucent curtains.

On the ground floor, partitions that separate the kitchen, hallway and family room were once the exterior walls of a single-storey house incorporated into the design.

Photography is by Marie-Françoise Plissart.

More information is provided by the architect:

This house for an artist includes the street level of an existing small house. It now houses the entry hall, a family room and a kitchen; the living-room and the stairway are in the extension to the building.

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The second floor includes the master bedroom with its bathroom, as well as five children’s rooms and sanitary installations. They are equipped with a mezzanine protected by textile netting that will lead to the glassed-wall facade.

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The house presents curved and vegetalised facades that are very private and closed to the neighbours to the north, the east and the south. In contrast, the west facade is entirely glass-walled as if it were one huge partitioned window.

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It is planned that Immense translucid white polyester curtains in widths of 1.6 m suspended from the top of the structure to the ground floor would run along this great « window »  to ensure shade in the summer months.

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Initially conceived as a wall of ivy with a patinated copper roof, the vegetalised facade is finally composed of a selection of exotic plants chosen by the botanical artist Patrick Blanc, and extends to cover the roof.

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We had to design the structure, the insulation, and the water-tightness of the envelope and resolve the building physics issues in order to receive the necessary support systems, irrigation and fertilisation systems for the plants that are set into a felt support stapled to rigid PVC panels.

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600 m², Nov. 1999 – June 2007; (01/390)

Services
Landscaping.
Architecture.
Interior architecture.
Structural engineering, in collaboration with Sagec.
Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing Engineering, in collaboration with FTI.
Quantity surveying.
Project management.
Construction site management.

See also:

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Vertical Living Gallery by Sansiri and Shma	La Maison-vague by Patrick Nadeau	Brooks Avenue House by Bricault Design