Lecture: From mining town to water city - by Marie Frioni
17 May 2023
On 17 May, architect Marie Frioni, who is currently giving a cabinet presentation at the +1 at SCHUNCK as part of Dreaming Out Loud, will give a lecture on her work in and around Maasmechelen (BE).
Where
Online
Price
€ 0,-
Coal exploitation accelerated the urban development of Eisden Dorp and, by extension, Maasmechelen. The coal mine provided a lot of work, attracting young men, and later their families, to settle in faraway Belgium. Building plans for completely new residential areas rolled off the drawing board at a rapid pace. However, coal mining was short-lived. One hundred years later, with the closure of the coal mine, Maasmechelen is left orphaned as an unfinished town. Today further parceled out to accommodate the multicultural population.
Creative solutions
Mining left scars in the former heath landscape. Less visible than the mine rails and shaft trestles, the subsided landscape and the related, disturbed water management is what requires constant attention. Be it without these efforts, the Eisden Dorp area would be drowned by the groundwater present.
This issue calls for creative and forward-looking solutions. Just as the exploitation of coal led to an urbanisation process, water, another form of natural wealth, can become the leitmotif for the further spatial development of Maasmechelen. Marie Frioni, architect-partner at Architectuur Depot and granddaughter of Luigi Frioni (IT), miner at the Eisden coal mine, will present a number of projects she has had the privilege of working on over the past seven years. The projects are framed in larger vision for under the themes: Water mining - water as a product, Water tourism - green/blue tourism and finally Water as a leitmotif for urban development. Some of these are projects in realisation, others are inspirational studies or perhaps just "dreaming out loud".
Online lecture
The lecture has now taken place. Watch it below.