Bram Rumbaut

Cultural diversity, pluralism, globalization and multicultural evolution; these are only a few examples of an entire list of new theoretical terms that frequently turn up in the post-modern society. Everybody is constantly faced with other cultures in everyday life of the 21st century. As a silent witness or as a capitalistic opportunist: the world is waiting for you on every street corner.
This increasing cultural mixture also evoked a growing interest in diversity. The recent developments in the field of cultural diversity and immaterial inheritance are a clear illustration. However, only a few or no initiatives have been realized to join this cultural diversity in one place. My graduation design would like to change this. With a world-culture-building, which is the architectural translation of the conclusions of my written thesis ("Cultural diversity in relation to architecture"), the multicultural society gets (finally) a worthy and well-thought-out meeting spot.
A new function – joining world culture – requires a new type of building. The objective was to create one single place for all cultures. A place which works orientating in the contemporary society and which promotes meeting new or other cultures. By means of various different functions related to culture and aimed at intercultural initiatives, the building intends to appeal to a broad public. The building includes the following functions: a worldmuseum, worldtheatre, worldbar, worldtravel agency, worldrestaurant and worldbroadcasting station.
The site for this contemporary building is a non-place along the Singel around Antwerp. Situated in the heart of Europe and developed historically into a melting pot of languages, religions and cultures, it is the perfect location for a world-culture-building. Conceptually, all the different scales of the building (from worldscale up to the smallest detail) have been based on the principles of continue exchange, interactivity and ‘cross-over’.

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