Caro Geerts
TEMPORALITY IN ARCHITECTURE. UHasselt (Belgium)
A personal experience provides the design for this project. July 13, 2021, the enormous power of the water destroyed my grandfather's caravan in that summer. The river had become the enemy of many residents, but at the same time I see water as a friend. As a child, I liked it so much to stay and play in water. I still do. Water needs to be seen as our friend. The intervention temporality in architecture shows an architecture that can react and respond to such natural phenomena, but also to social change in society. Therefore, I respond with a structure, where the program is a guest [according to Steward Brand, 1994].
The structure comprises three visions: The urban vision; The Netherlands has a lot of dikes, but what if an architect intervenes? With my project I take on the challenge of making the dikes usable and building in them. The project has a length of 800m, so it can be seen as a worthy experiment. The architectural vision; a structure is designed that can resist the force of water during flooding, but at the same time can withstand drought. A citerne is incorporated into the structure to collect rainwater. The social vision; Nowadays there is a great demand for temporary shelter, for people in need [water and war refugees]. These people are taken care of in a safe environment, where they get their dignity back.
This creates a mix between temporary and permanent residence, living and working. Between the structure, a museum park is formed. The museum park collaborates with local art galleries, namely the Bonnefanten Museum, and accommodates artworks that are too large for conventional galleries. Including art in the project invites local people. Thus, TEMPORALITY IN ARCHITECTURE responds to the actuality of everyday life.
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