Chrissy Ramaekers

The manifesto 'The Desired Flaw' explains the value of non-places in the urban tissue and argues in favor of preserving these places. To substantiate this ‘the ruin’ is used as a metaphor. What opportunities and feelings do historical ruins bring about? How do they inspire the curation of non-places? This is an extremely careful process, requiring the avoidance of programming, as seen on 18th century capriccio paintings. It is a search for the right resilience to give spontaneity in the urban environment a chance.

This research studies the potential of porous places in the city center of Eindhoven (NL) that are threatened by the current densification vision. The ‘Emmasingelkwadrant’ in particular is the starting point for the design process, where the 'healthy relaxation' (‘gezonde verpozing’) experienced in and around ruins is translated into an intervention at the Lighting Application Center (LAC). In search for the balance between dense urbanization and the breathing space needed in the space in between, this intervention involves an hybrid form between architecture and landscape.

This design is a generous gesture where a dismantled building with a passerelle creates places and lets places be, organizes them and makes them clear. By not programming the places as an architect, but providing reasons for existence instead, a place will be curated that gives the user's narrative a place of itself. The non-place is therefore not so much a place where there is nothing, but a place where there is no programming. So, it is not the void exactly, but rather what there is round about it.

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