Elle Hermans
Multi-center. PHL Diepenbeek (Belgium)
The busy Prins Bisschopssingel in Maastricht forms a barrier for the inhabitants of the outskirts. From an urban development point of view, this rather negative site should be positively transformed by creating green buffers with some pleasant squares that attract the people from the outskirts. Inhabitants should get the chance to integrate in the town centre and be enticed to take part in its different cultural activities like dancing, art and music
The building is used as a modern dancing school during the day, but in the evenings it changes into a community centre, the beating heart of the neighbourhood. Typologically I planned the centre as a museum exhibiting different styles of dancing. Different sorts of dancers get the opportunity to make cross-overs. Moreover, the visitors or the people who cross the street should have the idea to get involved in an ebb-and-flood movement.
I was inspired for the interior by a setting of a dance performance, where space and interaction may be created using movable elements, perspective lines and vistas. By applying transparent concrete and indirect lighting I have tried to intensify the movement mentioned above.
Because of the complexity of its form, the building needs a steel structure, based on the pull-and-push principle. The façade gives the design of the building an extra dimension as it might be compared to the muscular structure of a human being. In the human body we also distinguish between the skeleton (steel) and the softer muscles which glide over each other in a flexible way. The façade shows this very clearly. For the realisation of “the skin” I have chosen for a glass skin façade with invisible strips of aluminium, attached in the surface relief.
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