Hans Kenis
hns.project.07.lifted. PHL Diepenbeek (Belgium)
The task is to design a Dutch Institute for Architecture at Maastricht as an annex to Rotterdam located at the Tapijnkazerne just outside the old city walls surrounded by a few valuable buildings. The complete site of the Tapijnkazerne needs to be redestinated for interpretation as well as for design. The valuable buildings of the site will be granted a dignant role in the new urban development design so that they will merge seamlessly with the surroundings.
This spot, with a strategic location just outside the centre, will be an interesting approach for people visiting Maastricht by softening the entrance of the visitor. Furthermore, the site will play a crucial part in the reinforcement of the greenbelt in Maastricht.
The idea is to create a building that conducts lightly; this effect will be obtained by lifting the construction. This will reinforce the light atmosphere since it will border the urban part and the greenbelt. This way, the visitor will be given a panoramic view of the surroundings. As a consequence of the lifting of the building, two extra façades are created where dynamism, or a fluent movement, will come into existence. Moreover, a light constructive concept out of steal will be created, where the steal craftsmanship will be a translation of a thread wrapped around the volume.
On the place where the thread makes a cross, i.e. the strongest point, the profiles, that carry the bearing surfaces, will be anchored. This results in a freedom of holding the bearing surfaces in a space without pillars. The light openings in the façades are built as an alternation of the coating with steal cassettes formally determined by the steal development.
Inside the building, the curve creates a dynamic space in the alternating exposition and also obtains an extrovert character. Somewhere in the mid, the external exposition is included in the building and is bordered by the external construction.
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