Huub Donkers
Le Bleu du Ciel. Academie van Bouwkunst Maastricht (Netherlands)
... An existing space may outlive it's original purpose and the raison deter which determines it's forms, functions and structures; it may thus in a sense become vacant, and susceptible of being diverted, reappropriated and put to a use quite different from it's initial one.
* Henry Lefebvre _ La production de space
Le Blue du Ciel, traces of Brussels
Brussels, metropolis, the European and Belgian capital, with its Flemish and Wallonian region, 19 municipalities, districts, streets, neighborhoods with endless diversity, with more than 150 nationalities. Brussels is a metropolis divided into an upper and lower city, in which there are large differences in social classes.
In modern times, the architecture made a strong mark on this metropolis. At the time of King Leopold II (1865-1909), planning ideas with uncompromising interventions, grids and structures where imposed upon the existing urban fabric. It was within the vision of a genuine city. All these interventions were at the expense of the lower social classes, that lived mostly in the lower city. The architecture introduces the Brussels of the grand gesture, the Brussels of 'the diver'.
As a counter-movement to this approach, I went searching for another Brussels, the other city, that of la drive (Situationists International). With this point of view I cross the urban fabric, finding other ways it reveals itself. La drive is a trial, a circuit of routes and public spaces, within the habitat of mankind, constantly in motion. This is the Brussels of surrealism, Brussels of 'the runner'.
The plan positions itself within a vacuum, a void in the city center around the Ninove Gate at the junction of the inner ring and the Antwerp-Charleroi canal. A duel has been created. It is the battle between planner and genius loci, the diver versus runner. By making three incisions in the landscape, the context is opened for a new filling of urban elements like square, street and monument. I provide this area with a renewed validity within its urban context. Strongly entwined with the genius loci and the context of the modern city a plan emerges with a critical view on the contemporary urban landscape.
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