Jan Vanduffel
Building Regulations. UHasselt (Belgium)
FLANDERS 2020: THE CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS
The combination of a lack of restrictive landscape structures and a long tradition of spatial policies that stimulate dispersed urban development has led to the almost total urbanization of the Flemish territory. This spatial organisation of Flanders has proven to be cost-inefficient and unsustainable. Moreover, the current planning principles and spatial policies are unable to cope with the many societal challenges we will be facing in the near future, such as mobility problems, water management, energy transition, demographic change, transition of the economy etc.
Today on the one hand, we still take up six hectares of additional open space every single day. On the other hand there is a clear trend of urban densification in the city and village centres, in allotments, next to approach roads and on empty plots in the ubiquitous ribbon development. This ad-hoc densification which is presented as a countermove and a solution, paradoxically often even increases the fragmentation of the territory.
OPEN SPACE AND COLLECTIVITY AS DRIVING FORCES BEHIND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
This project is based on the full acceptance of the existing fragmented urban condition as a given. However, this project does not accept the current mindset regarding development that focuses mainly on built solutions for individual needs. Rather than starting from the building form and the individual spatial needs, this project proposes to change this mentality by starting from the open space and collective needs.
BUILDING THE REGULATIONS
In order to realize this ambition the project proposes, as a statement, to effectively build up the building regulations. By doing this, certain qualities regarding open space and the collective are assured, while at the same time allowing for many different possible interpretations and infills.
SCHUNCK cannot guarantee the correctness of content and expression. The participants themselves are responsible for their entries. The copyright of the projects underlies to the authors, any reproduction or use of the shown material is strictly forbidden.