Maarten van Eyck

The project is situated in Tongeren, the oldest city in Belgium. The city is encircled for ¾ with a boulevard. Both ends are characterized by two buildings, The Velinx and the Moerenpoort. Here in the middle is the prison situated, just where the missing link is located. This connecting road is situated near the Motten. This is a lower part to the south edge of the city. The bad alluvial underground of the rivulet (Jeker), leads up to the underdeveloped part of the city. Here are sport infrastructure, social housing, beguinage, schools, prison,… located. My project takes the place of the actual prison of Tongeren. Because of its closed function, this building gives no surplus value to the neighbourhood.

The concept of my project, “FREE YOUR MIND”, contradicts the concept of the prison. It is designed in a way that there is a large interaction between the building and its public space in a way that there are several routes through the building. Each route has its own grade of accessibility.

“FREE YOUR MIND” is also an opposite in shape. The prison is a walled entity. The project is conceived as a typical courtyard building with specific well chosen transfixions to the surroundings. The prison is a place where the body is captured and the mind reduced. Opposite to that my project is an art centre, a place where mind and body get the freedom to create at the arts school and to interpret in the art museum, and get the freedom to explore a building with challenging borders between public and private spaces. 

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