Mathies Curinckx
Fragments of collectivity. UHasselt (Belgium)
The former garden city of Zwartberg-Noord, once developed as a planned mining cité, today in a state of gradual fragmentation. The original residential fabric based on rhythmic urban patterns and collective in-between spaces has been overwritten for decades by individual extensions, garden sheds, driveways and fences. The dwelling has become an isolated object on a parceled island. What was intended as shared space has disappeared beneath layers of paving and fragmentation.
How can reclaiming the structural essence of the garden city lead to a reorientation of dwelling?
What are we willing to share?
This research is not a restoration of a nostalgic past, but an attempt to re-ground the act of living. Not through reduction, but by reassigning meaning to space. The private plot is limited to what it truly requires, while the released space is shaped into a generous, shared form that evolves through intermediate structures and collective spaces. Thus emerges a fine-grained network that roots the individual within the collective, exploring new forms of shared ownership.
A repetitive shared structure with different configurational possibilities finds its way into the various residential ‘enclaves’. Solidly set by the contractor, adaptable by the resident.
Its further development refers to the post-war building culture of the neighborhood. Concrete slabs, columns, pavers, and gravel are carefully harvested and reworked into new components. This creates a material language that feels familiar, yet remains open to transformation.
The design of the in-between space connects to the vegetation structure of the heatland, Opglabekerzavel. Species that naturally occur here or contribute to the local ecological dynamics are used. Each addition strengthens the local ecosystem and connects the in-between space to biodiversity. In this way, space is not only shared between residents, but also with the landscape itself.
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