Roger Kengen
TROONE. Academie voor Bouwkunst (The Netherlands)
Musicstream on the Island – Antwerp 2003
The history of Antwerp goes back for centuries. The harbour has, in every stage of history, influence of shaping the city, and through the ages it increased. The harbourquarter “the Island” was shaped in the 16thcentury, named after the docks that surrounded the Island. In the 20th century,City and harbour separated from each other by an explosion of activities on the harbour and moved up to the north ,with the Island (the heart of the harbour) as a disconsolate landscape in between.
Starting my program with an urban vision for the site, by connecting the Island and the city, with programs as working and living, activities that always play a roll in the history of the Island. The urban vision and the preference to keep buildings from destruction (by saving their memories), brougt me to an empty hangar situated on the Quayside of the river Schelde, ready for a new program.
With the fascinations of music (intensity) and the romantic movement in art (desire and Melancholy) the hangar regenerates with a music program. Investigation and stock-taking the site and the city (new urban plans) shows that a music program is needful there, yet necessary. The plan reshaped into a city-landscape, wherein the ’musicstream’ breathes new life into the hangar and restores its character. With an artificial ‘roof-scape’ between the designed concert hall and hangar a new zone has formed, with foldings and ramps turned the hangar into a free public space (and functions) with a music program underneath it.
The designed ‘building’ with its concerthalls and public spaces works as a stream for people, the new frontier-zone connecting a new Island park with the city. This artificial landscape has its own boundless world, wherein the ‘building’ speaks to our imagination, where dream and fantasy stimulated us.
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