Tim de Munck
House of Memory for Learning. UHasselt (Belgium)
In our society the educational system can to be reduced to a system of success or failure, grading and obligation. However, the most valuable lessons in life are often learned outside of school. The project reflects the original Greek meaning of the word school; a place for leisure, where learning is free. This is where learning from each other, as equals, takes place. The city, its inhabitants and its public space form a school of learning, thus providing a counterbalance to today's institutional approach. A place that revolves around “learning” rather than “teaching”.
This project investigates how a “House of Memory” can respond to these needs by offering a place to anyone who in one way or another thinks about what tomorrow should be like. Creating images of the future starts with looking at the present and learning from the past. As an innovative programme, the House of Memory tries to combine the different aspects related to memory. It becomes a place where saving, making and learning come together in three themes: Inspiring, Producing and Presenting.
The location is the marl quarry of ENCI in Maastricht. The studio proposes the development of a “Micro City” in between industry and the artificial landscape, acting as a mediator for these two worlds.
Three main concepts shape the project. Firstly, an adventurous route connects to all the complex levels of the context. The route takes passer-by and user to squares via streets and alleys. Over, in between and along, the route takes us up and down. Secondly, the route creates an underneath space that functions as a shadow side, an underworld. Lastly, the ambition to go against institutionalization triggers a spatial concept of turning the building inside out, creating stand-alone functions with facades as columns of knowledge.
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