to design takes talent to program takes genius!
MAS-men
martedì 17 ottobre 2006
conservatoire royale de musique de bruxelles
the project required to boldly approach the issue of designing a new important public space such as the Royal School of Music.
the site is a very peculiar area of bruxelles: le Mont des Arts, the museum area.
the urban environment is a mixture of various sizes and styles of buildings which all together dwell on the gentle slope of a hill. from the Place Royale on top, the area slopes down through an amorphous space -we has been chosen as the project site- to a big formal and rigorous square, place de la biblioteque nationale, that then leads to the closely knitted urban fabric of the medieval city centr ending in the Grand Platz the famous gothic central square of bruxelles.
attentive to these relations the project develops a delicate aspect of urban insertion which was at the same time, the main inspiration and challenge.
the site chosen sits shapeless and character-less between the place royale and the place de la biblioteque nationale, and at the side of the royal museum. this "Being in Between", not having a strong presence, almost only being the back facade of all this "important" surroundings gives this site a peculiar mix of freedon and restriction which it was decided to work with.
the definition of two tension lines helped organize a urban strategy and subsequently the design of the buildings.
the first priority was to re-qualify the area, therefore the closure to vehicular traffic and strucutre of a new pedestrian viability have been the two strong urban guidelines. this sparkled the design of the main building which took on the double faced issue of public presence on the site. firstly the visual presence at the urban scale, the building as an insertion into the city matrix; a confrontation with the scale and the strenght of the surroundings presences. secondly the physical presence at the scale of the body, the building tath defines the space for human activity but as interior and as exterior.
this pushed the process towards a research of a combination of materials that could give a double feeling of sternght and lightness. the choice of simple -almost rough- concrete works and a glass screen facade was developed to balance the two issues at hand. the aim was to achieve a gentle and conforting building at the human scale and a lighter but more imposing building at urban level.
simple construction methods and attention to energy, accessibility and ecological impact susequently strctured the approach to the design development.
pv ¶ 2:39 PM
the project required to boldly approach the issue of designing a new important public space such as the Royal School of Music.
the site is a very peculiar area of bruxelles: le Mont des Arts, the museum area.
the urban environment is a mixture of various sizes and styles of buildings which all together dwell on the gentle slope of a hill. from the Place Royale on top, the area slopes down through an amorphous space -we has been chosen as the project site- to a big formal and rigorous square, place de la biblioteque nationale, that then leads to the closely knitted urban fabric of the medieval city centr ending in the Grand Platz the famous gothic central square of bruxelles.
attentive to these relations the project develops a delicate aspect of urban insertion which was at the same time, the main inspiration and challenge.
the site chosen sits shapeless and character-less between the place royale and the place de la biblioteque nationale, and at the side of the royal museum. this "Being in Between", not having a strong presence, almost only being the back facade of all this "important" surroundings gives this site a peculiar mix of freedon and restriction which it was decided to work with.
the definition of two tension lines helped organize a urban strategy and subsequently the design of the buildings.
the first priority was to re-qualify the area, therefore the closure to vehicular traffic and strucutre of a new pedestrian viability have been the two strong urban guidelines. this sparkled the design of the main building which took on the double faced issue of public presence on the site. firstly the visual presence at the urban scale, the building as an insertion into the city matrix; a confrontation with the scale and the strenght of the surroundings presences. secondly the physical presence at the scale of the body, the building tath defines the space for human activity but as interior and as exterior.
this pushed the process towards a research of a combination of materials that could give a double feeling of sternght and lightness. the choice of simple -almost rough- concrete works and a glass screen facade was developed to balance the two issues at hand. the aim was to achieve a gentle and conforting building at the human scale and a lighter but more imposing building at urban level.
simple construction methods and attention to energy, accessibility and ecological impact susequently strctured the approach to the design development.
pv ¶ 2:39 PM