Description of project by Architecten de Vylder Vinck Taillieu
An old, psychiatric clinic. Back then, a unique place, ahead of its time, given a clinic form as separate buildings. Every department its own ‘villa’, but united by the architecture. On top open green spaces in between. Together a nice ensemble.
Throughout time villa’s were abandoned. Destroyed one by one. Replaced by real typical hospital buildings. Only sign of their time and never part of the context.
Once again a villa is about to be demolished. First stripping started. A new director arrived and halted that. Knowing the villa could not cope any nowadays standard or regulation. Even though. An unexpected question was raised. Could it be something else? Could it lead to an other way of life.
A work-group with doctors and therapists and inhabitants was raised. A young curator balancing on the edge of architecture and psychiatry was invited to motorise the process. A competition was the outcome
Another way of program. Maybe another way of therapy. Maybe changing life.
The competition proposal had three different aims.
The first was to inscribe the villa again in its context amongst the other in the park. A simple idea on a white logia for each other building as the original villas all had one and this villa got one in it’s later life.
Secondly the villa itself was respected as it was found. Roof tiles were already lifted as the demolishing was yet started though halted. Staying as close with the found object was the aim.
All mineral material has been removed so the rough building could breath again. The ground level was replaced by pebbles so water could drain in. Windowsills were lowered to open it in all directions. The basement was opened to become an auditorium. A tree was planted. Old chimneys became a fire place. And greenhouses were introduced as new rooms.
A new place to meet. A new place to explore. To inspire. To inspire psychiatry.
Thirdly the competition proposal included a tall dollhouse size model openable and changeable.
A statement.
To say that it will never stop changing. The belief was and is there that this experiment leads to new understandings and by that to other experiments.
This project is not built. The building is the project.
The context is the material. The existing is the material. And no more. Brickwork and wooden floors and structures.
As the building was yet in its first stage of demolishing but also of its use in time needed to be repaired rather the restored. The craftsmen knitted in concrete blocks to repair the brickwork. No details were directed only ideas shared. Removed windowsills were replaced with concrete poured in a simple formwork. A blue sky day with white clouds leaded to paint on those shapes white.
Wooden floors will be replace gradually as time will affect. But maybe also since on-going different experiences due to different experiments. Greenhouses will be replaced. A small coffee bar introduced soon.
To initiate and motorise this ongoing experiment a summer school will be raised soon. The school will debate the project with every participant – director; doctors, inhabitants, occasional visitors – and aims to make changes at that very moment.
Avoided waste today. Saved space today. Longs for future even more.
Architecten de Vylder Vinck Taillieu was commissioned transformed a 19th century building, in the process of demolition, into a research outdoor space for a psychiatric centre, in the Flemish town of Melle, Belgium.
The project was carried out together with Bavo – a research group dealing with politics and architecture. The participatory process between Architecten de Vylder Vinck Taillieu, Bavo and doctors, management, staff and patients of the clinic, has led to a design that embodies the needs of the clinic’s users: a building that has no specific function, the project is the building itself. A place created with the wishes of the community.
More information
jo taillieu architecten. Architecture firm established by Jo Taillieu (1971). He is professor at EPFL (CH), director and manager of his own office, Jo Taillieu plays many parts yet he is first and foremost an architect. After working with different international architecture firms, Jo Taillieu founded his eponymous office in 2004, which he has been leading since. The practice evolved in 2009 to a collaboration with Jan De Vylder and Inge Vinck, with whom he lead the office architecten de vylder vinck taillieu (advvt) for a decade. In 2018 advvt won the Silver Lion for Promising Young Participant at the 16th Biennale of Venice and was one of the five finalists for the Mies van der Rohe Award 2019.
Next to the joint projects at architecten de vylder vinck taillieu, in 2019 the focus shifted back to its initial commitment, jo taillieu architecten (jta).
Knowledge of the practice, from conception to execution, is one of the strengths of the office. The genuine effort to execute a design and its realisation remains the fundamental concern. In this respect, jo taillieu architecten always strive to the ‘logic of construction’.
2004 – … jo taillieu architecten.
2010 – 2019 architecten de vylder vinck taillieu.
2008 – 2009 partner at Crepain Binst Architecture.
2007 – 2008 project collaborator at Project².
2001 – 2007 project manager at Stéphane Beel - Xaveer De Geyter architecten.
1997 – 2001 project manager at Stéphane Beel architecten.
1995 – 1996 collaborator at Maxwan architecten (NL).
Architecten JDVIV is an architecture studio led by Jan De Vylder (1968) and Inge Vinck (1973) with a solid track record of built work ranging from renovations of single-family homes and apartments to public and institutional buildings. They belong to a new generation of architects who have marked a true generational shift in Belgian architecture.
During the period 2009-2019, Jan De Vylder and Inge Vinck collaborated on various projects with the architect Jo Taillieu under the name architecten de vylder vinck taillieu (advvt).
They gained international recognition through several renovations carried out almost entirely in the Flemish city of Ghent: the Verzameld Werk gallery, the Twiggy store, and the 43, Rot-Ellen-Berg, and Rampelken houses.
His work wisely combines respect for existing structures with a lyrical understanding of architecture as bricolage, as a construction within constructions, like a set of Russian nesting dolls. His projects feature strange plays of transparency, reflection (through the use of reflective materials), irony (with the use of local materials and techniques), optical illusions, and the duplication and copying of existing buildings... all of which results in an extremely personal architecture.
Published on:
February 13, 2019
Cite:
"Interior landscape. From a ruin into a place. PC Caritas by Architecten de Vylder Vinck Taillieu" METALOCUS.
Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/interior-landscape-a-ruin-a-place-pc-caritas-architecten-de-vylder-vinck-taillieu>
ISSN 1139-6415
