Theaterplein by Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò
23/04/2015.
[Antwerp] Belgium
metalocus, BRANLY ERNESTO PÉREZ, ALEX DURO
metalocus, BRANLY ERNESTO PÉREZ, ALEX DURO
An incredible example of how to build the city through architecture. This project consist on a wide half-covered square which seeks to negotiate with the adjacent theatre matching their scales, as we can clearly see with the project's section.
Exterior view. Theaterplein by Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò. Photography © Teresa Cos.
View from the square. Theaterplein by Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò. Photography © Teresa Cos.
View from the square. Theaterplein by Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò. Photography © Teresa Cos.
Exterior view, domestic market. Theaterplein by Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò. Photography © Teresa Cos.
Exterior view of the stairs. Theaterplein by Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò. Photography © Teresa Cos.
Exterior view. Theaterplein by Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò. Photography © Teresa Cos.
View from the terrace. Theaterplein by Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò. Photography © Teresa Cos.
Site Plant. Theaterplein by Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò. Image © Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò.
Elevation. Theaterplein by Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò. Image © Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò.
Model. Theaterplein by Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò. Image © Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò.
Maqueta. Theaterplein por Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò. Imagen © Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò.
View from the square. Theaterplein by Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò. Photography © Teresa Cos.
Architects Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò organize the intervention in several spaces, where they combine different kind of urban furnitures, paths and accessible slopes for disabled.
The intervention leaves open to participation a void within the city, perfectly measured, where the users will be the ones who will provide the final structure. In this sense it is to be highlighted the beautiful image that the architects send us where we can see how a complete temporary market uses the square during a time, settling their stand between the slim steel structure which supports the roof.
Indeed, the roof is also permeable, and it allows the light day and the rain go through it, avoiding a dark and isolated space. Big stairs climb almost until reaching the roof, and it is the one which provides us with so stunning and beautiful images as the photograph by Teresa Cos previously commented.
Description of the project by Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò
Some few principal moves organize the design of Theater Square subdividing it in four main recognizable spaces: the garden in the south, the covered square in the north, the mall along Oudevaartplaats, the equipped space along Meistraat.
The design of the garden: a landscape made of three levels, three main colors, three volumes. The level of the existing trees forms the first and highest volume, a new playable ground the second and finally flowers and couvre-sol the third. The garden is an important infiltration zone where the rainwater, collected from Theater Square, can infiltrate. People sitting on the terraces of the southern façade enjoy through its transparencies the spectacle of the square till the terraces of the two theatres cafeterias on the opposite side.
The design of the square is based on the elimination of the existing barriers. Usable by everyone, a comfortable space, easy functioning, the square is defined by a unique colored concrete surface, 2% sloping, connecting the theatre entrances to the garden and Nieuwstad. A minimum resistance path, i.e. accessible to disables, crosses diagonally the square from the Frankrijklei and the bus and pre-metro stops to the theatres and the Meir.
A part of the square is covered. The theatre doesn’t need a new façade. The existing facade is a honest brutalist architecture of the seventies; what is needed is not to leave it floating in the void of a unmeasured square. The cover has the role of inventing a relation and a shared proportion between the theatre and the public space.
Supported by slim steel columns, incorporating lights and raining water, it will allow new views from and to the theatre façade. The virtual surface of the elongated new safety stairs along the Meistraat and the cover form a virtual cube that confronts itself with the scale of the theatre.
The design of the borders characterises each border of the square in a different way. Along Maria Pijpelincxstraat and Oudevaartplaats, paved in kasseien (reuse of existing pavement), all the existing trees are maintained and many others are added without a decrease of parking places. Starting from Maria Pijpelincxstraat towards the south, a ramp and a series of large steps give an easy access to the cafeterias and the square; after it a curbed slope, accessible for market trucks, gives an easy access to the theatre and square. The west-southern border becomes a bench. Along the southern border the height of the bench decreases till zero as the level of the ground increases. Steps, gradients and differences in levels are the realm of the skaters that are the day-frequenters of the square.
Along the Meistraat the design does not touch the eastern side. On the western side, along the theatre, it provides a place for school buses, loading and unloading. A series of stairs and ramps connect the street, the square and the underground parking. An informal sport field and a bicycle parking are located on the south-east corner of the square.
The existing safety stairs are demolished and substituted by new stairs organizing in a better way the way out of the different levels of the theatres. A first group of stairs is located along Maria Pijpelincxstraat; a second group gives rise to a light metal structure on the square: a virtual limit on the eastern side. This structure can be used in many ways: f.i. as a technical scene for an open air theatre.
Texto.- Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò.
CREDITS. DATA SHEET.-
Architects.- Studio Bernardo Secchi & Paola Viganò
Competition.- Matteo Ballarin, Nicla Dattomo, Uberto degli Uberti, Steven Geeraert, Emanuel Giannotti, Günter Pusch, Fabio Vanin.
Collaborator.- Igenieria estructural: (BAS) Dirk Jaspaert with Marc De Kooning; Detalles tecnicos: ARA) Dries Beys.
Executive project and construction.- Uberto degli Uberti, Steven Geeraert, Emanuel Giannotti, Günter Pusch, Kasumi Yoshida
Surface.- 30,200.00 sqm.
Budget.- 8,700,000 €.
Completation.- Septiembre 2009.
Location.- Antwerp, Belgium.
Awards.- Premio "Thuis in de stad" al mejor espacio público en Bélgica, 2008. Primer lugar; Seleccionado para "Medaglia d’oro dell’Architettura" en la Triennale de Milan, Italia 2009; Seleccionado para "European Prize for Urban Public Space 2010" 2010.
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BERNARDO SECCHI
Bernardo Secchi (Milan, 1934-2014). Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning at the University IUAV of Venezia. From 1974 up to 1984 he taught at the Milan Politechnic, where he was Dean from 1976 to 1982 and, since 1984, at the University IUAV. He has been professor at the École d'Architecture in Geneva (EAUG) and has taught courses at the University of Leuven (KUL), at ETH Zurich, at the Institut d' Urbanisme de Paris and at the Ecole d’Architecture de Bretagne (Rennes). In 2004 he received an honorary degree from the University Mendès France in Grenoble and the Special Jury Prize of the Grand Prix d'Urbanisme conferred by the French Minister de l'Équipement. In 2010 he received an honorary degree from the University of Hasselt – Belgium and he was awarded the title of Chévalier de l'Ordre National de la Légion d'honneur. In 2014 he was awarded the nomination “Socio de Honor” Honorary memberof the Club de Debates Urbanos of Madrid – Spain.He is a member of the board of the European Postgraduate Master in Urbanism (EMU), a joint diploma among Università IUAV di Venezia, KU Leuven, TU Delft,UPC Barcelona and holds conferences and courses in the major schools of architecture in Europe.
He participated in the study of an inter-municipal plan for Milan (1960-63); worked together with Giuseppe Samonà on the development of the Trento regional plan (1966), and (with Paolo Ceccarelli) on the Aosta Valley plan (1972).
He participated in the drafting of the new General Plan of Madrid (1984), drew up the plans of Jesi (1984-1987), Siena (1986-1990) , Abano (1991-1992), Bergamo (1994) and the plans of the provinces of Pescara and La Spezia. He was commissioned studies for the recovery plan of Garduna - Jolo, Prato (1988-1992), the detailed plan of the IP oil refinery in La Spezia (1988), for resetting the industrial area of Sécheron in Geneva (1989). In 1990 won the competition to design the areas south of the city of Kortrijk (Hoog Kortrijk, Belgium), where he had been invited along with other European architects and planners.
He has participated as a consultant to urban planning and won the " Ecopolis " (project of a new city in Ukraine - group directed by Vittorio Gregotti, 1993). He won in partnership, the competition "city of the Tiber in Rome" (1993). It was "urbaniste conseil" (1996) de l'Établissement public Euromediterranée for the design of the central part and the harbour area of Marseille and consultant (1997-1998) of the Port of Genoa for the design of the masterplan of the harbour. He chaired the Commission for the preparation of Guidelines for Planning and the Environment at the Ministry of the Environment.
It is part of the group founder and editor of "Archivio di Studi urbani e regionali". Between 1982 and 1996 he was part of Casabella and from 1984 to 1990 he directed Urbanistica. He has organized numerous design competitions, including the “Bicocca Project " in Milan, "Edifici Mondo” competition for the recovery of the old town of Salerno and has served on numerous juries for competitions in architecture and urban planning (Milan, Bicocca; Antwerp, Staad aan de Stroom; Bologna, Central Station; Geneva, Palais des Nations; Nice, Nouvelle Marie; Lyon, Grand prix des formations; Paris, the Grand Prix d'urbanisme et de l'art urbain; VI biennial of Spanish Architecture).
In 1990 he founded Studio with Paola Viganò.
PAOLA VIGANÒ
Paola Viganò (Sondrio, May 29, 1961), architect and urbanist, is Full Professor of Urbanism and Urban Design at the Università IUAV di Venezia and coordinator of the program in Urbanism in the “Architecture, City and Design” PhD. She has recently been appointed Professor for Urban Theory and Urban Design at the EPFL. She graduated in Architecture in 1987, in 1989 she became assistant in the course of Urbanism held by Bernardo Secchi at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura of Venice. From 1991 to 1994 she attended the PhD program in Architectural Design at IUAV. In 1994 she obtained the research doctorate in Architectural and Urban Composition.
Since 1998 she is Associate professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic of Bari until 2001 and later at IUAV. In 2000 and subsequently, from 2005 to 2009 she is guest professor at KU Leuven, Belgium (Faculty of Applied Sciences, department of urban planning and architecture). During the period 2003-2004 she was guest professor at EPFL (École Polytechnique de Lausanne), and later in Aarhus, Denmark and Louvain-la-Neuve Belgium.
She is a member of the faculty of the European Postgraduate Master in Urbanism (EMU - IUAV Venice, KU Leuven, TU Delft , UPC Barcelona) and coordinator of the Venice program. She is also part of the scientific committee of the International PhD Seminars of the same schools. In 2008 she is Associate Researcher at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal. Since 2013 she is professor at EPFL (Lausanne) where she directs the Laboratory in Urbanism (lab-U). In 2012 and 2013 she is a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Design (Harvard University).
She was awarded the Grand Prix de l’Urbanisme in 2013. In 1988 she participated in the project for the recovery of the former refinery IP in La Spezia in 1989 has been selected (4th prize) in the international competition for the recovery of the concentration camp Fossoli. That same year she participated in the competition for the development of Hoog Kortrijk (winner project, with B. Secchi). In 1998 she won the international competition as group leader " Urban Park Areas Falck " in Sesto San Giovanni , and in 2000 was selected for the international competition " Urban Park Tarello " in Brescia . She designed a masterplan for a residential project in Sondrio, realizing two villas and a house in Valtellina (included in Architetti interpretano la casa di abitazione italiana, Biblos, Cittadella, 2005).
She has organized several design competitions, including "Edifici Mondo” competition for the recovery of the old town of Salerno and has served on numerous juries for competitions in architecture and urban planning. She lectures at major schools of architecture internationally.
In 1990 she founded Studio together with Bernardo Secchi.
