Understanding, believing and dialogue. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo
16/02/2022.
[Hasselt] Belgium
metalocus, JAVIER ARIAS
metalocus, JAVIER ARIAS
After a long contest process, designed so that the understanding, believing and dialogue with the place permeated the participants, the winner was the Italian architect Francesca Torzo.
The Hasselt beguinage was founded in the 13th century, on the outskirts of the town of Hasselt, in the province of Limburg, Flemish region of Belgium. It was destroyed by the wars of religion and rebuilt within the walls in 1571. After the death of the last beguine, the houses were used to house the needy. The church was destroyed by bombing in 1944.
The Hasselt Beguinage is like a city within the city. The garden is enclosed by a wall of heterogeneous brick buildings, a resting place. Z33 is part of this continuous border, as a building made up of two: the existing museum from 1958 and its extension.
The Hasselt beguinage was founded in the 13th century, on the outskirts of the town of Hasselt, in the province of Limburg, Flemish region of Belgium. It was destroyed by the wars of religion and rebuilt within the walls in 1571. After the death of the last beguine, the houses were used to house the needy. The church was destroyed by bombing in 1944.
The Hasselt Beguinage is like a city within the city. The garden is enclosed by a wall of heterogeneous brick buildings, a resting place. Z33 is part of this continuous border, as a building made up of two: the existing museum from 1958 and its extension.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Olmo Peeters
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Olmo Peeters
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Olmo Peeters
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Olmo Peeters
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Olmo Peeters
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Olmo Peeters
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Olmo Peeters
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Olmo Peeters
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Olmo Peeters
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Olmo Peeters
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Olmo Peeters
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Francesca Torzo
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Francesca Torzo
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
Site plan. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Site plan, ground floor plan. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Ground floor plan. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
First floor plan. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Second floor plan. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Sections. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Sections. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Sections. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Sections. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Sections. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Elevations. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Ceramic details. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Construction detail. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Construction detail. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Construction detail, handmade. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Construction detail, handmade. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Watercolor. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Watercolor. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Model. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Model. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Model. Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini.
The Italian architect Francesca Torzo proposes a new connection with the past of the place, its existing structures, the materials, fitting with mastery, attention and patience, almost handmade, her proposal in the historic beguinage by sewing the exhibition room from the 50s, as well like the Jenever Museum.
The new Torzo building blends with the security of the site, its tranquility and the material density of the existing buildings: once the threshold has been crossed, the visitor is gradually led from the bustle of the city to another place through a courtyard with a tree and a fountain.
Torzo sees the relationship with the existing exhibition building as a marriage between Vleugel 58, with its direct vertical design, and the new Vleugel 19 building. The exhibition spaces in the old wing are all different: with or without light, large, small , a space with a curve, a gallery. The project continues this organization in the new building by adding new volumes: a tall tower, a wide hall, a tall and long corridor. The two buildings are different, but they complement each other and form a whole.
The new Torzo building blends with the security of the site, its tranquility and the material density of the existing buildings: once the threshold has been crossed, the visitor is gradually led from the bustle of the city to another place through a courtyard with a tree and a fountain.
Torzo sees the relationship with the existing exhibition building as a marriage between Vleugel 58, with its direct vertical design, and the new Vleugel 19 building. The exhibition spaces in the old wing are all different: with or without light, large, small , a space with a curve, a gallery. The project continues this organization in the new building by adding new volumes: a tall tower, a wide hall, a tall and long corridor. The two buildings are different, but they complement each other and form a whole.
Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture by Francesca Torzo. Photograph by Gion Balthasar von Albertini
Project description by Francesca Torzo
Z33 settles in continuity with the existing buildings around the béguinage, echoing the dual character of their facades, enclosed towards the street and open with windows’ filigrees towards the garden. The exhibition rooms and the secret gardens compose a spatial labyrinth, amalgaming memories of local passages with ones of foreign villas or palaces.
Hasselt béguinage is alike a city in the city. The garden is enclosed by a wall of heterogeneous brick buildings, a place of rest. Z33 is part of this continuous border, as one building made of two: the 1958 existing museum and its extension. Alike the other buildings surrounding the garden, the extension building disposes a long and almost blind brick wall towards the street, echoing Roman opus reticolatum, and displays a score of windows towards the garden. The new wing interior scenography alternates rooms and gardens, offering a plurality of views and parcours similarly to what happens in a city; here rooms are specific in size, proportion and natural lighting, different from the existing wing classical setting, which has been appropriated as an ideal “white cube”. The slender section of the thresholds between spaces do not reveal the real thickness of the walls, so that rooms belong one to another.
The process begun from observing the “cultural structure” of the place, meaning the permanencies that cannot be ascribed to a language or a form, though express the relationships between human constructions and a topography and among the constructions themselves. They seem to result from building gestures being repeated over centuries. Hence the strategy was simple: to build in continuity with the cultural structure of Hasselt béguinage, though with a different language and different material means.
The process started much earlier than the competition, making converge public actors in a common vision. The international competition was in three steps: 1st screening the teams economical and professional profile; 2nd presenting a text - no design yet - stating the attitude towards the historical context, the space for art and the process management; 3rd the design proposal. We proposed very early a radical redistribution of the budget, combining conventional ways of building with experimental ones. Two public tenders followed, with low budget. The awarded contractor started in June 2017 and ended in November 2019: 365 working days, within time and budget frames.
The budget for this ambitious public assignment was low - 7 million € for 4600 sqm (approx. 1500 €/sqm). So from the early stage of the competition, we proposed a screening of architectural details in scale 1:20 and of the installations arrangement strategies.
Clay, concrete, lime are all local materials with whom builders are familiar.
The new building is a simple concrete structure with non-exceptional spans, where experimentation is specifically and punctually chosen: the jointless load baring masonry façade, one cast in situ lacunar ceiling (beams section between 4-15 cm, height 160 cm), the cast in situ diamond ceiling and the integrated displaced ventilation. All non-conventional details have been developed during definitive design phase as preparation for the public tender.
The façade is the most significant example and it can be shortly described as a reinforced layered solid masonry wall, jointless and without cavity so that a brick wall may sound as a full one.
3 years of study, 68 brick colour tests, 20 mortar tests, 103 brick types, 34.000 bricks, 5 mm displacement, 3 mm tolerance, 2 man making bricks, 5 man building façade, (almost) infinite drawings.
More information
Architect
Design team
Marco Guerra, Riccardo Amarri, Pablo Brenas, Lorenzo Gatta, Liaohui Guo, Cyril Kamber, Besart Krasniqi, Antoine Lebot, Jovan Minic, Andrea Nardi, Anna Oliva, Anna Optiz, Costanza Passuello, Alessandro Pecci, Domenico Singha Pedroli, Nicola Torniamenti, Gion Von Albertini, Előd Zoltan Golicza.
Collaborators
Conzett Bronzini Partner (facade structural advisor).- Gianfranco Bronzini.
Lighting.- Ben Boving.
Petersen Tegl (brick advisor).- Christian A. Petersen.
Bekaert (reinforcement advisor).- Christian Vanneste.
Knauf (mortar advisor).- Mansour Marchouh.
Omnicol (mortar advisor).- Paul Van Erp.
Weber (pigmented mortar advisor).- Stephan Piquer.
Reynaers (window advisor).- Stephen Daems.
Imtech (air installations advisor and subcontractor).- Wilfried Bleus, Quirijn Jammaer.
Izé (iron and handles advisor).- Dave Bradshaw.
Lighting.- Ben Boving.
Petersen Tegl (brick advisor).- Christian A. Petersen.
Bekaert (reinforcement advisor).- Christian Vanneste.
Knauf (mortar advisor).- Mansour Marchouh.
Omnicol (mortar advisor).- Paul Van Erp.
Weber (pigmented mortar advisor).- Stephan Piquer.
Reynaers (window advisor).- Stephen Daems.
Imtech (air installations advisor and subcontractor).- Wilfried Bleus, Quirijn Jammaer.
Izé (iron and handles advisor).- Dave Bradshaw.
Client
Z33 and Provincie Limburg.
Contractor
THV Houben Belemco (contractor Houben).- Kristof Mutert.
THV Houben Belemco (contractor Belemco).- Michiel Wielockx.
THV Houben Belemco (contractor Belemco).- Michiel Wielockx.
Area
Total area.- 12282 m².
Usable floor area.- 4664 m².
Dates
2012-2017-2019. Opening.- March14 th, 2020.
Cost
1500 €/m².
Location
Z33 - House for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture. Bonnefantenstraat 1, 3500 Hasselt, Belgium.
LatLng.- (50.9325398, 5.339934).
LatLng.- (50.9325398, 5.339934).
Photography
Gion Balthasar von Albertini. Olmo Peeters.
Francesca Torzo
Francesca Torzo (1975 in Padova, Italy) established her own studio in Genova in 2008. She has studied architecture at the TU Delft, ETSAB Barcelona, AAM in Mendrisio, and the IUAV in Venice. She has been working for Peter Zumthor in Haldenstein and Bosshard Vaquer in Zurich and has been a teaching assistant for Atelier Bearth at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio in Switzerland. Since 2017 she is holding a professorship at the Bergen School of Architecture in Norway and in 2020 at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio.
Torzo has been part of the 16th architecture Biennale in Venice, Freespace curated by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara in 2018 and was appointed chairman of the Maarten Van Severen Foundation in Ghent between 2018 and 2019.
She received the WA Moira Gemmill prize in 2020. Her project for the extension of the Z33 in Hasselt has been awarded with the International Piranesi award in 2018, as well as with the Italian Architecture prize in 2020. The project has also been nominated for the Mies van der Rohe award of 2020.
The studio consists of a small international team of young architects with a core of few stable ones and a high turnover of the others. Collaborators are named project architect for individual assignments, but they are required to train knowledge and awareness of all projects running in the office. Such an approach calls for an honest and straightforward engagement. The choice of entrusting with the combination of individual responsibility with a common dialectic is grounded on the belief that thoughts need to be daily exposed to a critical process in order to achieve a shareable clarity.
The teaching and the academic research, the collaboration with builders and the design practice challenge and influence each other in the perspective of building a public discourse, which may support the awakening of curiosity for understanding our way of living and confidence in taking responsibility for it.
The studio has intentionally chosen for more than 10 years a defiladed position to gain the time and the necessary quietness to focus on the work.
The process of design starts for us from an understanding of the material constraints and of the cultural context where we are called to operate. The goal is that of formulating the primary spatial relations, which have to be preserved as a narrative through the complete process. We start from a kind of “nebula”, diffused yet made of atoms and molecules. We draw over and over chasing a vision of something that does not exist yet but that hosts the world we live in and its memory. This activity of collecting, hunting, and discerning demands patience and a sort of empathy with the contradictions of human life.
Torzo has been part of the 16th architecture Biennale in Venice, Freespace curated by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara in 2018 and was appointed chairman of the Maarten Van Severen Foundation in Ghent between 2018 and 2019.
She received the WA Moira Gemmill prize in 2020. Her project for the extension of the Z33 in Hasselt has been awarded with the International Piranesi award in 2018, as well as with the Italian Architecture prize in 2020. The project has also been nominated for the Mies van der Rohe award of 2020.
The studio consists of a small international team of young architects with a core of few stable ones and a high turnover of the others. Collaborators are named project architect for individual assignments, but they are required to train knowledge and awareness of all projects running in the office. Such an approach calls for an honest and straightforward engagement. The choice of entrusting with the combination of individual responsibility with a common dialectic is grounded on the belief that thoughts need to be daily exposed to a critical process in order to achieve a shareable clarity.
The teaching and the academic research, the collaboration with builders and the design practice challenge and influence each other in the perspective of building a public discourse, which may support the awakening of curiosity for understanding our way of living and confidence in taking responsibility for it.
The studio has intentionally chosen for more than 10 years a defiladed position to gain the time and the necessary quietness to focus on the work.
The process of design starts for us from an understanding of the material constraints and of the cultural context where we are called to operate. The goal is that of formulating the primary spatial relations, which have to be preserved as a narrative through the complete process. We start from a kind of “nebula”, diffused yet made of atoms and molecules. We draw over and over chasing a vision of something that does not exist yet but that hosts the world we live in and its memory. This activity of collecting, hunting, and discerning demands patience and a sort of empathy with the contradictions of human life.
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