Before leaving on summer holiday we submitted this competition proposal for a new flexible music hall for the town of Dessel.
Located in the centre of Dessel just off the central square the site offers a lot of potential. The programs consists mainly of a large flexible music hall, a local music school, a nursery, a café and an apartment for the concierge.
The design combines the several programmatic elements in one single building, making a bold gesture along the central square and fitting in with the row houses at the same time. The building envelope is inspired on the neighboring buildings and is simply extruded along the site. Café and nursery sit at both ends of the building: the café looking out over the street, the nursery enjoying the nearby garden. The music hall forms the heart of the building and is a flexible space able to accommodate numerous scenario’s. The music school is situated below the music hall.
The entire building is clad with brass metal sheeting echoing the golden instruments at use within the building. This skin is perforated randomly enabling daylight to penetrate through the building.
Play!

The existing surroundings of this office complex are in a bad shape. MikeViktorViktor was asked to present a strategy to enhance this ‘rest’ space.
The strategy is threefold. First, what’s left of the existing garden along the perimeter is transformed into a green buffer. By intensifying this area no more further maintenance is needed. Second, the ever expanding parking area is organized in a number of parking islands along two axes running through the site. Third, a new green space is created in the centre. Defined by two rows of Magnolia’s and an undulating grass surface this space works as an outdoor room linking the different entrances. This room is the new face of the complex and can accommodate all kinds of outdoor activities. I love the RAC now…

brief: 8 apartments for elderly people and 4 social apartments for family’s, located in a residential neighbourhood in a small town in the outskirts of Antwerp, the client is interested in sustainability, the plot is large and a second phase is possible.

We push the ambition of the client a bit further and propose a green building, following the ‘passive house’ standards. Result is a compact, rational building with thick walls. We envisage a wrinkled pigmented concrete facade echoing our inhabitants natural patine. The units are organized in such a way that an interesting communal space emerges. Instead of the usual narrow, dark corridor we are able to open up and enrich this space. Residents can get together here and play some cards or read the newspaper, overlooking the church tower and the nearby school.

Parasites often work in two ways. On the one hand they are intruders, hanging on to another existing structure and taking advantage of it. On the other hand parasites can also act complementary and contribute to the functioning of the existing structure.
For this house in West Malle we propose to make such a parasite. We want to add something with its own intrinsic qualities but that complements the existing at the same time. Since the house doesn’t relate to the attractive garden and the organization of the different functions in the house doesn’t really work our parasite has the ambition to solve this. Breeding on the existing but giving back essential living quality …

The Bredabaan Merksem, once a glorious and uptown shopping street, has unfortunately lost much of its charm nowadays. However, the authorities wish to kiss this import artery back to life.
In this closed competition MikeViktorViktor proposes an elaborated strategy to deal with this phenomenon of decaying public space. Besides important traffic problems one of the main issues is that the entire area lacks identity and character. Therefore we present a new continuous tiling stretching along the boulevard and spreading across the central square. Like vectors the stones guide the way and even light up at night. On the central square a new roof structure is added, mediating between church and town hall. Acting as a outdoor auditorium, a bus stop, a pavilion, a sculpture this structure symbolizes the new ambition of Merksem.

The ambition is to make a structure with magnificent views over the city as well as a green and sustainable tower with ideal environments for the animals housed within.
The tower is conceived as a stacking of blocks, each with its own spatial structure but nevertheless linked by a continuous structural logic. The program is divided over seven blocks. The foot of the tower is made of concrete silos referring to the former industrial buildings and containing all supplies and waste products (water, food, earth, manure, etc). At grade an entrance hall is cut out of this concrete structure where visitors take the elevator to the top where the adventure begins. The top floor contains the actual entrance and a 360º panorama deck. Two different routes descend from here.
The ‘neck’ of the tower is reserved for the birds. A large sky-cage is designed souring 30m high with two routes spiralling down and offering great views and close contact with the birds. Cafeteria and staff functions are situated underneath the birds’ cage. Both levels are designed as a hypostyle hall with elegant columns supporting the upper levels. The cafeteria is extended with an outdoor terrace and observation deck. Back inside views are given on the cave structure beneath.
The Cave structure is the second large animal habitat, a complex three-dimensional space with hills and canyons that provides an optimal landscape for the animals. Visitors can wonder about and enjoy diverse views. The lowest level of this cave structure forms the vaulted ceiling of the auditorium. MUS and auditorium are stacked and form another block. Here large spaces are designed for performances, concerts, lectures, gatherings, celebrations, …
The last block on our trip downwards is the third animal environment. Spread over three levels the smaller animals are housed in a series of stacked cages with public walkways crossing through.
Travelling through the zoo becomes an experience thanks to the differentiated landscapes and jaw dropping views.

MikeViktorViktor was asked to do a study for three bridges in Puurs for Stramien architects. The design is part of a greater renewal of the town’s public space. Question is what to do with three existing bridges? Which extra layer can be added to these typical infrastructural elements?

In the woods near Antwerp we are designing a private residence. The site is located on the corner of two roads and has a large garden. The plan is a perfect square, 10.80 × 10.80m. On the ground floor large portions of the volume are cut out to blend indoor and outdoor space.
On the first floor the plan is composed out of nine rooms, two of these are ‘empty’: a winter garden and the double height space of the living room.
The façade will be composed out of Belgian Blue Stone, a dark blue-grey color with a dry milled type finish which gives the stone a satin smooth appearance.
This is no ordinary white villa in the suburbs.

We’re adding a new volume to this charming villa in Schoten containing a living room opening up to the garden and the terrace on ground level and a master bedroom hoovering above. We’re investigating different materials for the facade such as brickwork patterns and wood cladding to give this new volume a distinct character. On the one hand respecting the existing villa, on the other hand creating a new identity.

The planning of a new viaduct over the railway tracks creates a new starting point for the station area of Haacht. Along with the new infrastructure the aim is to make this area into a transferium, where one changes modes of transportation. Our aim was to create a new public space on boths sides of the railroad. Lacking identity, the station area is now extended to include additional program and functions on the square. The public space is thus collecting it’s identity from all activities around. We turned the assignment to include a ‘green’ parking lot for 300 cars upside down and proposed an undulating landscape which ‘could’ incorporate parking spaces. We favor a landscape instead of asphalt. As the counting crows would sing; “they paved paradise to put up a parking lot”.

In this competition for a daycare centre for 112 children we really took the opportunity to create something exiting and fresh. Instead of organizing all the rooms along a central corridor we created a large multifunctional central hall where all the rooms would directly connect to. In this way we could eliminate most of the necessary circulation area and combine these m^2^ into a more useful space.
The classrooms or “living-rooms” are organized in pairs and revolve around the central courtyard. The whole plan is conceived like a panopticon because of safety and functional reasons.
The appearance of the building is joyful and colorful, the double layered facade consists out of several materials that together form a kaleidoscopic image. This facade is repeated on the inside central hall. Here lights radiates through like a medieval leaded light.

Grand Army Plaza is transformed into a qualitative urban space. The hazardous traffic is pushed outwards to create space. In this space a new form is introduced: a square building framing a garden and generating a range of uses along its perimeter.
The courtyard, accessible from the four sides of the square, contains the essence of Olmsted’s landscape: the beautiful Bailey fountain and its surrounding green. A secret garden is created where people can spend time in a cultivated oasis of trees and flowers under the relaxing sound of falling water. The building acts as a multi functional structure composed out of a series of vaulted rooms. The structure is meant to outlive any kind of program. Parts can be used to support the popular Greenmarket, other parts can contain small shops or cafés, yet other parts can provide space for lavatories.
The existing landscape is concentrated in green islands.

The site of the youth and sports centre needs a new structure. The design aims at providing an intrinsic plan for the site starting from the current problems laid out by the client. Instead of providing a summary of small solutions for the existing problems a new logic is formulated. A logic that not only solves the current problems but also attempts to be much more.

MikeViktorViktor was invited to make a design for a soccer canteen for the local team KSKL Ternat. Our ambition was to make an extremely functional building combined with a strong evocative power. The building should radiate towards the surroundings but also be inviting to the soccer players and their fans. In short, the building had to become a soccer machine.

The design has two levels. The upper level, situated 2 meters above field level, houses the public functions: canteen with bar and kitchen, press room and lavatories. Underneath this level and half sunken in the ground the program for the players is organized: dressing rooms, lavatories, storage space. Thus the building has two very distinct atmospheres: the ‘catacombs’ from where the players rise to the arena and on top of this the ‘loges’ with splendid views for the public.

A finishing of profiled steel wraps around the façade like a skin and reinforces the image of a strange object in the fields. Glazed parts are protected with nets, a typical element in the world of soccer that provides protection without disturbing the views.

The assignment of creating a residential environment of 150 single-family housing units and 100 apartments and simultaneously integrating these into the forest, forces us to take position: how to deal with this valuable woodland and create a lively environment suitable to different population groups.
We concentrate the necessary infrastructure and housing to the point of a single strip, running parallel to the Pampushout Dreef and passing under the north-south running coastal road. The high-rise apartments are all combined into one tower, which is also accessed by this 2km long service road. This turns all apartments and houses into a coherent figure with a single address:New Holland Drive 1-250.
This 2 km long Drive is the essential carrier of meaning when explaining the idea of ‘living in the woodland’. Since it serves not just as a clearing in the forest but also as the access road for all the housing units; one is living in the woods simply because of the approach.

Europan 9 – Almere, The Netherlands

The ambition was not to create a race to the top, but to provide several distinct experiences of the vertical differences that exist in a forest. Therefore two elements were added: the table and the panorama pavilion. The table creates an intermediate pause on the way upward. This gives the opportunity to stay in the crest of the trees. The panorama pavilion floats above the crests, offering the best view in all directions. Thus the route upwards becomes an exploration through all sections of the forest.

Every day a dress rehearsal takes place. Often several times a day.
“Which pair of shoes matches this dress?” “Or shall I just wear a jeans?”

This research has been conducted at the Berlage Institute, Rotterdam, and focuses on the spacial and architectural development of Brussels as the Capital of Europe. It presents strategic interventions for the European Quarter and other parts of Brussels. This study is part of a larger research on the topic of Capital Cities at the beginning of the 21st century and investigates the relationship between ‘urban form’, political institutions and their public representation.

Without doubt, Brussels as the Capital of Europe is a formidable case study of a geopolitical entity that has surpassed the nation-state in terms of sheer size and meaning. The studio has developed an urban vision that combines the different urban realities and political actors of Brussels in such a way that they become all together legible and consistent with the idea of Brussels as the Capital of Europe.

A number of sites were chosen to form constituent parts of an urban composition that represent the idea of Europe within Brussels. The urban forms change the specific context in which they are embedded, while simultaneously becoming a representation of urbanity itself.

Berlage Instituut Research
Participants: Bart Melort; Bernardina Borra; Hiromi Haruki; Weerapat Chokedeetaweeanan; Joachim Declerck; Cristina; Garcia Fontan; Alexa Nürnberger; Konstantinos Pantazis; Marc Ryan; Heng Shi; Pier Paolo Tamburelli; Martino Tattara; Dubravka Vranic; Niklas Veelken; Thomas Weiss; Zhi Yi Yang.


More information here

Located at the crossroads of two of the city’s important streets – one ceremonial, the other a prime mobility street – Frasheri Park becomes a key component of a diverse ensemble of central Tirana public spaces. Part green park, part urban plaza, Frasheri Park establishes a striking setting for contemporary city life with the most basic and humble ingredients. The intensions of the design are to put the existing monuments of the Frasheri Brothers in a new landscape topography of hills — ‘a forest clad in green’ with a terra cotta interior – that maximizes existing mature vegetation on site. The plan creates an intimate green core and a more urban plaza in relation to the main boulevard. The hills offer a variety of spatial settings for play and contemplation with different planting themes.

see what others are saying – unfortunately only in Latvian …

The building is literally cut in two parts by a public canyon. The first part contains tee boxes on different levels and consists of an open structure with floors and columns. The second part houses the other golf functions (front desk, club house, restaurant, dressing rooms, pro shop) and the conference functions. The inner façade towards the canyon is opened up in order to reinforce the relation between both parts.

The pebble is composed out of several triangular floor slabs stacked on top of each other and rounded off in the corners. On all sides tee boxes are laid out along the perimeter of each floor. In this way a strong rhythm of columns and tee boxes in between is defined around the entire building.
Large openings are cut out of the volume so that daylight can penetrate through the building making it possible to spread out the other functions on every level.

This typology pushes the relationship between golf and conference to the extreme. The tee box part is built as an open structure of floors and columns. The conference part is situated underground and in front of the tee box structure. The ball is actually played across the underground conference part and makes this the most compact typology.

This rehabilitation and design strategy builds upon the foundations of the existing landscape and park elements, carefully highlighting and reinforcing its most promising potentials while selectively editing its problematic areas and setting a new structure in motion to continue to evolve into the future.

Grand Lake Park is five parks in one. As a more broadly differentiated landscape, Grand Lake Park contains 5 distinct character areas that together form a balanced and coherent whole: ‘The Domestic Core’, ‘Forest meets Water’, ‘The Active Forest’, ‘Deep Nature’ and ‘Copa-Tirana’. The new park becomes clearly structured for visitors to access and experience all of its parts, each an invitation to explore the living, dynamic evolution of distinct landscapes over time.

Client: Municipality of Tirana
Design Team: Bart Melort, Marc Ryan, Alexa Nürnberger, Federico Rodriguez, Uli Franzel, Valbona Koçi & Adelina Greca
Tirana Summer Academy, Sponsored by the GTZ, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit

By reconfiguring the latent potentials of the site’s existing topography to maximize spatial experiences, the park’s strategy of intense concentration of differentiated landscapes and public spaces mingles garden ‘rooms’ amongst public institutions, mixing landscape and cultural experiences. The park is as much a ‘heart’ for the city as it is a green ‘lung’. The park concentrates a series of differentiated spaces that are bound together through a central public promenade that unifies a complex site and clearly expresses the idea of one park composed of many garden spaces.

Designed as a flexible framework, the park is conceived to evolve over time according to the changing needs, opportunities and dreams of the city. The park becomes a central condenser of urban and landscape experiences where a citizen can drift into parallel passages through the city, encountering natural and cultural events in a range of spaces that accommodate everything from large social gatherings to intimate escapes.

Client: Municipality of Tirana, in collaboration with Berlage Institute, Rotterdam
Design team: Bart Melort, Bernardina Borra, Alexa Nürnberger, Marc Ryan, Martino Tattara en Lu Zhang
Under the supervision of Edi Rama, Mayor of Tirana
Altin Gagani, Ariela Kushi, Elia Zenghelis and Pier Vittorio Aureli

credits: boemtjak