| Study at: | St. Lucas Gent, Belgium |
| Year: | 1995 |
| Project: | Study project for a congressexpo at the Ninhoofse Poort in Brussels |
| The site: Ninhoofse Poort-Brussel
- Site analyse: open-closeness of the site and surroundings. - The openness of the site does not restrict to the site itself but extends onto the open spaces at the other side of the canal and the open spaces of the canal itself. To realise a binding between the 2 opposite sides of the canal, it was opted to extend the square behind the Ninhoofse Poort onto the canal. |
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| Transverse on this, the building is situated so that underneath the auditorium-block, an exterior foyer is created. The building is situated in such a way that it embraces the existing openness of the site and more or less closes up towards the ring and adjoining buildings. Though, by passing the square-extension into the building, there remains a certain connection with the ring and the Ninhoofse Poort on one hand, and the opposite side of the canal on the other hand. The ring is brought partly underground, underneath the square-extension, where the cars coming from the Ninhoofse steenweg connect. Public transportation remains on city-level with stops for bus, tram and taxi at the exterior-foyer, under the auditorium-block. | ||||
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The building is situated in such a manner that, coming from the South, one experiences the large-scale-building with a view on the total length of the building. Because of the transparency of the building, one can see the yellow auditorium-volumes inside, so that it is immediately clear what kind of building is presented here. |  |
Coming from the other side, one has visual sights underneath the auditorium-block onto the exterior foyer. | |
| From the exterior foyer, a ramp forms as well the entrance, as well the interior-foyer onto the counter-vestiaire. At the same level, behind this, the administration is situated. Above this part: all the telecommunication (fax, telephone,..) and program-bulletin-area with seating places. This area is an extension of the interior-foyer, with a lookout on it. |  |
Next to the ramp forming the foyer, there are 2 smaller ramps. One going down to the parking, and the other giving a direct connection, underneath the square-extension, with the other side of the building, where the restaurant, cafeteria and hotel are situated. For this part, two direct entrances are foreseen: one from the waterside and the other from above, from the open-space-extension of the exterior foyer. |  |
The entire building 'floats' above an open-air-parking at -7m from city-level at one side, and above an open-space-area at the other side. Constructively seen, above the parking, the building manifests itself as a pedestal with lots of columns at close distance, while above the open-space-are, a more floating effect is sought with larger columns at greater distance so that the auditorium-block 'floats' above the exterior-foyer and the open-space-area. The meeting rooms are stuck at the underside of the auditorium-block to emphasize this floating effect. |