Design and creation of a staircase to the exhibition path, re-using and transforming materials present in the area
Our intervention focused on a symbolic and physical action, namely the creation of an access staircase that would allow visitors to access the exhibition itinerary directly from the first floor of the building through a hole in the perimeter wall.
The abandoned Broelschool in the centre of Kortrijk hosted SQM: The Quantified Home. During Biennale Interieur 2014, visitors have had the last opportunity to explore this building before it is demolished to make way for the construction of apartments. To initiate the transition of the building and to critically examine the implications of this looming condition of domesticity, we invited ten young designers and architects from different countries to the Broelschool Demolition Workshop.
The Broelschool Demolition project is part of a series of actions carried out in 2014 in the city of Kortijk, part of the Biennale Interieur curated by Joseph Grima and part of a profound analysis of the state of the art of the real estate market, therefore our homes. What perhaps makes sense to add to our introduction is the fact that the area where the workshop took place was being prepared for imminent demolition to make way for new housing. An interesting condition therefore both for the possibilities of intervention in the space and also as a political gesture by setting up an exhibition inside this school that spoke of contemporary problems linked to the real estate market, historical facts, mortgages, data, cost per square meter, etc.
The project was therefore an opportunity for us to experiment with a possible circular action within a work area, that is, to ensure that the construction site was also our mine at the same time, and therefore the place where we could find everyone the materials necessary to build the access staircase to the exhibition. The bicycle shelter inside the courtyard was in fact our starting point
The object was made of syncated steel beams, therefore a very solid and resistant structure, fixed with bolts. The first intervention was therefore a collective action, as a group we dismantled the elements that made up this structure one by one with the aim of then reassembling them in a different composition
During the workshop, the participants collectively designed and built a path through the building and created a series of graphical and physical interventions on the architecture of the school. Their work reveals hidden aspects of the original construction and cuts shortcuts and slices through the walls, leaving traces of a timeline of the home. Using the building itself as a source of reusable material, the workshop predates the destruction and celebrates the transition of the school into its future.
To access the exhibition it was necessary to cut the pre-perimetral wall with an angled cut. it was a load-bearing wall, so the cut was reinforced with a series of steel beams found inside the building
This hole allowed the end of the main beams to be supported, which were then covered with painted wooden boards.
The technique used was therefore the same with which it was designed and built, i.e. the use of bolts and some welding, the various elements were then fixed together to form 2 continuous and structural elements of approximately 9 meters in length, to connect the ground floor with the first floor were then joined and supported by 2 vertical elements that helped support the weight.
A protective railing was then built on this structure by reusing and transforming a series of railings present in the building and wooden steps were then inserted
This is a photo taken by Delfino S.L. Studio on the evening of the inauguration. The staircase ushered hundreds of people into the school for the last time before being dismantled and demolished along with the rest of the building.
This project was an opportunity for us and the beginning of research on the theme of circularity and on what has become for us a transformative approach to architecture, the place where the project is carried out is also the mine, all the materials must be "extracted" from there, working on a double track therefore: not generating new waste, and at the same time not requiring new extraction materials. All this by eliminating the cost of purchasing materials to invest in people's work
Space Caviar
Alessandro Mason, Raphal Coutin, Joan Vellve
Biennale Interieur 2014, Kortrjik, Belgium
Delfino Sisto Legnani
Raphael Coutin