Cadavre exquis, a concept derived back from surrealist literature. It is an expression used for a poem written by various writers. However its underlying structure is strictly defined from the beginning, the final outcome is left unknown. Its meaning can therefore change over time and will keep evolving after different inputs from different angles. This concept can be easily translated to the question of adaptability in architecture and urbanism by proposing large scale architectural interventions which will function as catalysts for all kinds of urban processes. These interventions will impose a structural generic system which will guide further evolution.
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© Thibaut Gevers . Published on February 22, 2014.
It’s a delicate search for balance between what is defined and what is left open. A structure with too much freedom will lose all its identity, while a strong rigid structure restricts further adaptability.
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© Thibaut Gevers . Published on February 22, 2014.
The desire to “doubt, satisfy and change” makes it possible to think about architecture in a radical way. The possibility of architecture as a power, is that it has a value to change. Architecture does not consist of a finished building, but rather has the ability to create change in a changing world. Anticipating architecture is the conviction in a changing architecture designed for perpetual change. The role of the architect should be an agent of change, with the most important task to anticipate on the new requirements and needs and new possibilities of the community as a whole. The starting point is that a building must have the ability to be changed, not only on the drawing, but also on the section and the framework.
© Thibaut Gevers . Published on February 22, 2014.
The building must offer the people to create their freedom, without barriers on ecological demands or rules. The same sentence is valued for urbanism , where we have to think out of the box, we need to be able to think about the impossible. Local interactions have to support global thinking. Act local, think global.
© Thibaut Gevers . Published on February 22, 2014.
The possibility of architecture as a power, is that it has a value to change. We believed that Ciney could be a new hub in Belgium’s periphery landscape. Inspired by the post-industrial remains, that surrounded the action site, we thought of reconverting them and using their construction principals towards a new meaning. We see the benefits of these industrial constructions, not only as an integrated catalyser in the city but also as a new way to conceptualize adaptable living and working in an ecological way.
© Thibaut Gevers . Published on February 22, 2014.
The project creates in the surrounding of the old warehouses a new cluster of cheap and effective structures based on the large structures, in an economic principal which enables us to create a big building potential with little bearing points providing freedom of interior development and expandability. This is an anticipating architecture, convinced to create an architectural design for perpetual change towards the needs of her users. In the same way urbanism should focus on the fluxes of people and connection and not lead to a standstill situation. To get this goal we were convinced of the idea of lifting up the layer of the railways. With this gesture we solved the traffic situation and provided a new public spaces for the inhabitants making it a place to be.
© Thibaut Gevers . Published on February 22, 2014.
In collaboration with Christophe Van Raemdonck & Niels Vanvaerenbergh.