PC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu

PC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu
PC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - Facade, Windows, Beam
© Filip Dujardin

PC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - BeamPC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - Windows, FacadePC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - Brick, Facade, Beam, WindowsPC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - Chair, Table, Windows, Brick, Facade, Beam, ArchPC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - More Images+ 21

PC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - Windows, Facade
© Filip Dujardin

Text description provided by the architects. An open square was expected.

A specific place was unexpected. What was to be expected.

A first observation.

PC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - Brick, Facade, Beam, Windows
© Filip Dujardin

Change is inevitable. Healthcare changes. The change in care already changed the campus so much. And the campus will change even more when more changes in care occur. What already changed on campus, was likely the right thing at the time. Likely. What will change to the campus tomorrow, will need to be the right thing too. Without question. But after that much change , it is clear that changes today cannot happen on their own. And no longer by their own.

PC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - Chair, Table, Windows, Brick, Facade, Beam, Arch
© Filip Dujardin

One thing is sure: the campus used to be a real campus. With a specific identity, and yet so much different identities. Buildings vis-à- vis – not buildings. A garden. A park. Green.

PC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - Brick, Windows, Facade, Arch
© Filip Dujardin

And every building the size of a house. A large house, but still a house.With rooms. And bricks, and a sloped roof. The garden was filled with houses. A park with rooms.

PC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - Windows, Brick, Facade
© Filip Dujardin

Every house had, or still has, a specific element to define the house. The white loggia. Or almost every house. The loggia as a door between the building and the garden. As an open and welcoming doorway. A doorway to linger in. To stay.

Sketch 02

Today, the campus still shows what the campus used to be. At the same time, the campus shows how the changes to the campus – the new buildings – do not seem to consider the campus to be a campus. Which the old buildings still try.

PC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - Windows
© Filip Dujardin

Anymore. Still not today – but maybe in a moment they can, unexpectedly.But this does not explain why those changes – the new buildings – do not consider what was already there. Those changes are there by their own. On their own. Nothing more.

PC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - Beam
© Filip Dujardin

If today, changes in care will change the campus again, it will not be without considering the campus as such. The idea of the campus will be considered – with care.

Not only by employing the new, but also by employing what is still there. The houses.

PC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - Brick, Column, Arch
© Filip Dujardin

Jozef

Sint-Jozef is one of those houses. A nice house. A good house. But no longer a house which can still be a home for care today. So, Jozef is retiring. Surely, Jozef needs to make room. For a square. An open square. Open space for open activities. Care is allowed to desire open space for open activities today. The question is clear. The question is understood. Care changes, and Jozef cannot follow anymore.

Plan 00

But does this mean that Jozef needs to make room? Gone? Demolished? Is that the only way to make room for change?

A different question poses itself.

How can Jozef change to make room for changing expectations. It seems impossible. A house is not a square.

Yet the question should be thought through.

PC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - Image 19 of 26
© Filip Dujardin

The idea of an encounter should be considered. What this means. What this requires. Is it a square that is needed – as such? Or is it a collection of desires, intentions and expectations to find a space outside, where encounters in its many different forms can and may take place?

If an encounter in its many different forms can and may take place – in a square as place – would the square be enough? Can it be more – different?

To dismantle Jozef into a square – in many different forms. A place in many different forms. Open, and yet still a house.

Elevation mirror

Maybe like this. No roof. Or at least, in some parts. In other parts, a roof of glass. Most of it open, then, except for a few rooms. Wunderkammers – rooms of wonder. A royal greenhouse. An enclosed garden. A house which gives a garden a home.

That simple, but that complex too.

A square was the question, a range of possibilities was answered with. Rooms that make room for different kinds of care. Without question.

PC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - Beam
© Filip Dujardin

Loggia

And then those beautiful loggia’s. Again and again. Welcoming doorways. Not only of Jozef, but of all those houses.

But now, with Jozef, slightly bigger. Slightly higher. And even a second one. Jozef as Janus.Jozef as – open to all sides.

Plan 01

The idea of the loggia, in all those houses. As an open doorway between every house and the garden. The park. The campus. Between the intimate house and the open world.

And maybe even between the houses. Here and there a wandering loggia. Loggia’s that wander, and give wandering meaning. And later on, perhaps in the new buildings too. Which will wander along.

PC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - Facade, Beam
© Filip Dujardin

Ambition

Care changes. Which inspires its context.But context is already there. And could inspire care.Jozef as an inspiration for a changing care.Care as an inspiration for a changing Jozef.

Jozef as an unexpected result. A changing care, but not without Jozef. With Jozef. As a context for a new care. As inspiration. And not as something to be left behind.

PC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - Stairs, Brick, Windows, Facade
© Filip Dujardin

Unexpected, but basic. Without technology. Without comfort. But with possibilities. By reading the context differently, and giving a different context as result. Maybe just that, maybe just enough.

From a very basic reading to a future possibility of what care can be, although then again in an unexpected, different idea.

PC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu - Stairs, Handrail
© Filip Dujardin

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Project location

Address:Melle, Belgium

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
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Cite: "PC CARITAS / architecten de vylder vinck taillieu" 12 May 2017. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/871034/pc-caritas-architecten-de-vylder-vinck-taillieu> ISSN 0719-8884

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