Brick Award 2014

The last remaining textile factory on Buda Island - an area destined to become the cultural heart of the city - has been transformed into studios and exhibition spaces for artists in residence. This large volume, situated in the middle of a city block, has been adapted through two main interventions:

The first hollows out a large void in the center of the building, bringing daylight deep into the vast floor plan. This pentagonal void houses a public staircase that gives access to a diverse range of spaces on four levels: a laboratory for manufacturing, multifunctional spaces of varying sizes and lighting conditions, music venues and a roof terrace. The biggest part of the structure is reused. Besides saving resources, the reuse allows for a large cultural building within a limited budget.

The second intervention adds an open pavilion as an entrance hall from the street. Built from the yellow brick discovered in the original interior, this pavilion becomes the new facade of the complex: the tip of the iceberg. The pavilion itself functions as an antechamber, giving a foretaste of events inside.

The Buda Art Centre is a new type of cultural space. Making reference to its past, it remains a workshop of production. The materials and details make it an approachable space for all kinds of activities and users. The warm palette of colours and the series of rather informal spaces invite people to appropriate and discover the building for their own production, exhibition, and casual interaction.

While the majority of the building is hidden from its surrounding context, the roof terrace provides a sudden confrontation with the city of Kortrijk. The building is a tool to look, not an object to look at. It avoids becoming an image but instead creates an environment.
(Text: 51N4E)




Architects: 51N4E

Project authors
51N4E partners: Johan Anrys, Freek Persyn, Peter Swinnen
51N4E team: Tine Cooreman, Aline Neirynck, Bob De Wispelaere, Karel Verstraeten, Jan Opdekamp, Joram Van den Brande, Marc-Achille Filliol, Chris Blackbee, Emmanuel Debroise

Client: City of Kortrijk / AGB Buda

Engineers:
Structural engineering: BAS / Dirk Jaspaert – Leuven, Belgium
Technical engineering: Studiebureau Boydens – Groot Bijgaarden, Belgium

Photographs:
Filip Dujardin - filipdujardin.be
Paul Steinbrück

Name of building in use: Budafabriek
Location: Kortrijk, Belgium
Programme: exhibition & event facilities, artists’ studios
Built surface: 4.240 m²
Budget: € 2.000.000
Design period: 2005 (competition) – 2007
Construction period: 2010 – 2012

„It is an old factory and the architects made interventions with modern architecture. This project used brick the way we often use brick in the northern countries: as a far-developed, industrial, modular, perfect building product. The masonry, the way of building it, suits this building with the perfection of the material. The result, however, is not a traditional or common one. The result is unique, because what you get is a brick that makes a fabric almost with the quality of silk, where the color nuances are the most striking feature. It makes a harmonious combination, in terms of both space and material, between the old and the new. I find it a very beautiful way of creating harmony and tension at the same time; it combines what seem to be opposites into a new harmony. What really made a big impression on me about this building is the combination of intelligence and sensitivity. I have the feeling that they have reached the maximum result by using the material and the design in such a sophisticated way.“