PORTFOLIO
DAVID BERKVENS 2006-2011
contact
e-mail: david_berkvens@hotmail.com cellphone (Belgium): +32/495.425.138 cellphone (.................): ................................. adress: .............................................................
The idea for the cultural centre was to use its initials as basic form for the building. By doing so a new visual icon raises in the landscape and provides a meeting place for social activities, art and theatre. To become a ‘light’ building, the heavy concrete needed to be opaque. The opacity I tried to explore was not in the texturing but more in the use of existing concrete structures. By using plates in combination with walls it was possible to make open spaces in the building. These are considered as ‘corridors’ and create a dualism between in-and outside. The composition of plates and walls is a bit like Mondriaan’s paintings and generates a fluid space.
1 There are two walls on the extends (first pic.) The upper wall in the middle (1), is connected with the other wall in the middle (2) and the horizontal plates (3). This creates an extention of the wall, but one level higher. The passage (4) under it is hung up to this vertical plate(1) and generates an open space (5) whitout collumns on the level bellow.
CULTUREEL CENTRUM 1 3
2 4 5
The composition of plates and walls is a bit like Mondriaan’s paintings and generates a fluid space.
LEVEL ENTRANCE
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these collumns allow many light-transmission in the hall. The blocks prevents that the collumns will bend.
offices offices
meeting room
kitchen exposition room light and sound
Over heel de oppervlkate van de onderste C zijn kabels gespannen, deze dienen enerzijds om de stalen roosters aan op te hangen en anderzijds om het glas onderaan te kunnen dragen. (in aanvulling met een druksysteem) Deze kabels dienen ook als borstwering.
foyer
theatre/ party room
The walls of this room have acoustic concrete tiles
the floor is a construction with floorplates and beams. The space between those beams reduces weight and make it possible to fit pipes and technical installations.
There is a cable net all over the facade to hang up the terraces. At the lower level they also support the glass facade. Thanks to the net no other fences are needed. back
front
left side
raght side
isometric view 1
isometric view 2
Against the 21st century’s industrial reality?
2 Chateau Barrière l’industrie
les ramparts le musée Vesunna
la tour de Vésone
le château Barrière
les
l‘église St-Etienn
Once part of the defences of the Gallo-roman town of Périgueux, the Barrière Castle now in a way still fulfils its separating role. Industry has moved as close as possible to the city walls; the railway almost violates the centre’s boundaries. The city walls both invited this phenomenon (the train passes through the city’s moat itself!) but are at the same time the last stand against the 21st century’s industrial
reality. We could look at this paradox as a kind of love-hate relationship. This project searches for an answer without negating the current situation. It plays on the narrow line between retaining the originality of the ruins and integrating the new presence of the industry. The castle itself is left untouched, except for the necessary mainte-
nance works. Instead the project develops itself almost invisibly in the surroundings of the landscape, a minimal visual intervention. Material is used in a rather industrial way; conic steel structures carry the roof and form the support for the glass façade. A piercing of the city wall winks at the industrial site.
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storage plant room
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Plans + section AA’
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gently sloping entrance stairs RHS steel structure with glass second entrance, escape route light strip wink
The main idea is to see the castle through the structure without interfering with the environment. Steel structures hold the concrete ceilings. They are built out of triangles and refer to the threes in the environment.
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The inner cable net (1) pushes the floorplates (2) to the outside. These plates hang on to the outside vector-active structure (3). To prevent that the outside structure is pulled out there are stressed cables connected to every knod of the structure (horizontaly). The building exists out of five of this sections. This provides large inner
HIGH RISE
Grondplan verdiep met minste bruikbare oppervlakte
atria and clean floorsurfaces with not one single column. Elevators, staircases and technical shafts will allow disfunctional people and tourists to get everywhere in the building.
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Research and proposal for the improvement of efficiency of Brussels international airport.
63% 37%
VS build 57570 m²
unbuild 99910 m²
0m
167m
234m
268m
346m
± 1000m
± 1000m ± 600m
48% 52%
EVO LUTIE
DEFRAG MENT
VS 54080 m²
unbuild 49920 m²
build
23.8% ²
35% ²
13.5% 27.5% ²
²
± 307m ± 226m
comparison
surface
defragmentation
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schelde
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Oosterweel
“Het eilandje” is part of the harbour in antwerp and due to the expansion of the harbour this place is beïng transformed into a living hood. After some research I discovered that there was need for some cultural activities. But an ordinary theatre wouldn’t be good enough. This place lies in the turn of the river and gives very beautifull views over the city and the “Manhattan-like” industry. A special cultural centre will make the link between these two parts of the city. -
. plannen
. plannen
havenstad
havenstad
haven
foyer + offices
theatre
exposition building
youth hostel
city / harbour connection
This is a resume of my own projects I’ve been doing between 2006 and 2010.
Own projects
david berkvens
Garbage memorial tower 5 Day Design Workshop
GMT
We were briefed to design and construct a retaining wall that worked within the conceptual theme of plastic-OPACITY. We interpreted this idea of retention as an enabling spatial framework or mechanism that allows unusable and inhospitable wasteland sites, such as
scrapheaps or landfill zones usable to be converted into enjoyable and well-designed interior and exterior public space. Our ambition was to investigate the architectural, plastic and opaque potentiality of waste.
Main principle: A problematic garbage site is targeted. The garbage is partially cleared using a combination of waste fabrics (old towels, shopping bags, curtains etc) and a re-usable timber framework. This creates voids in the dump-site which are used as containers for the concrete pour. To create the interior formwork a further volume of waste is placed in the centre of each void. Concrete is poured in between the outside and inside waste volumes. This forms a 4-sided garbage retaining shell.
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Result:: A shell with an exterior surface of imprints deriving from the garbage, inside a space for storing the garbage is created. The elements are stackable and should be allowed to grow in height to create garbage-informed architectural space. This would clear entire dumpsites allowing accessibility for other purposes and use. The towers raise awareness of the problem of growing unusable wasteland sites and communicate garbage’s archeological quality. They also question the usabilty and potential of disregarded waste material. Within the prototypes produced, different materials were used for the wrapping and as garbage in order to create samples of different possible surfaces.
The eco-festival is organised by “het ecohuis�. In this building everybody can get information about current ecology stuff. The festival is to motivate the people to think about our nature, our environment,... Our assignment whas to design some tents and a bar. Instead of using those classic white festival tents we tought about making some recyclable tents, totaly made out of cardboard.
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eco
8 I designed the scable for the “Lancia food Lounge”. The scable is a convertable table wich means that it can transform from 4 “tête à tête” tables to one big table wich
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provides place up to 12 people. The big table is hang up on the roof and comes down guided by cables. An ordinary winch is used to move it.
stereo forza
KOLOMMEN We maken een snede doorheen alle kolommen en extruderen deze naar binnen. Deze extrusie wordt vervolgens zwart geschilderd zoals de rest van de muren. Op deze manier gaat het plafond als het ware zweven en krijgt de club een minde lage en massieve indruk. Zo ontstaan er eigenlijk minitoogjes waar je je drankje kan neerzetten zodat je handen vrij zijn om je volledig te kunnen laten gaan.
1. Wit geschilderde kolommen
2. Snede
3. Extusie naar binnen
4. Zwart schilderen
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The former ‘stereo sushi’, a discotheque located in the basement of an ancient warehouse needed to be refurbished. The challenge was to create a more open space with higher roofs which we achieved by making cuttings in the existing columns and by painting them in the same colour as the walls, by doing this the roof started to float. As the the new name was ‘STERO FORZA’ and the theme was more Italian we chose for an dynamic optical wall made out of reflectors based on old Italian movies. In the early evening the discotheque is a restaurant and the wall is like a static painting but when the place converts into the discotheque the wall becomes dynamic by the use of the existing laser-lights. The DJ-booth is mobile and can be plugged in at several points in the space to obtain a clear plan and a flexible usage for different events.
practiceCARLOS
ARROYO AQUITECTOS
Practices at Carlos Arroyo arquitectos, Madrid The following proyects are from Carlos Arroyo arquitectos, but the images shown where made by myself. I’ve been working in the office from February 2008 until june 2009
CARLOS ARROYO AQUITECTOS practice
m w d dilbeek
Academy for music, word and dance, Dilbeek The academy’s form come’s from the skyline of it’s surroundings and has a dynamic facade inspired on a painting of Alfons Hoppenbrouwers. My participation in the proyect whas making images for the client and an exhibition. I also helped designing the facade, foyer and other parts in the building by making scale models and renderings. The building has been called the ‘accordeon proyect’ not only for it’s shape but also because it had to increase and decrease for budgetary reasons.
oostcampus
Town hall and administrative centre, Oostkamp
I participated with the design competition and after winning it we did some research of inlatable formwork for these clouds. The office- clusters provide a high grade of flexibility and we thought about sustainability by using an onion system, this means that the building contains various layers of thermal comfort.
The community bought a former coca-cola factory in which we made a landscape of white clouds. We recycled the factory but we didn’t wanted an industrial work environment.
A) Rivas, Madrid
more projects
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This is a proyect containing 119 houses with a high density. It’s a complex for families with modern thoughts which we have been developping for ‘ING real estate’ in Rivas Ecopolis. I’ve been making presentation images for the client and helped with the material research of the facades and interiors.
B) Benquerencia, Toledo Benquerencia is a small industrial town situated near Toledo. The municipality asked us to make a research to improving it’s living conditions and qualities. The town is linear and lies next to the railway in a grey and dull environment. We started by making proposals before doing a research, this has the advantage to make a more to the point research afterwards. Our proposals where about safety, color use, alternative energy and agriculture.
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C) Ribaroja, Valencia A house for a young couple, she is an artist and he loves is oldtimer cars. We made two proposals, a innovative blownup bubble house and this very rational house made out of hangar materials.
practiceVan
Belle & Medina architecten
Practices at Van Belle & Medina architecten, Antwerp The following images are from Van Belle & Medina architecten, but the images shown where made by myself. I’ve been working in the office for a competition during two months.
Competition for a social housing project for elderly in Lommel, Belgium. The project took form just by making a lot of scale models. Playing with different scales going from 1/500 for the environmental design to 1/20 for the detailing of the facade. This smaller scale gives the opportunity to work with real materials like wood as you can see in the picture below, you can touch it and feel the ambient as if it would have been built allready. Van Belle en Medina won the competition in January 2010.
practice
OMGEVING
Practices at OMGEVING, Antwerp OMGEVING is a multidisciplinary studio doing projects in architecture, planning, urbanism and landscape. I’ve been working on competitions and social housing projects from March 2010 until April 2011.
Town hall, Lille Belgium
OMGEVING
A ‘wrap’ connects the public service, the social house and the council room on the upper floor with views to the four different towns related to the town hall. A very rational grid makes it possible to divide the building in various compartments for a flexible use. The council room can operate on it’s own and can be rented.
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practice
Due to the lack of an open city square we decided to implement the building on the border of the site to create an integrated square/park for the inhabitants.
Offices, Antwerp Belgium The upper floor of a 19Th century building is going to be reformed into offices. To respect the historical building we have decided to add lose elements that are placed at random into the space. The elements are boxes and frameworks to highlight the various aspects inside and out outside the building. The space is considered as a white paper colored by some furniture and the ‘light-cannons’ on the roof. roof
more projects
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B A Competition for the refurbishment of a social housing block from the sixties.
B Punctual interventions in a social neigbourhood of 9 houses with apparments and duplexes.
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all images are produced by David Berkvens and are copyright protected. For reproduction or using the images please contact david_berkvens@hotmail.com