ARCHITECT IN PROGRESS
Currently student in the KULeuven International Master of Architecture (Ghent, Belgium), I present in this portfolio my previous works and experiences as an intern, a student, and a traveller. After I graduated from my B.A. three years ago, I started an architectural journey through Eurasia. UCL University had taught me a first academic view of architecture which allowed me to develop a personal and critical mind. I could blossom in my own creative development, discovering other cultures and new points of view while traveling and working around the world : here and there, we can feel the growing generation rethinking our ways of living, our ways of building. I feel inspired by these “slowing down” creators, considering the art of building as an art of being close to the people, to their culture, to their environment, to their well-being. This design movement think up sustainable solutions, using natural resources within short circuits. I believe in innovative patterns in the design process: transdisciplinarity is an answer to the complexity of our modernity. My wish is to take part in this intellectual synergy which breaks new grounds, committed to a moving so-
Juan Thibaut de Maisières
ciety facing new challenges within a cultural, environmental, economic, and social sustainability.
juan.thibaut@gmail.com
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Faculty of Architecture - LOCI UCL, Bruxelles, Belgium
Architect in Progress Eurasia
De Visscher et Associés Studio Bruxelles, Belgium
Woodworking studio J-P. Cuomo Luang Prabang, Laos
International Master of Architecture KULeuven - Camus Ghent
Bachelor in Architecture ;
Architectural journey ;
Internship
Internship;
Master in Architecture;
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09
Private teacher in Mechanics of Structures
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10
Independant projects
Competition
Elephant Conservation Center
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2011 - 2014
2014 - 2015
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11
04
2015
2016
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International competitions
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2016 - ...
IN THE CITY, TREES AND TRACKS Traces left by a railway network
01 From orderline to Threshold Sensing
and mediating seemingly juxtaposed lands-
capes between a lost railway track at
Hemiksem
KULeuven International Master of Architecture / Design Studio / 1st semester 2016 / Guided by: prof.dr.arch. Marc Dujardin
Let’s talk about the possibility of a more open representation of public space, acknowledging the fragmentary nature of our cities. The public space is not only the organized, ordered, structured place where people gather “in the formal way”. This project aims to to discuss about the extension of the term “public space” to a more complex definition by discussing about one type of space that we see every day, usually without paying any attention to it… Terrain vague / Spaces of uncertainty / Second-hand space
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LIVING THE EDGES Subtle trespassing to mediate the borderline by turning it to a threshold
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At the edges of an industrial site, boarding a housing street, perpendicular to the main road leading to the city... How to deal with such a fragile and pristine space in-between, keeping its character and giving quality to its environment.
The community plaza The shelter The guardian
The idea is to make space available for people and their projects that would otherwise be inaccessible due to the rents that are too high.
By opening and closing tants can use the space shed, as an exhibition hall, space, or as a small studio
the as as on
pannels, inhabia private garden a working private the second floor...
Acting as a mental ‘watch tower’, the guardian aims to keep the cutural and natural landscapes in balance. Its relation to the nature area below is distant by its massive walls with few openings. The nature is observed, but to touch it, one needs to leave the protection of the guardian’s wall...
The ting Still sing
train is coming. This plaza becomes the starpoint for an excursion into the natural area. belonging to the city, but already trespasthe broderline, crossing the railway track.
02 A trade of Knowledge The future rural school of Morocco
KULeuven International Master of Architecture / Design Studio / 2nd semester 2016 / Guided by: Laurens Bekemans
The story of this engine started when one Moroccan industrial designer, Laraki, decided to make a 100% Moroccan made car to show the world what Moroccan industry is capable of. Lacking energy, resources, and money, he placed a Mercedes V12 engine in that car. The brand new Laraki ended to be a half German product, and couldn’t be entirely made in Morocco. Eric van Hove, a Belgian artist installed in Marrakech, transformed the story. He imported a Mercedes V12 engine in Morocco and dismantled. While travelling through Morocco, he gave the 300 pieces to different craftsmen, asking them to reproduce theirs identically with their own craft techniques. He reassembled the engine perfectly, and showed the world what Moroccan handicraft is capable of.
There are 3 million craftsmen in Morocco, representing 20% of the population, and yet, they remain absent of the Laraki’s story. Their work is more and more devaluated, and handicraft becomes a sheep lost behind modernity. By reassembling the most complex and advanced technology that Europe can produce, a V12 engine, Eric van Hove shows that craftsmen have their place in modern Morocco, they don’t have anything to prove anymore, they can move forward and be entirely part of the Moroccan society. This project aims to show that handicraft is not just an activity left for the touristic Moroccan Medina’s, but has a real place in society, present in remote areas as well. The future rural school is, to my eyes, a space for the cultural and material heritage to blossom and evolve. A know-how to be shared and exchanged. Rural areas, by their natural independence, are the reservoirs of knowledge ready to be traded.
The ecole ibrahim roudani is located in Idou Ali, Sidi Abdellah o Belaid on an intersection about 90 km east of Sidi Ifni. Instead of being part of the structure of a village centre, the school was apparently built within reach of multiple small communities. It currently consists of 7 loosely arranged one storey buildings of roughly the same size. Each of them seems to fulfil one function (classroom, administration, sanitation). Working along a road in a desert area brings our focus on a macro scale: going from point A to point B, passing by an oasis on the way, a gas station, a tea shop, a peeing stop, a well to drink water from. Ibrahim Roudani School might be that service station. A school as a landmark in driver’s mind, a place to remember and to gather for travellers, nomads. Morocco was for a long time a trade route for merchants buying salt in the Mediteranea, and gold in southern Sahara (Ghana, Nigeria,...). The country was an exchange platform, culturaly influenced by all the goods and people transiting. Morocco developed its handicraft along these trading routes. Sidi Abdallah Ou Belaid is situated on a secundary road probably mostly used by local merchants. By being separated from the village, the school might have the quality of an oasis in the middle of the desert. Even though the road is far from being a principal trade route, the Ibrahim Rouhani school, because of its situation, might have the quality of an exchange platform: a trade of knowledge. While camels and merchants were stopping in small Nzalas to rest, drink water, or to exchange goods with other travellers, the people of Tiznit province could stop on their way to enjoy shadow, food, tank service, in a very special place.
Isometric exploded Spaces are shared between core users and secondary users. The building is a production site, it works as a machine, with a stock, a production hall, and smaller workshop areas.
PREVAILING
WIND
BUFFER
BUFFER
ZONE
POTABLE
PREVAILING
ZONE
RAIN WATER WATER
WIND
STORAGE STORAGE
BUFFER
BUFFER
STORAGE
ZONE
ZONE
DRIVERS TOURISTS COMMUTERS
PREVAILING
WIND
PREVAILING
WIND
POTABLE
BUFFER
ZONE
BUFFER
ZONE
STUDENTS TEACHERS
RAIN WATER WATER
VILLAGERS
VILLAGERS
Isometric alive BUFFER
ZONE
BUFFER
ZONE
STORAGE
The school is part of the landscape. The roofs are used as walking paths, for the student or the villagers. Cars and bikes can easily access the workshop areas to be repaired. STORAGE
STORAGE
CORE USERS
SECONDARY USERS
DRIVERS TOURISTS COMMUTERS
DRIVERS TOURISTS COMMUTERS
DINING
HALL
LIBRARY
RAIN WATER
POTABLE
WATER
POTABLE
WATER
THEORY
RAIN WATER TEA ROOM FUEL STUDENTS TEACHERS
STORAGE
VILLAGERS
STATION
STOCK/SHOP WELDING
ZONE
VILLAGERS
STORAGE STORAGE
TEXTILE WORKSHOP
STORAGE
STORAGE
STORAGE
AUTOMECHANIC
WORKSHOP
WELDING SECONDARY USERS
DRIVERS TOURISTS COMMUTERS
DRIVERS TOURISTS
ZONE
CORE USERS
SECONDARY USERS
INTERACTION
CORE USERS
CLASSROOM
ÂŤMaking a stone construction means
building a quarry for the next generationÂť
Gilles Perraudin
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The stone as a material for the future 1. The chain of the material is very short. Less money and less energy invested in processing the material 2. No added chemical elements. No cement, no painting. This makes a sane and healthy atmosphere. Purely natural. No degradation of soil.
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210
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105
Isometric drawing
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footings natural stones masonry
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steel profiles stone slabs
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Detailed section scale 1:50 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
reinforced concrete footing pedestal wall - natural stone embedded in concrete etancheity polished screed flooring drain steel IPE 260 stone slab 100*1050*2100 natural stone 2100*1050*520
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3 2 1
03 Integrated Cultural Centre Building integration
project
KULeuven International Master of Architecture / Building Integration / 1st semester 2016 / Team: A.Witdouck,
+3
E.Lancriet, K.Zareba (Presented drawings from myself)
The exercise consisted in bringing an initial unfinished project to the quality of integrated structure, ventilation system, equipement, services, and electricity. The structural concept became the root of the project: nine empty columns support the five layers of cultural activities, provide hot water and electricity, and ensure the good circulation of aire in the building. A concrete core ensures the stability of the building, and houses all the services. My task was the elaboration the structural concept and its detailing. 0
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CULTURAL
A
2. B
C
A
B
C
KU LEUVEN – LUCA Faculty of Architecture, Campus Ghent
COMMUNITY CENTRE
Master of Architecture Maig12_Building Technology
E Exhibition . Workshop . Books . LecturesD. Restauration
3.
F Zareba, Eline G Lanckriet, Anton Witdouck, Juan Thibaut By Kamila
D E
F
G
CULTURAL
COMMUNITY CENTRE
Exhibition . Workshop . Books . Lectures . Restauration
KU LEUVEN – LUCA Faculty of Architecture, Campus Ghent Master of Architecture Maig12_Building Technology
By Kamila Zareba, Eline Lanckriet, Anton Witdouck, Juan Thibaut
1 2 1
3000 m³/h
3000 m³/h
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3
1800 m³/h
1800 m³/h
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4
1800 m³/h
1800 m³/h
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3000 m³/h
3000 m³/h
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3000 m³/h
3000 m³/h
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7 600x1200 3 m/s
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1400
x800
3m
/s
600x1200 3 m/s
Canadian Well
1400
HP
x800 3m 800x1600 3 m/s
HP
800x1600 3 m/s
/s
8 Canadian Well
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+0
+2
Section AA
Scale: 1:100
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GENERAL SECTION AND PLANS Ventilation . Heating . Cooling . Light . Electricity . Space
Plan Ground Floor . Plan 2nd Floor Scale: 1:250
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Scale: 1:20
25
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20
40
100
200
DETAILED SECTION
Ventilation . Heating . Cooling . Light . Electricity . Insulation
Section through the plenum and the column
04 Old Smithy Learning from trees
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Light vacation house Landscape architecture Wood Competition / Follower
«Bois HLL» / January 2016 of the project : A. Bloudeau
Tourism in the Forest of Chimay has been focused on the discovery and the learning of its cultural and natural environment, bringing the visitors through an educational journey to make them sensitive to the resources offered by the forest. RND Natural Resources and Development launched a call for ideas to architects and students to think up new ways of living in our tourism accommodations, in harmony with the forest development’s philosophy. The answer to that call is a light vacation house facing the trees and inviting to rest in the discovered environment. Simple and compact, the Old Smithy is a fleeting design with sustainable solutions: it tends to be a local answer to worldwide questions.
The project is a prefab solution made by wooden frames held together in tension by the hemp structure and in compression by the straw.
WOOD : the matter isn’t prompted the same way within the frames. Thanks to the precision of prefab technics, their design is adapted to use that matter the most efficiently, emptying the less prompted area to lighten the structure and to reduce the losses. The cut pieces become floorboards and interior fitting out. STRAW : the most local material, available in any nearby farm. Compressed, straw becomes an efficient insulator, less inflammable, protected by the hemp and the wooden cladding. The absence of any chemical coating allows the building to breath and makes the solution sustainable: the year after, the straw can be reused by the farmer. HEMP : since 2009, we are discovering again this flexible and resistant material easy to grow in our countryside. The hemp protect the straw and hold the structure.
Assembling cartoon (3’18’’)
05 Water Treatment Sustainable Tourism
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Ingeniering Landscape Environment conservation Elephant Conservation Center, Sayaboury - Laos Project May 2016 / To be build May 2017 Project Leader Y. DEUNF
My woodworking internship gave me opportunities to get involved in projects of very different types. The natural water treatment system and the elephant nursery are two projects developped in a rural area of Laos. This experience taught me how to think out of the box, resolving issues with few and local resources. The challenge of these projects included much more than technical questions: working for and within a community implies cultural exchanges and understanding of behaviors patterns.
06 Elephant Nursery Working with an elephant
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Structure Dimensional work Traditional assembling Elephant Conservation Center, Sayaboury - Laos Project May 2016 / To be build May 2017
In the Forest of Sayaboury, central area of Laos, the Elephant Conservation Center takes care of twelve elephants. In case of sickness or disease of the animal, the staff of the center has to get a very close contact, while ensuring its security. The old structure was damaged, a new one was needed.
07 Chastre Along an old path
Housing
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Landscape architecture
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Village
Faculté d’Architecture LOCI / June 2014 / Associated with L. D’Angelo, A. Bloudeau, Q. Weber, A. Lefèvre
Thirty kilometres south from Brussels, Chastre is a village which might become one of this dormitory-town along a new train liaison with the capital city. The project explore this controversial question, and tends to give an answer to a 100 dwellings programme.
RURAL DEVELOPMENT The development of Chastre has been closely related to its agricultural activity, through an architectural landscape in harmony with the topography of the place. The main street stretches out along the high contour line, responding to the old by-road on the opposite side of the valley. To respect the historical morphological development of the village, the project follows this old track, considering the relief as an opportunity to design dwellings within a new set, but scale-and typology-related to the houses of the village.
The challenge arisen from the situation is to settle a high number of people within a short period of time, in a village which has been naturally developed within a long period of time. The difficulty at hand is to build at the present time while respecting the way of life inherent to the countryside. To live in villages like Chastre means more than living in a dormitory-town‌The project thinks up a way of living in interaction with each other, integrated in a small village structure, closely related to its natural and agricultural environment.
HAND DESIGN Building in a rural environment needs to keep watching on the direct and indirect consequences. The project chooses a «Hand» development, integrating fields and wadi-system : all the water used by the dwellings is naturally
filtered into the ground and flows down in the valley through the green «streets», while the gardens are related to the fields.
PERSONAL CRITIC
The project is a research. We explored a way of creating living places thought to be closely related to its direct and indirect environment. The meaning of this cut up plan is the research on PARTICULARITY. Each set, each house, each room has been thought to get the appropriate light, the appropriate intimacy, the appropriate view and the appropriate surface, in relation with the neighbours, the orientation, the situation and the function. To take a critical view, this project was a wonderful research we wanted to lead to an end... but probably not the definitive answer. With the will of being so close to the features of each space we were creating, we probably missed the real architectural challenge of our time. Designing such a cut up plan appears to be an economical difficulty, an ecological brain teaser, and a social utopia. Still, I believe university to be the right place to think utopia...
08 The Path of Wind An architectural journey through Eurasia Individual project / August 2014 - June 2015
To all my questions, nobody could give me any answer. Nobody… except for myself. Within all these questions, I had forgotten the very core of architecture: it is an art addressed to all senses. This is not only about knowledge and skills, it needs experiment. The Path of Wind is an incredible project through our world’s cultural heritage. Feeling atmospheres, experiment new sensations, writing and drawing, meeting people and sharing ideas... I believe architecture to be all about this.
« [...] I join this intellectual effervescence for I consider globalisation, for so long it has to be, as a strength, not as a massive weapon of destruction. The new challenge of architecture is to find out local solutions to worldwide issues, not the other way around.»
09 Sint Alen Coffice Reviving a spiritual space
Patrimony
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Co-Working
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Faculté d’Architecture LOCI 2013 / Individual reflexion
Rehabilitation /
and
December project
The silence we found in this place offered the possibility to perceive the meaning of the word “sacred”. I don’t talk about absence of noise. Fifteen students were trailing round the columns, playing with the grids of the confessionals, climbing the stairs to the altar. Yet, nothing disturbed the religious quiet reigning in the nave. Nothing can answer to the noise of an architecture from the emptiness. The great smooth concrete walls only contain the inlaying of blue stones representing the Christy path, allowing to run one’s eye over without any traps. Nothing could distract the pilgrim in his inside prayer, for nothing could have more value in this place than silence and its architectural serenity. What shall we do in such a unique space, so sacred, so filled with spirituality. Our religious heritage shows us an indisputable binomial : a spiritual atmosphere is strongly related to a working atmosphere.
The Saint-Alene Coffice is a co-working place. The organisation is simple : all the actors work individually on the wide tables of the main level, while the under-level of the crypt gather the rooms for collective works. The whole volume of this place is naturally organized to gather all the functions favoring a working atmosphere. Rest area / Fitness / Showers / Cafeteria / Conferences room / “Calling confessionals�
ATMOSPHERES WORK SERVICES RELAXATION INDIVIDUAL COLLECTIVE INDIVIDUAL COLLECTIVE silence
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communication
quiet
. reading .
sport
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cafeteria
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eating
10 Marignan (Internship) District project Theater
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Restauration
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Housing
De Visscher & Associates Studio / September december 2015 / Drawings and architectural creation
The House of Culture and Social Cohesion is an answer to a call for projects launched by the administration of Sint-Jos, Brussels. The interest of the project lies in the architectural itineraries through the gardens, making the links between the different functions and between the different actors and visitors of the place. I took part in the design process by drawing and rendering.
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Woodworking (Internship) Learning architecture from traditional assembling Wood
. Restauration .
Housing
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Furniture
J.P. Cuomo Workshop / February - ... 2016 / Manual skills development, wood working, furniture design
J.P. Cuomo has been living in Luang Prabang for fifteen years. After reading a paper about his work, I contacted him to become his apprentice. After a few weeks in Luang Prabang building furnitures for private clients, we moved to the Elephant’s Conservation Center to restore old tradional lao houses... Probably the best school for learning from wood.