PORTFOLIO
RECONNECTING WITH THE NEIGHBOURHOOD:
Unlocking Spatial Potential in Mechelen. Centre for Adult Basic Education (Ligo) Case
Mechelen, Belgium
KU Leuven, Master of Architecture
Master Thesis Project, fall 2023 - spring 2024
Promotor: prof. Tomas Ooms
The research explores the topic of public and collective spaces in Mechelen in several scales, focusing on a Ligo Centre, a Centre for Adult Basic Education, and a garage area, and tries to find a way to unlock their spatial potential. The goal is to update these underused spaces, improving their condition and making them more open, inclusive, accessible and welcoming. This will enhance a sense of community and encourage interaction between locals and newcomers.
The project takes into account the ongoing debate on open and inclusive cities with human-centred design and tries to transform car-centric areas into vibrant community hubs.
It poses several questions:
How can we redesign the Ligo Centre and garage area to become welcoming and accessible community spaces? How can these spaces encourage interaction between residents and newcomers, fostering a sense of belonging? How can we seamlessly link these revitalized spaces to the surrounding urban fabric?
By addressing these questions, the project aims to activate a currently underutilized area, turning a private and semi-public space into a lively collective space that benefits the entire community.
Connecting the canal and the river
The project explores the possibility of connecting the river and the canal by a pedestrian route, suggesting a bridge across the canal to link the abovementioned area with the centre of Mechelen, facilitating pedestrian movement and collective spaces in the area and making it more dynamic. Moreover, the whole area across the Leuven-Dijle Canal will have better access to the Botanical Garden with all the facilities around it.
Updating the Ligo building and creating a communal square in front of it with sitting places, tables and trees, adding new functions and activities and mixing them, the project aims to turn the Centre into a lively meeting place for locals and newcomers. Then, the garage area on the route will become a place with many activities where the migrants could work together with the residents of the area, cook and eat thus getting integrated better and faster. A new pedestrian crossing on the ring road will be added that will slow down the traffic.
CONJECTURAL ARCHITECTURES
A museum on Civil War in El Salvador
El Salvador
KU Leuven, Master of Architecture
1st elective, fall semester 2022
Group project with Letisia Dimitrova and Emre Gönül
Tutors: prof. Harold Fallon
The task was to design a museum on Civil War in a village in El Salvador. There were three existing buildings on the site, a sports hall, a building with meeting rooms and one multifunctional building. Adding new volumes, most of them were supposed to be semi-open or open, and covering everything with a roof, the idea was to create a «village», a complex which would be a community centre and a museum at the same time. There were a music room and a playground, an office and a library and the other space which could function as the space for exhibitions, meetings, having lunch or anything else. The design part was done in a group and the final drawigns were made individually.
EXPERIENCING THE MOUNTAINS
A distributed artistic residence at an altitude of 2500 meters
Aosta Valley, Italy
KU Leuven, Master of Architecture
3rd Master project, fall semester 2023
Tutors: prof. Arnaud Hendrickx + Wim Goossens
Every moment in the mountains has the potential to inspire one who comes to create.
What kind of art is being born in the mountains?
What kind of influence does the surroundings have on an artist? (How) Does it affect the creative process?
Has architecture a role to play in this power game?
Could it be a bridging medium between the two?
The project is a distributed artistic residence at an altitude of 2500 meters. Through the distribution of functions, it strives to give a unique experience within each of them.
Keeping the existing elements and functions they provide (sleeping, lavatory etc), new elements are being introduced to the landscape:
- a permanent main pavilion with flexible functions (exhibiting/storing/cooking);
- a temporary pavilion used for big-scale art objects (in case needed) or when the main pavilion is closed (winter period).
- a table - a fixed element to help an artist experience a place in a variety of ways and to facilitate a creative process.
VERRERIE. A LIVELY PLACE
A social housing complex with different public facilities
Brussels, Belgium
KU Leuven, Master of Architecture
2nd Master project, spring semester 2023
Tutors: prof. Harold Fallon, Sophie Laenen and Arian Schelstraete
What does it mean to design social housing on a former industrial site? What facilities should it include and how should it work with the surrounding area? What parts of the existing structures to keep and what to demolish? How do we reuse the existing buildings?
In the design process, we were trying to answer these questions, checking the examples and working with what was already on the site.
The site I had was located in Forest (Vorst), in the southern part of Brussels, close to the border with Flanders. It had entrances from two sides, which were made them broader and more open to people. The distinct features of the industrial buildings were the brickwork of the facades which would differ from one part to another as well as the openings, the windows and the doors. The load-bearing structures were also different, each part of the complex had its rhythm of columns, type of beams etc. The idea was to create a public space in the middle with the housing around that would become its edges. Sports facilities were placed in the existing hall on the left, then a communal garden, a square with a cafe and greenery. There was also a small secondary professional school on the ground floor, the students could work in a courtyard next to it or in a more public part. There were two private parts on both sides, accessible only by its residents, separated from the public space by two blocks of row houses. The existing entrance with a curved wall was emphasized with a small tower on top of the existing part of the building. Two existing structures were left open to become part of the new private or public space.
The project was meant to become a lively part of the neighbourhood, bringing new qualities and facilities to the area and its residents. Combining the old and the new, and opening itself up to the city, it would enrich the place and make it better.
ACTIVATING TERVUREN
A complex consisting of open-air public sports facilities and small-scale housing
Tervuren, Belgium
KU Leuven, Master of Architecture
1st Master project, fall semester 2022
Tutors: prof. Peter Swinnen + Ivonne Weichold
What is Advanced Domestics? How do architects communicate with people and authorities? Can architects influence them in favour of public interest?
The given site had two main features: its topography and the elderly care centre. The centre lacked of activity and enthousiasm as well as the connection to nature so the idea was to bring more people and energy to the place to make it livelier and more enjoyable. By creating a running track consisting of two loops, the project aimed to connect different corners of the site thus facilitating pedestrian movement. The track goes on the ground level at first and when the ground surface goes down too much, it becomes a bridge. The main parts of the projects are the running track, a mini-forest, a children playground, an open-air swimming pool complex and modular small-scale housing. The playground and the mini-forest are supposed to complement the kindergarten which is located on the ground level of the care centre. The swimming complex consists of a main pool, a filtering part, a kid’s pool, a kid’s area and addititonal faclities (changing rooms, a cafe, technical rooms). The housing complex is supposed to be for young families and as assisted dwelling for elderly people.
The complex would create a public small forest and with its sport facilities become an attraction point for people of different age from the surrounding area and even from Brussels. It would be about creating public amenities full of life and energy, about generocity, about creating new values and adding them to the existing situation.
OPEK
An art and cultural centre
Leuven, Belgium
KU Leuven, Master of Architecture
Conversion in Urban Context, spring semester 2023
Group project with Franz Brannaschk, Lara Makhoul, Micha Nikolussi and Mita Sari Tutors: Dirk Jaspaert, Bruno Depre
The project aimed to revitalize the building while keeping as much as possible of the existing stucture, the facades, the heights and the footprint. The task was to integrate two venues of different size with a restaurant, bar, exhibition space, offices, backstage/technical facilities. The outcome was a large perspective section in scale 1:20.
The two venues are stacked above each other, the smaller one spans the entire -1 and ground floor and can be accessed from the -1 level. One half of the -1 floor becomes public. The bigger venue is three-floor high and is accessible from the +1 level. Within both venues, the existing structure was replaced with a system of big beams and columns to create open performance spaces.
A big entrance hall with a skylight serves as the heart of the building. The atrium incorporates the exhibition space, restaurant and bar on the ground floor. A wide staircase-amphitheater connects the groundfloor to the small venue. When the venue’s doors are open, its space becomes part of the atrium. Thus, the public interior flows inside from the outside.
Shvets-Mashkara KUL, graduate of Master’s of Architecture
mykhailo.shvetsmashkara@gmail.com | @mykhailo_shvetsmashkara