PORTFOLIO 2015 Ruben Janssens
ŠRuben Janssens Online
http://www.rjanssens.com
Download
http://www.rjanssens.com/web-cvportfolio-download/
Personal info
My name is Ruben Janssens, I was born 22th of March 1992 in Hasselt, Belgium. I’ve lived in Hasselt until 2012 when I started studying in Ghent. Since end 2014 I moved to Brussels. My general interests are: Cities, nature, bikes, (building) technologies, music. For me architecture is a medium to create, think, re-think, change, always search for the best solution. A good story, a smart detail, an intelligent system; are a couple of characteristics I naturally associate with architecture. All scales, from the finest detail up until the broadest urban strategy, are for me exciting to develop. I find that architecture, planning and/or research are all ways of searching for a quality in existing contexts that sometimes no-one else finds, and in the end come up with a design that is grounded to its (spatial) framework, well thought-through and of high quality (spatial, socio-economical, academical,...).
Academic career
2014 - 2015 KU Leuven – Faculty of Engineering, Campus Arenberg, Leuven Master of science in Human Settlements (Graduating September 2015) [All classes and exams in English] 1 Kasteelpark Arenberg, box 2200, B-3001 Leuven (00) +32 (0)16 32 13 50 https://eng.kuleuven.be/arch/english/education/mahs 2012 - 2014 KU Leuven – Faculty of Architecture, Campus Hoogstraat, Ghent International Master of science in Architecture (Graduated Cum Laude) [All classes and exams in English] 51 Hoogstraat, B-9000 Ghent (00) +32 (0)9 225 10 00 http://arch.kuleuven.be 2009 - 2012 Hasselt university (uH) – Dept. Architecture, Diepenbeek Bachelor of Science in Architecture (Graduated) [All classes and exams in Dutch] Universitaire campus, Agoralaan - Building E, B-3590 Diepenbeek (00) +32 (0)11 24 92 00 http://www.uhasselt.be/architectuur 2003 - 2009 Technisch Instituut Heilig Hart (TIHH), Hasselt Industrial Sciences (IW) (Graduated) 5 Kleine Breemstraat, B-3500 Hasselt (00) +32 (0)11 25 33 58 http://www.tihh.be
Foreign experiences
Gowanus, NY 07/2013
Coney Island, NY 02/2014
Coney Island, NY 07/2014
This workshop focussed on the Gowanus harbor and canal area in Brooklyn, NY. Focussing on the modes of proximity in and around the area, we tried to find an answer to the development pressure coming from real estate companies, the negative image created by bad management and pollution issues; and the ecological problems caused by this extensive pollution of the Gowanus canal.
In the winter of 2014 I went on a 12-day fieldtrip to Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY as part of my Master Dissertation. With the central theme Coney Island: Revisited, our focus was to look at the relations between the island’s residential neighbourhoods and the seasonal commerce. Water and climate change resilience, productivity and socio inclusion were main topics that had to be addressed.
https://streetscapeterritories. wordpress.com/2013/07/23/ gowanus-final-review/
https://streetscapeterritories. wordpress.com/2013/10/16/ coney-island-revisited/
After the master dissertation presentations in Ghent I participated in a second trip to New York to do a presentation on my project for Coney Island Revisited and to afterwards guide a workshop connected to the communities on Coney Island and their response to different scenarios related to water, social inclusion, etc. The result was an exhibition with a photographic loop and a range of 43 ideas represented on postcards. https://streetscapeterritories.wordpress. com/2014/08/21/43-ideas/
Competences
Comfortable working in: Elementary knowledge:
Languages Dutch (mother tongue), English French, German
Entensive knowledge: Elementary knowledge:
Software AutoCAD, Adobe Creative Suite, Sketch up Revit, Vectorworks, Rhino Other experiences
Guiding/Coordinating workshops Graphical design Editing/Publishing (Ref: http://issuu.com/rubenjanssens)
SELECTED WORK
Acting in Redundancy – Zilverhof factories Acting in redundancy is a project about transforming the banality of an everyday, mono-functional scenario, into a multifunctional process which benefits a larger radius of the urban network without directly interfering with the existing routine. We introduced three new elements in an existing central part of a cluster of old industrial buildings, each providing a core element of a modern infrastructure that facilitates new scenarios and opportunities. These elements consist of a ‘machine’, providing a space for infrastructure and machinery to build out a save source of electricity, water and data. A ‘hub’ that forms the overlap between the newly provided infrastructure and the existing space. It is a configurable space which can be used for anything from storage to workspace and entrance for a neighborhood movie night. Lastly there is a sanitary/kitchen element installed to provided the necessary elements for longer periods of occupation to happen; Together with a staircase, providing access to the floors above. We presented this project using a scenario-based stop-motion movie, which shows the current state of affairs, and how every small implementation offers a possibility for a new action to occur. Then in short flicks, new scenarios are shown that become possible through this small intervention. Movie: http://vimeo.com/78665291
Model - Movie scene for multiple scenario’s of use – Spaghetti-night for the neighborhood.
Exploded view of the intervention fitted into existing structure.
Fragment vs. Whole – Masterplan Rue de la Loi, Brussels This exercise focusses around a critical over-thinking of the winning masterplan vision for the wetstraat/Rue de la Loi region in Brussels. This masterplan, proposing the strengthening of the urban block as a high-rise entity, wants to implement a system of hybrid buildings that form a cluster as a new city district to overcome the monofunctionality of today’s situation. What I did foremost was having a critical approach to the required high-rise and focus more on how the hybridity between building and public space can make this district more liveable and accessible to the human scale. I used the height difference and the crossing of two major axis to shape a new landscape with the building. Creating public movement above and through the lower part of the building; Which also contains a meeting space/cafe, a spiritual space and offices. The tower is a residential tower with three apartments each floor and an accessible roof. The placement of the tower and lower part together form again a valley landscape which is lighter, more complex, accessible and offers a qualitative urban environment.
Early stage scale model to explore the volumetric composition.
Section in three depths to slow the multifunctionality/hybridity of the building and the connection from front to back.
Coney Island Revisited – A Resilient network Coney Island Revisited was the title for my master dissertation exercise, focussing on new ways of intervention in relation with changing environments and conditions in urbanized waterfronts such as Coney Island. I started researching the neighborhood of Coney Island West in layers of function and building occupancy, tracing out existing neighborhood networks. Based on that, I decided on ten possible locations for intervention. These ten locations are overlapping points between the existing layers in the neighborhood, and could form a new sort of overlapping, emergent network for a common resilience. This new resilient network consists of platforms that facilitate specific functions tuned into the existing networks and locations. I developed the three platforms which are on the Coney Island Creek as a case for the whole network. The first one is a large facilitating platform at Neptune Ave and 21st Street, that includes all layers into one platform structure. The ground floor is a floodable, open configurable space for local commerce and storage/distribution. Above are neighborhood spaces and a small supervising office. The roof is accessible for storage and placement of emergency equipment, but also for the public to observe the water. Second is a distribution platform between Stillwell Ave and 15th street. It is built-up from two main parts, a 625m2 distribution/storage hall with loading docks in the back, and a knowledge center at 15th street. The platform focusses on taking knowledge about products and goods going in and out of the neighborhood, and transfer that knowledge onto the neighborhood network. Third, I developed a transport platform as a case for local transport using the Coney Island Creek. This case platform is situated at Bayview Avenue and 33rd street, a neighborhood that is disconnected from the center of the neighborhood and the natural resources across the creek. The small transport hub offers a waiting room which can also be used as a small meeting space, and a technical room for small repairs on bikes, etc.. Shown in the following images, is the first intervention.
3D image of the central ‘platform’, a distribution center / community offices and workspaces / freely configurable streetlevel / ferry stop.
‘Natural’ resource
10 Ccommunity network?
Supermarket
9
Supermarket
6 5
7
Residential Commercial + Residential Commercial Community utilities Elderly homes Productivity Points of interest ‘Natural’ resources Amusement area
8Cross-island access
2 Cmmunity network? Water access
Home Depot
‘Natural’ resource Water access ‘Natural’ resource
1
Stillwell Ave Station
4
ve Commerce
Mermaid A
Cross-island access
Amusementpark area
3 Articulation towards Boardwalk?
Neighbourhood composition, social structure / points of interest to place interventions as a link in a new network.
3 Sections from water to streetscape, showing the multiple scenarios possible in 1 building and the relation to both water and street.
Model showing the multiple circulation possibilities, the structure of steel-concrete platforms with transparant infil, and the movable crane.
The big, the bad and the ugly? – The Condition of the Backside In recent architectural and urbanist discussions, we have come to wonder what are the issues of modernist inspired, 1950s social housing in the context of a 21st century community. Do we have to review the modernist project in its totality, or do we have to be more critical on how these projects were built, appropriate or maybe misunderstood by local builders, institutions, that led to a mismatch between the social housing project and its environment? This project is an exercise on trying to make the 1950s project innovative again, and hand it an added value that it contributes to its inhabitants but also to its surrounding neighbourhoods. In a landscape marked by complex topography and post-industrial relics and voids, the AllÊe Verte site presents itself as a green island inside a (sub-)urbanised tissue of small villages in the larger Charleroi area. Analysing these voids showed us that they are configured on an old network of abandoned infrastructure and linked together by the topography in a system of backside conditions throughout the larger neighbourhood. Using this as a base, the question raises: How can an intelligent coexistence of front sides, backsides and developed voids, make the space-use of the modern project innovative again? Working with the site as a new activity point a new neighbourhood network, the project searches for interesting inverse movements and more complex configurations of front- and backsides to reduce social and spatial distances, and let this green island become a node in the neighbourhood. In our strategies, we focussed on clusters of small, thought-through interventions, not giving a new face to this project, but making the existing face become accepted. For us this also meant a focus on the surrounding landscapes and revisiting the condition of the project in its neighbourhood.
Borders/boundaries mapping with old and new infrastructure, social housing projects marked as strategic positions.
Proposal for a new network of slow traffic and ecology, with social housing projects as catalysts.
Total plan of interventions on the AllĂŠe Verte site.
Impressions of the threefold of interventions on and around the AllĂŠe Verte site.
Model showing the continuous landscape from hilltop into the valley.