PORTFOLIO
GLENN SOMERS
My name is Glenn Somers, and I am from Antwerp, Belgium. I successfully finished my masters in Architecture at the University of Antwerp in 2014. During my studies I became more and more fascinated by ‘the city’ and it mechanisms, which led to the decision to further develop this interest by enrolling for a second master. I choose to follow the advanced master program ‘Urbanism and Strategic Planning’ at the KU Leuven, from which I graduated in 2016. I believe that the combination of both masters gives me the knowledge and the skill to take on different kinds of projects and to be able to shift between scales. My portfolio will support this statement. My work will be presented according to the classification system that Rem Koolhaas introduced in his book S,M,L,XL. In the chapter ‘Small’ (S) multiple small scale projects are presented, ranging from a stage to a venetian palazzo.. The designs shown in the chapter ‘Medium’ (M) transcend this scale and are public buildings such as a school and an elderly home. The third chapter ‘Large’ (L) operates on an urban and neighborhood level. The projects presented here have very different outcomes. The emphasis in some projects is more on an architectural level and on the desired living quality, while in others the base of the projects lies more on an engineering level to eventually come to an ecological solution. The last chapter ‘Extra-Large’ (XL) looks to a large territory, and is both a reading and a proposal.
SMALL
S
Studio Construction, 2010 Physical constructing of a bridge.
Short Site, 2013 The temporary use of leftover sites. Pavilion at la Biennale di Venezia, 2013 Art pavilion in the ‘Giardini’. The Perception of Space and Structure, 2011 A building without function, focussed on space and structure. Venetian Palazzo, 2013 A house with exposition space, along the ‘Rio del Greci’.
STUDIO CONSTRUCTION
AESTHETIC STRUCTURE
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In this short assignment a bridge had to be designed to test our engineering insights. We choose to use wooden boards and cardboard tubes as our main materials. The goal was to create a system that was strong but at the same time had an aesthetic quality. The structure becomes a functional ornament. With the tubes we created a lattice construction, in which the joints were crucial. We used lots of glue to make them as fixed as possible. Through the horizontal tube and on the walking board a thick plastic wire was tightened to transfer the strong tractive forces. In the end the bridge could withstand four people walking over it at the same time.
UNIVERSITY OF ANTWERP
Studio supervisor: HANS BARBIER External tutor:JĂœRG CONZETT (Conzett Bronzini Partner AG) Year: 2010
SHORT SITE
DISSOLUTION AS A SOLUTION
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TEMPORARY STAGE
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Images dissolve through movement, colors dissolve in darkness, memories dissolve in time, landscapes dissolve in fog... Cities dissolve in unplanned spaces. Antwerp, as many other cities, manifests its dissolution in the presence of a multitude of leftover sites. These grounds wait for years to accommodate their new functions and look like idle urban spaces, unfit for construction and ineffective for profit. As dissolution becomes our solution, these misfit spots become challenging epicenters. We have imagined to appropriate and make use of a small site in Sint-Katelijnevest, Antwerp. By giving spaces as this one a temporary function, we try to bring attention to the abandoned site, in order that it can find a new and permanent future afterwards. At the same time, the city profits from these interventions as it serves to enhance public life in the city. In this specific case, a temporary stage, is inserted. The stage is constructed with a framework canvas. The canvas gives a view of the back of the site and the artists. All the functions are placed in the framework; one form brings the solutions of the whole program. We don’t want to touch the site so the frame is lifted. UNIVERSITY OF ANTWERP
External tutor:LORENZO BINI (Binocle) Year: 2013
SEQUENCE OF ATMOSPHERES
PAVILION AT LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
ARCHITECTURAL PROMENADE 10
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This project is a design for an art pavilion for the Architecture Biennale in Venice. The pavilion needs to be multifunctional in such a way that an exposition can naturally find its place in the different rooms. The building has to be able to communicate the message that the artist wants to bring to the visitors, without being restricted by the architecture itself. Spatially this has been translated in a sequence of rooms with very different atmospheres, ranging from an outside courtyard, to a dark intimate space to a high and naturally lighted room.
UNIVERSITY OF ANTWERP
Studio supervisor: CHRISTIAN KIECKENS Year: 2013
STRUCTURE AS SPACE
THE PERCEPTION OF SPACE AND STRUCTURE
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The structure of a building is not merely a job for an engineer. It is not something that can be hidden, or something that is just there to prevent a building from collapsing. On the contrary, it has to be an integral part of the design and can contribute to the atmosphere of the spaces. In this multifunctional project a wooden structure is the starting point of the concept. Ten frames bear the loads and at the same time define the shape of the building. This organic form is the result of small differences in each frame compared to the other. On the inside, the frames become part of the space and are left visible where possible. The heart of the building is a closed box that fixates and connects the different beams. Inside the box the stairs and other serving spaces can be found.
UNIVERSITY OF ANTWERP
Studio supervisor: KOEN HEYVAERT Year: 2011
SERENITY
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VENETIAN PALAZZO
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The canals of Venice give the city a remarkable atmosphere. On an empty site along one of the smaller canals we designed a new palazzo. The fictive client is a wealthy man and his family. He is very interested in art and has a small collection of his own. He sees this house as a vacation house and a space to receive his friends to show his art. There is a clear duality in the assignment, which is the public part (the art space) and the private part (the housing quarters). This duality forms the base for the design. The closed and rough socle is a more organic space that is accessible from the canal and is the space for art expositions. At high tide, water can come inside the socle, without of course destroying the art. The upper part is more rigid and holds all the spaces that a vacation house requires, including a large terrace on the upper level. A thick concrete and hollow beam connects the two parts and bears the loads. The stairs are situated around this beam. Nevertheless the most remarkable space of the building is the ‘Art Terazza’ which is the space in between the solid parts. It is designed in such a way that it opens up towards the canal. UNIVERSITY OF ANTWERP
Studio supervisor: CHRISTIAN KIECKENS Year: 2013
THE SPACE IN-BETWEEN
HIGH AND DRY
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ARCHITECTURAL PROMENADE
M
MEDIUM
Center for Elderly Care, 2012 A home for elderly people.
School for Arts and Architecture, 2012 The ideal environment to ‘learn’ arts and architecture.
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THE STREET ON THE INSIDE
TABULA RASA
CENTER FOR ELDERLY CARE
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This urban project is situated on a triangular site in Antwerp. Today it is stuffed with low-rise, bad quality housing. We decided to start from scratch and thus implement a tabula rasa strategy. This new starting point gave us the opportunity to give the urban project a public ground floor, to give space back to the inhabitants. There are shops, spaces for functions as a hairdresser and a bakery, offices and the communal functions of the elderly home that can be found on the two upper floors. In this way the elderly people still come in contact with the locals. This prevents them from being isolated. In the upper levels where the living quarters are, our focus was on the common parts. The apartments are given a personal front door and faรงade, which gives the residents an identity. Furthermore the hallway is over dimensioned to make it possible to create common living rooms. At the same time the size of the private apartments is kept to a minimum.
UNIVERSITY OF ANTWERP
Studio supervisor: GEERT DRIESEN Year: 2012
SCHOOL FOR ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE
STRUCTURE AS SPACE
MULTIFUNCTIONAL 22
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This second urban project is a design for a school of arts and architecture. It is situated in Antwerp, in the neighborhood which is called ‘t Eilandje. The building occupies an entire block. Since qualitative public space is scarce in that neighborhood, the ground floor is seen as a public square that gives access to the different parts of the school. The structure is the starting point of the concept. Six concrete towers carry a system of interconnected steel frames. These frames are the base for the walls and floors that will form the interior spaces. But also in this design the space in between the closed boxes is where ‘the magic happens’. All the special functions such as the main auditorium, the restaurant, the gym, etc can be found there. The vertical circulation and toilets are situated inside the concrete towers. The studio spaces are placed in the top ring, which consists of two levels. The studio is designed as an open multifunctional space where people from different programs can come in touch with each other. By using mobile walls and panels more intimate corners can be formed. I believe the building can be a catalyst for public life in that neighborhood of ‘t Eilandje. UNIVERSITY OF ANTWERP
Studio supervisor: KOEN VAN BOCKSTAL Year: 2012
PUBLIC SQUARE
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FLEXIBLE STUDIO SPACE
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THE SPACE IN-BETWEEN
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LARGE
L
Living in El Hank, Casablanca, 2014 A research by design project into the Arabic housing culture. Circular Retrofitting in Centrum-Zuid, 2015 Shift from a former mining sitÊ towards a sustainable clean-tech business park. Pulsing and Repulsing Peterbos, 2014 Breaking the social housing estate out of its isolation. From Rupture to Frame, 2015 Stitching the twentieth century belt of Antwerp back together. Transit, Food and Densification, 2016 Healthy densification for Antwerp’s twentieth century belt.
LIVING IN EL HANK, CASABLANCA
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This project is my master thesis for my architecture degree. It is part of a 400 page thick book. The first part of the investigation focuses on the city of Casablanca as a whole. In the city we started investigating projects built by French modernists in the colonial era. These designers saw Morocco as a laboratory to test new typologies to later export them back to France. This resulted in fascinating designs. But what is possibly more interesting, is how these buildings look today. Over a period of around 70 years inhabitants have changed their housing units in such a way that is becomes more suitable for their way of living. Some buildings cannot even be recognized anymore. By studying the initial concepts of the French architects and how people have actually lived in it, we tried to unravel the interesting Arabic notion of living which is strongly based on ingenious transitions from public to private. In the end this led to a design for a housing neighborhood in the area of El Hank. This area is a modernist high-rise neighborhood at the coast, but is under immense pressure today due to prestigious developments in the vicinity. This end result can be seen as the ultimate conclusion of the ‘learning from’ process.
UNIVERSITY OF ANTWERP
Studio supervisor: FILLE HANJOUL & JOHAN DE WALSCHE Year: 2014
LEARNING FROM...
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STEP-BY-STEP TRANSITIONS FROM PUBLIC TO PRIVATE
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CIRCULAR RETROFITTING IN CENTRUM-ZUID
ARTIFICIAL LANDSCAPE 40
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This area is a business district, called Centrum-Zuid, located in Houthalen-Helchteren. The owners of the area are envisioning a transition towards a clean-tech future. The site is a former coalmine. After the closing of the mine the slagheap of coal residue has been evened, creating an artificial plateau of which the edges are clearly visible. In some places the height difference is almost ten meters. The industries have been built on top of this plateau. Today the area is characterized by strong water issues because of the fact that the artificial soil cannot absorb water. We designed a loop to restructure the whole area and to support the transition towards a clean tech identity. By rethinking the existing street profiles in strategic locations, space is made available to retain rainwater, to accommodate more sustainable transport modes and to set up a versatile network of energy exchange. In addition, this loop should offer qualitative public spaces, ranging from shared meeting rooms to larger polyvalent squares in industrial environments. In the end the loop will be a catalyst to attract more clean-tech businesses, in order to generate a campus where clean tech knowledge can be shared.
KU LEUVEN
Studio supervisor: JULIE MARIN & ERIK VANDAEL Year: 2015
CLEAN TECH -LOOP
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MULTIFUNCTIONAL STREET PROFILE 43
OUT IN
OUT OUT
PULSING AND REPULSING PETERBOS
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SUPRA-LOCAL FIGURE
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Peterbos is a large modernistic social housing estate located next to the ring of Brussels along the border with Flanders. The neighborhood is viewed and experienced as a self-sufficient and isolated splinter that in time has become the victim of its success. Today its isolation has become multidimensional. It is rooted in scarce employment opportunities, general stigmatization and the erection of borders of both tangible and intangible nature. The reinforcement of its difference is sharpened by new developments that rise along its edges, such as a huge shopping center, that are in total contrast with the modernist slabs of Peterbos. Within its boundaries however we noticed seeds for recovery. Our project initiates a spatial but also social condition for an amplified state of exchange, based on a rich mix of inhabitants and on the activation of the spatial potential. By creating a supra-local and multi-functional figure of which Peterbos is a piece, the isolation is broken. New functions are added while existing productivity such as agriculture is enhanced and preserved to sustain future growth. This new figure provokes exchange, allowing Peterbos to pulse out of its present site. KU LEUVEN
Studio supervisor: VIVIANA D’AURIA & VERENA LENNA External tutor: TINE VAN HERCK & BURAK PAK Year: 2014
FROM RUPTURE TO FRAME
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ADAPTIVE STRUCTURES
Small wind-turbine Small wind-turbine Small wind-turbine Permeable surface Permeable surface Exchange loop Permeable surface Exchange loop Exchange loop Energy network Energy network Energy network
Community garden Community garden Community garden Community platform Community + Cargo hubplatform Community + Cargo hubplatform + Cargo hub Housing Housing Housing Biocrop Warehouse Biocrop Warehouse Biocrop Warehouse Community platform Community platform Community platform
New quay site New quay site New quay site Big wind-turbine Big wind-turbine Big wind-turbine Albert canal Albert canal Albert canal
Bicycle cargo Bicycle cargo Bicycle cargo Rivierenhof park Rivierenhof park Rivierenhof park New hill park New hill park Bike route New route hill park Bike Bike route
Biofuel crop Biofuel crop Biofuel crop Biofuel bus Biofuel bus Biofuel bus Biofuel crop Biofuel crop Biofuel crop
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Antwerp is rethinking its twentieth century belt. A reconversio suburbis is now taking place after several decades of renovatio urbis of the inner ring city. Our design exploration sees this projected transformation of the area as an occasion to rethink the dependency between urbanization and resources. We introduce a transition in mobility and lifestyle by envisioning a radical transformation of three radial infrastructures: from uni directional ruptures to connective and adaptive structures which reinforce local logics respond to their local contexts and grow in a rhizomaric way. In order to incorporate the twentieth century belt as a qualitative urban area, we propose to redirect heavy traffic outside the city along a larger ring outside the urban area. This will decompress the existing ring road which currently cuts through the urban tissue. The section on the last page of this project shows a the transition that we foresee in our design.
KU LEUVEN
Studio supervisor: JULIE MARIN & MATEO MOTTI Year: 2015
UNI DIRECTIONAL CUTS
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EXISTING RING CUTS THROUGH THE CITY
TRANSIT, FOOD AND DENSIFICATION
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UPGRADED MOBILITY NODES SMALL SCALE (LOCAL)
MEDIUM SCALE (BELT)
LARGE SCALE (BEYOND BELT)
NODE CHARACTERIZED BY:
TRANSIT
NODE CHARACTERIZED BY:
SERVICES
NODE CHARACTERIZED BY:
TRANSIT & SERVICES
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This second project about the twentieth century belt is a continuation of the ‘From Rupture to Frame’ design. This time we did not focus on the large infrastructures as the ring and the Albertcanal itself. Instead we looked to the exiting transport net to move within the city and the belt. We mapped the bus and tram lines, the train network, the roads, etc. The next step was to define existing nodes where multiple transport modes come together and where facilities as schools, hospitals, shopping centers, etc can be found. This made clear that within the belt several ‘mobility nodes’ can be found. We saw these as a means to transform the daily lifestyle. This is shown more in detail in the three zooms below. The small bubble represents the existing situation. In the end a general section shows the different strategies that can be implemented throughout the belt.
KU LEUVEN
Studio supervisor: RACHA DAHER & BRUNO DE MEULDER Year: 2016
DENSIFICATION ON SUPERMARKET PLOT
PRIVATE INITIATIVE
PLATFORM FOR GOODS DELIVERY
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AG VESPA
PARKING
EXISTING SUPERMARKET PARKING
TRAM STOP
SPACE FOR SOFT MOBILITY
PARK&RIDE + ELECTRICAL CAR RENTING
TRAM HAS PRIORITY ON CROSSROADS
ELECTRICAL BIKE RENTING
INSERT MULTIMODALITY, AND GIVE TRAM PRIORITY DENSIFICATION PROJECTS IN LOW-RISE TISSUE.
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MAKE PUBLIC TRANSPORT MORE ATTRACTIVE BY CHANGING THE NODES INTO ACCESIBLE PUBLIC SPACES. THE NODES SHIFT FROM MERELY A PLACE TO PASS-BY TO A DESTINATION..
EXISTING GARAGE CHANGED INTO WORKING SPACE, BRINGING LIVING AND WORKING CLOSER TO EACHOTHER. EXTRA LAYER OF RENTAL APARTMENT ADDED AS SURPLUS INCOME.
‘TOGETHER-GARDEN’ AS INSTIGATOR FOR SOCIAL COHESION. PARKING CONVERTED INTO ATTRACTIVE PUBLIC SPACE.
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EXISTING PARKING SQUARE
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ACTIVATING PUBLIC SPACE
CHURCH AND VACANT SHOPS AS POP-UP INSTITUTIONS DEALING WITH LOCAL FOOD WASTE AND SMALL SCALE ECONOMIES.
‘TOGETHER-GARDEN’ AS INSTIGATOR FOR SOCIAL COHESION. DAILY FRESH FOOD MARKET
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PLAYGROUND SECONDARY SCHOOL
SECONDARY AND PRIMARY SCHOOL PARK WITHOUT VISITORS, DUE TO DARK ATMOSPHERE.
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XL EXTRA LARGE
Historical Reading of the Campine Plateau, 2015 Discovering the logics behind the patterns of urbanisation. The Coaltrack as a Local Resource, 2015 A scar from the mining past as a resource for future innovation.
HISTORICAL READING OF THE CAMPINE PLATEAU
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1780. NATURAL LANDSCAPE STRUCTURE
LANDSCAPE AS THE BASE FOR URBANIZATION
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The three following maps are a historical investigation into the Campine Plateau. They cover an area of 40 km by 40 km. We choose to focus on three important moments in time. The first map is based on historical maps of around 1780 and shows the historical landscape structure. Villages and trade routes follow this logic and are mainly based on the rivers and creeks. The second map can be situated between 1930 an 1960. This is the area of industrial developments, mainly based on coal extraction. The map shows a new logic of urban growth along the coal track and its mines. The last map is situated in the car-age, when motorized movement makes commuting easy. The highways E314/ E40 and E313 have been built in his timeframe. New housing and industrial developments are spread out over the territory along major roads. The industrial and car age maps show that the development of the area has followed different logics that strongly contrast with the natural one. This leaves a territory behind in which the natural systems and ongoing developments are not anymore on the same level. Investigations like these are extremely important in my eyes since they show strategic spots where new projects can be functional but at the same time can work together or even restore natural logics that have been damaged before.
KU LEUVEN
Studio supervisor: JULIE MARIN & ERIK VANDAEL Year: 2010
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1930-1960. INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES
COAL TRACK AS A CATALYST
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2015. CAR INFRASTRUCTURE
CAR-BASED SPRAWL
THE COALTRACK AS A LOCAL RESOURCE
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SUPPORTING LOCAL IDENTITIES
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This project is a design concept for the former coal track, located in central Limburg. Today large parts of the track are not used anymore. It remains as a relic of the mining era. Nevertheless it represents a shared identity of the mining towns along it, which eroded since the closing of the mines. Rather than a physical connector on the regional scale, our project sees the coal track as a resource of space that can be reused to serve local demands. A series of retrofitted urban structures can emerge along the track. The loop of Centrum-Zuid that has been discussed before can be one example of this. In this way the track facilitates exchange to support local variants of a new circular economy. As a result the track functions as a nucleus for new local identities. The sections on the next page show how two of these sites along the coaltrack can transform over time to eventually move towards a more ecological responsible future. The site on the left part in the section is Centrum-Zuid in Houthalen-Helchteren, while the site on the right is the small town center of Maasmechelen.
KU LEUVEN
Studio supervisor: JULIE MARIN & ERIK VANDAEL Year: 2010
THE SECTION AS A TOOL TO SHOW A PROCESS.