(Re)Claiming Ground: Designing & building a wood pavilion as a social space

Antwerp, Belgium, 2021

Collaborators: Klaus Zwerger (TU Vienna), Mekano (University of Antwerp)

How to build on a void? In the midst of the site of the children’s farm, Rivierenhof in Antwerp, stands a World War II bunker that takes up space and blocks life. Re-claiming ground reverses this image: In a targeted intervention, the now-dead space is activated and reinterpreted into a foundation for a new cultural site. Using reclaimed timber elements from the Port of Antwerp, a small pavilion was created with simple, precise handicraft techniques as a central place for internal and public events of the children’s farm. The project aimed at the social exploitation of seemingly worthless space and material by means of architectural and constructional strategies. The participants examined the site and the given material jointly developed an architectural concept and learned simple craft methods. The group then built the project together using simple tools and techniques.

The 2-weeks international design & build workshop brought together many aspects of sustainable architecture and construction: The students dealt with the local conditions of the place on the basis of which global problems were discussed (think global, act local). Local material resources were utilised and integrated into new productive processes, skills were learned, and perceptions sharpened. The contribution gives something back to the local community; the children now use the previously dead space as a kind of plinth for their very own activities and under the new dancing wooden roof.