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1518_WAASMUNSTER
sport and leisure centre in Waasmunster

Location :
Waasmunster
Client :
City of Waasmunster
Surface :
8000 m2
Team :
AgwA & architecten de vylder vinck taillieu
Subcontractors :
JZH + TTAS + Kahle Acoustics + OLM
Planning :
2016
Category :
Competition
This project's competition brief mentioned a fairly large program in an ambiguous context. The question of implementing 8000 mē of cultural and sports program in an environment that is neither part of the center of Waasmunster, nor the countryside surrounding it, arose the idea of an enclosed entity.

'Munster', derived from the Latin "monasterium", not only refers to the impressive abbey by Dom Van Der Laan a few miles north of the site but, more importantly, mentions the notion of a place that is cut off and yet intertwined with its surroundings. A contextual isolation.

We opt for a so-called perfect circle in which the program - a set of ordinary, industrial white boxes - is absorbed and at the same time mirrors the urban figure of the church and its immediate surroundings.

The routes inside and outside the building interact with the three gardens that offers focal as well as structuring points in the ensemble. This way, a typology that is too often trivially conceived and implemented suddenly becomes an complex set of possibilities.