2013_TRANSIT
Integrated reception and accommodation centre for the Transit NGO
- Location :
- Brussels
- Client :
- Société d'Aménagement Urbain
- Team :
- AjdvivgwA (AM AgwA + architecten jan de vylder inge vinck)
- Subcontractors :
- JZH&Partners, Daidalos Peutz, Sixco, BM Ingineering
- Planning :
- 2020
- Category :
- Competition
Transit is a project whose intrinsic nature is unique in its complexity and humanity. It requires sensitivity and finesse in relation to human issues. Who meets whom, when, and how?
A reception courtyard is created on the “Avenue du Port” side. Discreet, urban, and accessible, set in the block and protected from views, this courtyard is the place of entry and distribution. The street workers have a central presence here. Access to the Reduced Risk Space and the shelter is more discreet. This courtyard extends towards the entrance to the general reception area on the upper floor. It is a place of transition between the public space and all the services, "care" and "cure" combined.
On the second floor, a large garden terrace is shared by the general reception, the health centre, and the psychosocial services. It is a place to appropriate, which encourages exchanges and mutual aid, meetings, and open-air workshops. It is a place within the building: the hustle and bustle of the city is kept at a distance.
The position of the dwellings is important. To live here in this volume is to still be in Transit, but also to be elsewhere, in the city, like everyone else. This seven-storey volume anchors Transit in the surrounding volumes that punctuate the canal.
Towards the canal and the port buildings, a second volume carries the identity of Transit's activities. It is lower, longer, in relation to the large terrace and animated by a circulation core that indicates its collective character. The two volumes meet in the centre of the plot. Despite their differences, these two volumes share a common language.
(Extracts from the Competition Proposal)
A reception courtyard is created on the “Avenue du Port” side. Discreet, urban, and accessible, set in the block and protected from views, this courtyard is the place of entry and distribution. The street workers have a central presence here. Access to the Reduced Risk Space and the shelter is more discreet. This courtyard extends towards the entrance to the general reception area on the upper floor. It is a place of transition between the public space and all the services, "care" and "cure" combined.
On the second floor, a large garden terrace is shared by the general reception, the health centre, and the psychosocial services. It is a place to appropriate, which encourages exchanges and mutual aid, meetings, and open-air workshops. It is a place within the building: the hustle and bustle of the city is kept at a distance.
The position of the dwellings is important. To live here in this volume is to still be in Transit, but also to be elsewhere, in the city, like everyone else. This seven-storey volume anchors Transit in the surrounding volumes that punctuate the canal.
Towards the canal and the port buildings, a second volume carries the identity of Transit's activities. It is lower, longer, in relation to the large terrace and animated by a circulation core that indicates its collective character. The two volumes meet in the centre of the plot. Despite their differences, these two volumes share a common language.
(Extracts from the Competition Proposal)
