Duration
64h Pr
Number of credits
| Master in architecture (120 ECTS) | 5 crédits |
Lecturer
Stéphane Dawans, Negin Eisazadeh Otaghsaraei, Claudine Houbart, Pascal Noe
Coordinator
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the first semester, review in January
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
Like restoration, as defined by Cesare Brandi and Paul Philippot in the 1960s, adaptive reuse is a critical act before being a technical act. However, the architect's intervention on the existing is distinguished from critical reflection by being translated into action in the matter of the object, by being materially inscribed in its history. The scope of the choices made therefore implies gathering, upstream of the adaptive reuse project, the historical, contextual and technical data on which the critical judgment is based, which in turn informs the design process. This exploratory workshop is based on the principle that, in addition to this data, a conceptual reflection is likely to enrich the design process, and to anchor and support the critical posture with regard to the existing heritage in the broad sense.
The workshop is directly linked to the activities of the DIVA laboratory (Documentation, Interpretation, VAlorisation of Heritage), and in particular, the CoToCoCo project (Conceptual Toolkit for Contemporary Conservation), led by Claudine Houbart and Stéphane Dawans in collaboration with Muriel Verbeeck (ESA Saint-Luc). This project aims to test the usefulness of concepts borrowed from disciplines outside the world of heritage (built and artistic), such as semiology, literary criticism, sociology, art ontology, etc., to think about interventions on a heritage that is increasingly diversified and faced with constantly renewed questions.
Each year, the workshop takes as its subject a building of heritage character (in the broadest sense and from all eras, including the most recent), depending on opportunities and current events. The students are asked to develop their intervention (which may concern only a fragment of the building in question) on the basis of a conceptual reflection. This is fed by a portfolio of readings and the possible updating of concepts at work during the design of the initial building or one of its strata. In addition to the production of graphic documents, the students explain their conceptual path in the form of a text.
One of the weeks of the workshop ("Kaleidoscope") is organized in collaboration with the Universiteit Hasselt, the TU Eindhoven and the Bergische Universität Wuppertal (in 2022, from September 26 to 30).
In September-October 2022, the site to be studied will be located in Hasselt: the galleries of "De Ware Vrienden" ("The True Friends"). This is a set of covered passages, a kind of "urban shortcuts" that form a small-scale shopping center in the commercial and historical part of the city. Created in 1986, the site is surrounded by various larger developments, and is seeking a sustainable relationship with the older urban fabric. Largely unoccupied at present, it no longer plays the role of an intimate and lively public space in the heart of the city. Against the backdrop of the broader historical phenomenon of the pedestrian mall in the (European) city center, we will explore the potential for the reuse of this site.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
To investigate, within a short time, a specific question relating to intervention on an existing building, by combining research and field studies.
Learn to collaborate towards a common goal, working as a team.
Produce synthetic documents presenting scenarios.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
The courses of architectural history and intervention on existing buildings in the bachelor cycle.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
The workshop is organized in three parts:
- surveys and thematic studies (typology, inclusivity) during the two first weeks (from 15 until 23/9);
- a one-week international workshop (from 26/9 to 30/9), in Hasselt, during which students and teachers from the universities of Liège, Hasselt, Wuppertal and Eindhoven work in inter-institutional groups on scenarios of adaptation of the site, at all scales (from detail to urban context). Please note that the 27/9, a public holiday, is included in this week as a day of classes (recovered in advance on the 14/9); this week implies a financial participation of the students for the accommodation on site from Monday to Friday (about 50 €) and for the travel (by train or car).
- a time for finalizing the documents and presentation texts, from 4 to 7/10.
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Face-to-face course
Additional information:
Face-to-face as far as sanitary conditions allow.
Recommended or required readings
J.F. Geist, Arcades: the History of a Building Type, Cambridge, MIT Press, 1982.
Written work / report
Continuous assessment
Additional information:
Oral presentation of group projects at the end of the week of Sept. 26th. Written and graphic documents to be handed in on October 7th.
Work placement(s)
Organizational remarks
The workshop starts on September 15th and not 14th.
Tuesday 27 September is included in the programme. The week of Sept. 26th all activities take place in Hasselt.
Contacts
c.houbart@uliege.be
p.noe@uliege.be
negin.eisazadeh@uliege.be