Renée Faveere

Architecture and Scenography

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Hugo Claus zei over zijn boek schaamte: “Ik wou het gevoel van schaamte accepteren. Waarin de meeste mensen verkeren, en waardoor elk vrij optreden vertroebeld wordt. Dit.” De acceptatie van schaamte vormt de leidraad van het onderzoek. Dit onderzoek heeft geleid tot een korte performance waarbij het beeld centraal staat. Doormiddel van de scenografie beleeft de speler allerlei - al dan niet dagdagelijkse - situaties.

CREDITS SPEL Nathan de Feyter DRAMATURGIE Debbie Oskam TECHNISCH MATERIAAL Pieter Nys MET DANK AAN Robin Beelen, Hendrik & Monique

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Over ruimte

Het uitgangspunt van dit werk is mijn interesse in ruimtegebruik. Ruimte is schaars en daardoor is het belangrijk dat iedereen zinvol omgaat met de ruimte die voorhanden is. Ik wil geen pleidooi houden over wat goed of fout is maar de dialoog openen over wat ruimte kan zijn. Ruimte is namelijk onderhevig aan interpretatie en kan verschillen naargelang personen en/of momenten.

De laatste jaren is er enorm veel nuttig onderzoek gedaan naar ruimte en hoe we deze goed kunnen gebruiken. Zowel conceptuele kunst als architec- turaal onderzoek komen hier aan bod. Hierdoor ben ik zelf niet specifiek op onderzoek gegaan, maar heb ik een kleine greep van deze onderzoeken of kunstwerken getoond in het boek.

Eén van de belangrijkste thema’s is het herbestemmen van plaatsen of gebouwen. De buurt rond OPEK en de Vaartkom is momenteel in volle transitie. Hierdoor is het de uitgelezen plek om ruimte in vraag te stellen. Ik heb gezocht naar herbestemde plaatsen maar ook naar plekken die veel potentieel hebben om een soortgelijke transformatie te kunnen ondergaan. Op deze manier zien we wat de mogelijkheden zijn van hoe we met ruimte kunnen omgaan. Deze heb ik in beeld gebracht en zijn te zien in het boek. Deze zoektocht naar interessante plaatsen heb ik uitgevoerd in een stedelijke en publieke context, maar dit kan ieder van ons ook projecteren op zijn eigen context.

De installatie zelf begrenst ruimte maar kan op verschillende manieren geïnterpreteerd worden naargelang de gebruiker of het moment. Het staat nu op de kop van de Vaart, maar deze begrenzing van ruimte kan mijn inziens eender waar staan, en zo de dialoog telkens opnieuw openen.

Ter illustratie vroeg ik twee personen om iets in de afgebakende ruimte te doen. De ene persoon is muzikant de andere danseres. Ik liet ze zelf de ruimte interpreteren en hier is een beeld- en geluidsfragment uit voortgekomen.

video: https://vimeo.com/336196242?utm_source=email&utm_medium=vimeo-cliptranscode-201504&utm_campaign=28749

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Installatie Over ruimte

VAART2019

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Mamma Medea, Tom Lanoye costume 1st year scenography 2018

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Masterthesis: urbanity as concept and context Hoboken, Antwerp, Belgium 2 Ma-AR, ontwerpend onderzoek (ONTO) 2017

Assignment and research

Within the framework of the master thesis, design research with the theme ‘Urbanism as a concept and in a context’ we were asked to densify the peripheral city in an urban way. The research consisted of indexing references that express different forms of urbanity in plan, section and view. By analogy with Labo XX, the teachers chose a site in Hoboken, in the outskirts of the 20th century belt of Antwerp. Based on our catalogue of urban qualities and additional references, we try to give this unique site cohesion and identity.

Ambition collage

Due to the interaction between low and high-rise buildings and the use of a facade from the site in Hoboken we want to present an image of the present situation and atmosphere to an ambition. This is not a definite picture of how we address the problem in a specific place in the building block or in the 20th century belt, but rather an intention. However, we want to see in one picture what might be possible within the topics we have investigated. We choose a configuration that can define a space and charge it at the same time. This is done by giving residents their address in the square created by this configuration. Thus, we give residents and visitors the chance of social contact by different ways to meet. The space created on this image has a clearly legible and defined framework that structures the circulation in and around the square. Such an entrance can show what happens at the square, but can also generate a curiosity in the passant to find out what is behind the corner. After this we designed a master plan in which three ‘urban’ squares converge to one. These serve as an access to the green interior area of the building block. Each of us designed one of these squares.

Sequence: square vs alley

The urban square and buildings around here are enclosed by two accesses leading to the streets around the building block. One entrance is at the urban square, the other access is via a newly designed street. These differences in passages have a great effect on the newly designed architecture. Asking what a particular place requires is very important. By leaving from an urban image that came from our joint research into urbanity in plan, view and section, an image of the square was growing.

It became clear that the use of a more monumental building gives the square identity. The next step was to zoom in on two specific buildings: the building on the street side and the monumental building nearby the new square and the park area around the building block. These two new buildings act as a new kind of urbanity that revives the 20th century belt through small or large interventions. The concepts applied to these two buildings can be projected on the other volumes of the site.

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One Wall Academie, Antwerp, Belgium  2 Ma-AR, projectweek 2017

This collage is made for a project week with the title ‘displacement’. In this week we had to reconstruct a small room on a 1:1 scale. This resulted in new interesting insights and a new experience of the place and the ‘new room’. At the end of the week we received the individual assignment to reflect on the room on the basis of 1 poster. For this I made 4 collages of the inside and outside of the room.

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Bertold Brecht, Trommeln in der Nacht Park spoor oost, Antwerp, Belgium  1st year scenography 2018

Concept

Trommeln in der Nacht is a really confusing story with many incoherent sentences and movements. We had to make a scenography on location and we chose park spoor oost, which is a big open hardened space in Antwerp. Every student had to make one scene. I had the last one, which is the most confusing with a lot of dubiety. I needed a lot of space, so the actors are really free in where they play. I designed a big circle made of mirror walls in order to involve the public and the environment in the piece. I placed it on the long bicycle lane, for sight on the park and heightened in relation to the public.

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William Shakespeare, Richard III De Studio, Antwerp, Belgium  1st year scenography 2018

Concept

Richard III is a written history by William Shakespeare about the corrupt, sadistic Richard III of England who, after the enthronement of his elder brother Edward, makes every effort to claim the crown of the king for himself. For this he killed many people during the play. I feel that this kind of story goes over and over again throughout history. To accentuate these murders, I used the panels of the scenography itself. Every time someone dies, part of the scenography goes away and can be built up in another place to play the story again. The scenography seems to be part of a ruin to show that this is not the first time this kind of story happens.

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Seifenmanufaktur Isartor, Munich 1 Ma - AR, “Entwerfen und Gestalten” in collaboration with Maria Font Vilarrasa  2016

Concept

The factory building was designed to reflect the quality of the finest bar of soap. The materiality of the building became the main linking element. Stone accompanies the entire project. The contrast in the durability of soap and stone, despite similar structure, compactness and interpenetration of colours in the whole massive piece of each of those materials.

Volume

The volume of the building is as if it was cut out of stone in its solid massiveness. For the facade we used a greenish/ grey natural stone. Both surfaces, glass for windows and stone for cladding are at the same level. The entire volume follows the urban site situation. The mass is divided into two parts, which are connected with lower parts between them. That allows more lighting into the new building and to the narrow street.

In the matter to make the surrounding street more liveable, the main facades of the two parts of the building skewed and intersect in one point. The roofs are designed to follow the surroundings of a traditional urban block, but in a new way. The design follows an idea of an urban sculpture.

Interior

The idea of stone continues also in the inner part. The continuing space is defined by various compact blocks. As material we used light marble and other bright materials. The structure of the building is based on blocks that overlap and create open spaces. Double high areas relate to different parts of the factory. The factory, the soap shop and other required rooms are situated in the lower part of the building. In the higher levels, we placed spacious flats related to the attractiveness of the inner city.

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Table 3Ba - AR studio 1:1 scale 2015

Mission and ambition

The assignment was to design a table and then make it yourself on scale 1:1. My ambition was to design a table that was flexible and could therefore become larger and smaller depending on the situation.

Design

The table is modular in the longest direction. The basic dimensions of the tabletop is 144/72 cm. This can be extended with parts of 72/72 cm. Multiple tables and/or extensions can be linked together, to form a large table, with variation(s). The whole table is supported by beams resting on the individual table legs. The table is made in only one material, plywood of 18 mm thick. No screws or bolts are used. The table is completely interlocked, in the order of the table leg, beam and tabletop. The legs themselves are glued in a few places. In this way, the table can be fully disassembled in and out each other and moved to another room.

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Birding hut De molenbeekvallei - Erps-Kwerps, Belgium  3Ba - AR studio construction 2015

Place where ornithologists and bird spotters can watch the birds on and around a lake, and where the walker can take a rest and enjoy the view.

Framework

The design started from a rectangle, one of the most simplistic figures. This form creates the most views on the lake for the least place. On this rectangle, I placed cross-ties in a geometric manner. By connecting these lines, bigger crossings arise. A logic framework was raised by the connection of perpendicular crossings. Subsequently, this grid is divided into a primary and secondary part.

Interpretation of the framework

The determination of the access to the cabin is based on the path that will be constructed in the future by Natuurpunt. The walls on the side of the pond are defined by views on the pond. These may possibly change in the future. I have designed a system for the hanging columns that they can easily be detached and fixed. This makes them movable to another point on the grid. The system is fixed, but the spaces are open for interpretation.

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Horizontal metropolis: a radical project Central East Flanders, Belgium Summerschool under the direction of Paola Vigano In collaboration with studio Vigano and 9 other international students/architects 2018

Introduction

Two years ago, Paola Viganò and students at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) presented “The Horizontal Metropolis” at the Venice Biennale. This is a radical project on the development of the diffuse city that uses a new conceptual framework in which the key words are porosity, isotrophy, connectivity, horizontality and space as a capital and renewable resource.

In the summer of 2018, the exhibition was held at the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels. The exhibition follows up on the research undertaken by Paola Viganò on the “Horizontal Metropolis” and applies it to the Belgian context. At the summer school three Belgian case studies - Central East Flanders, the gardens of West Brussels and the Sambre Valley in Wallonia - where added to the existing five case studies that include the ville territoire in Lausanne, the Citta diffusa in Venice, the Megapolis in the United States and Desakota in China.

Central East Flanders

Together with 9 other students/architects, I did research on what a suburban village needs and what it means for the city. We reflected on the original curve of the Scheldt and where the flooding areas are. Also the different living types are analysed and how they can relate to local agriculture. By thinking about several forms of transport and how they could relate to the city of Gent, we decided to decline the highway until the ring around Gent. This opened the idea of making a green area, that also associates to the old Ferraris map. All these elements define how the suburban village can look like in around 50 years.

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Uber Sendling: Living ‘plus’ Working Munich, Germany 1Ma - AR wohnen ‘plus’ arbeiten  In collaboration with Inês Mendes 2016

‘plus’: adding facilities to activate housing areas

Situation and ambition

Obersendling presents a multiplicity of different uses which are disconnected from each other: industrial, working spaces and different types of housing areas predominate the area. The isolated housing areas stand out as they are disconnected from the other uses; assuming that this fragmentation results in an inefficient use of space, we propose a concept of adding the ‚plus‘ to the living areas.

Design

Focusing on the topic ‚Living plus working‘, the idea is to bring life and diversity into the living spaces by adding missing facilities. Creating and re-designing spaces for the habitants of the area, we provide them with new ways to use the space adding community places and sport facilities in the existing underused buildings and spaces. Additionally, adding new housing buildings, densifying the area and bringing a wide diversity of people.

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Ensemble in Mechelen Mechelen, Belgium 3Ba - AR, bachelor thesis 2015

Ambition

I designed a master plan for the site in Mechelen with two other students. After this, we divided the buildings and I got the large robust building on the side of a busier street and the river. My ambition was to give the building a certain identity on every place in the block.

Design

First I divided the building into several units, and I chose to give them a different personal character. Every unit has his own identity. There are atelier houses, apartments on one floor, duplex apartments and a tower building. The ‘tower’ gives the building an end point and has a quiet anonymous appearance. In this tower there are commercial functions, offices, a day care and housing. The division is extended to the facade that is made out of brick and concrete which make it a modular system. I also played with floor heights, connection to the courtyard and circulation between the buildings. 

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Studenthousing Italiëlei - Vondelstraat Antwerp, Belgium  2Ba - AR urban studio in collaboration with Ine Baeyens 2014

Assignment

The assignment consisted of designing a student house on the corner of the Italiëlei and the Vondelstraat. It’s an important place on an urban scale, so the context got fairly significant. The idea of a building block and how to get useful space inside the building was something to think about. We had to reflect about facade, the base of the facade and the relation to the courtyard.

Design

Our idea was to focus on collective space. The students sleep separately, but they cook, live and study together. In this case, the quality of the outdoor space was crucial. By shaping the building we kept an eye on the height of the neighbouring buildings. The circulation through the building is seen as an element that divides the building and serves as a ray of light and outdoor space. The circulation area also functioned as the main entrance. Because of these elements it can be seen as an urban inner street.