The new building for the activities of FLACC-CIAP crystalise the new master vision for the C-mine site on one of the designated strategic incubation sites. This framework for this master vision, stands in contrast to traditional zoning plans. The new vision, escapes concrete presumptions, but offers a series of principles tuned towards flexible growth. It attempts to keep the generousity of the valuable publicly accessible landscape, concentrating hard activities on the edges and allowing the interior site to breathe with soft interventions.

The group of buildings for FLACC-CIAP will pilot several scales to relaunch productive and artistic programmes, They act as a multifaceted platform where art, history, neighbourhood and landscape can find and reinforce each other. As one of a select group of strategic developments, this project has the task of becoming a true hub for activity and new dynamics for the whole site.

From the ambition to engage in a broader dialogue with the new character of the site also comes the form of the design: a compound of buildings and outdoor spaces. It is a composition of two main buildings, namely the Kunsthal and the Workshop; and two defined outdoor spaces with annexes, the forecourt with greenhouse and the walled atelier garden with residence. The position of the new ‘compound’ of the studio plays a key role in the activation of the site. We want to extend this activating role to the scale of the buildings and the places they frame. We thus create intersections of paths that are articulated by interventions, buildings and ‘markers’.

These intersections and ‘overlaps’ happen on the scale of the site; walkers meet artists and visitors mingle with members. The space and infrastructure of the new studio must also reflect this duality. We want a place that plays on two scales: that of the vast landscape with industrial buildings, and that of the common, humane, village-like. The two scales in one project as a gathering place; grand yet humane.

• Location

  Winterslag, Genk, Belgium

• Client

  City of Genk, FLACC, CIAP

• Program

  Ateliers, exhibition space, temporary living and shared facilities

• Invited competition

  2019

• Design

  2020-2021

• Construction

  2022-2023

• 51N4E project team

  Freek Persyn, Dieter Leyssen, Ruben Janssens, Matteo Novarino, Arya Arabshahi, Wim Menten

• In collaboration with

  Point Supreme (Athens, GR), Plant en Houtgoed

• Engineering

  Tractebel Engineering

• Building physics/acoustics

  Daidalos-Peutz

• Environment Consultant

  JRE Consult

• Safety Coordination

  Boveco

• Built surface

  1.625 m²

• Image credits

  Point Supreme, 51N4E