Label Architecture

Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards

Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
© Stijn Bollaert

Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards 

Label Architecture

MANUFACTURERS
Autodesk, Vande Moortel

PHOTOGRAPHS
Stijn Bollaert

AREA
5018 M²

YEAR
2019

LOCATION
Mechelen, Belgium

CATEGORY
Schools

Text description provided by architect.

The Ursulinensite in the centre of Mechelen, Belgium, is characterised by a mishmash of building types and styles, lacking any clear definition.

Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
© Stijn Bollaert
Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
© Stijn Bollaert

Made up out of different public buildings intertwined with private dwellings, the building block presents itself as a labyrinthine and hardly legible piece of city fabric.

In an attempt to structure the open space of the building block, the project introduces a series of courtyards.

Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
© Stijn Bollaert
Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
© Stijn Bollaert

In combination with the extreme compactness of the new buildings, we recreate large unbuilt spaces, forming breathing areas in the middle of the dense block.

The transition from the public to the private sphere, from the streets to the classrooms, has a clear hierarchy, and becomes tangible in the positioning and permeability of its surrounding architecture.

Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
© Stijn Bollaert
Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
© Stijn Bollaert

The new volumes are as much integrated in their volume as they are in their architectural language.We turn the truth upside down.

By referring to the industrial archetypes of the past, the buildings play with the memory of the residents.

Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
© Stijn Bollaert
Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
© Stijn Bollaert

Maybe the school buildings were there first, have been renovated a few times, and the rest of the building block was built around them?


Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
© Stijn Bollaert
Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
© Stijn Bollaert
Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
© Stijn Bollaert
Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
© Stijn Bollaert
Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
© Stijn Bollaert


Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
Plan 0
Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
Plan A1
Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
Plan A2
Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
Plan A3


Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
Plan A4
Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
Plan A5
Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
Plan B1
Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
Plan B2


Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
Plan B3
Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
Ursulinen Blocks and Courtyards
Axonometric

Label Architecture
T +32 2 5028995
Label Architecture
Chau. de Neerstalle 24, 1190 Brussel, Belgium