INTENTION OF THE STUDIO

When talking about polluted and abandoned sites, we link them easily to the colour black. Oil, coal mining, black carbon on the bottom of the Arctic meltwater remind us how badly we have treated the planet the last decades. Fortunately, we can learn from our mistakes, and by new sustainable development, the impact of humans on the planet can be reduced. Transforming the colour black will be essential to that process. Those contaminated and abandoned places should be treated in a way that they become liveable again.

As a team we decided to tackle such a polluted and abandoned space for our master dissertation. An evocative space is located close to the Dampoort station. Anyone who lives in Ghent knows where to nd it and see it as a place that needs proper development with a well-thought program. We decided to think a step further: because the site is so well known and many people daily pass through this place, we see the opportunity to transform the site into a sustainable urban village. This part of the city will be developed with new techniques making it fully self-su cient. The intention is to make sure that it can serve as a model for new city developments and treatment of contaminated land.

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THE BUILDING

Belgium has a rich history of beer. In Ancient Times our country was among the rst where beer was developed. Today, Belgium has several breweries of all scales. From world players like AB Inbev to sympathizers who are determined to develop their own beer at home. For years, beer consumption in Belgium has fallen and the link with alcohol is seen as the main cause. Therefore, it is important to re-think how beer can become attractive again in the future.

The solution is obvious: let the factor alcohol disappear in the beer, and people will again drink it. Unfortunately, this is not the case: alcohol-free beer has existed for years, and its use is rising, but with a mouthful. To get more solid growth, other factors need to be investigated. Why do people drink? Because they are thirsty. Suppose there is a beer that is not only healthy and alcohol-free but also has a thirst-quenching e ect. That beer is seen as the new sports drink; the new drink that can perfectly exclude soft drinks in the future just because of its healthy features.

But a brewery must be more than that, it must bring people together and be able to share the knowledge that it has with its consumers. therefore, it is logic to think not only of beer production in a city but also a framework that focuses on the experience of brewing and the new sustainable technologies that are linked to it. A circular brewery built on the scale and the rhythm of the city. 

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Supervisors: Luc Eeckhout, Sandy De Bruycker