A book about the strategies used by authorities to erase political graffiti during the 2019 Hong Kong protests: a photographic exploration and text by Hans Leo Maes/TypicalPlan, published by Building Books.
Read MoreNothing To See Here
politics
Machine à rêver
in planning
typicalplan = planning |
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UNE MACHINE A REVER. |
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More than 50 years after its construction, the modernist architecture of the Kiel development has not lost any of its utopian power. But in light of today’s changing society, its original design principles must be re-considered in order for it to function optimally.
The proposed re-purposing of the former boiler room and director's residence is the perfect cause to provide an answer to the needs of contemporary residents. They could become the heart of a new hedonistic complex which both complements and safeguards the spartan purity of the neighbourhood.
The machine à habiter is enriched with a machine à rêver, where the creative desires and civic aspirations of the residents are realised. The rigorous socialist re-education vehicle conceived by architect Renaat Braem is complemented by a cheerful materialistic outgrowth.
A social condenser?
In the original modernist set-up the residents were to be socialised in the paternalistic educational way typical of the era. We propose a contemporary strategy to create a sense of community, based on a collective experiencing of the "petty-bourgeois sins". After all, in our fragmented consumer society, aren't we all increasingly connected by our exceedingly decadent material desires and ambitions, beyond all ideological divisions?
In the not so distant past the creation of pleasant shared space was deemed sufficient for like-minded people to meet and socialise in an evident, organic way. The residents now form a much more heterogeneous group and we propose that a sense of community can only arise as a by-product of shared experiences. The new complex focuses on the creation of these shared, but not necessarily collective, experiences.
As an ultimate tribute, this intervention hopes to be a contemporary interpretation of the "social center" which Braem always saw as an integral part of his public housing schemes but never saw realised.
“The unfulfilled material desires of the residents of the Kiel neighbourhood are realised inside and around the former boiler room. All activities that fall outside the remit of the efficient modernist plan find their expression here. The defining characteristics of the suburban Flemish dream house are reinterpreted as collective facilities of the public housing estate.”
A house fostering a new idea of community
All facilities can be booked by the inhabitants for their private use.
The living room: containing all the luxury essentials for the modern cocooner to entertain guests: a home cinema, design lounge, computer games room…
The kitchen: a fully equipped professional kitchen for cooking lessons and preparing elaborate meals for family feasts
The bedroom: hostel rooms to be booked by residents for temporary stays of visitors who cannot be accommodated in the apartment
The bathroom: wellness center with jacuzzi, sauna, gym...
The veranda: a greenhouse with swimming pool, diving tower and year-round tropical planting
The shed: a thin high-rise of stacked hobby and craft rooms which can not be accommodated in the apartments for acoustic or space constraint reasons
The allotment: private outdoor spaces that compensate for the lack of balconies, to be used as ornamental garden or vegetable patch
The sun deck: a terrace available for the local residents and their guests, connected to the "kitchen" and "living room"
type: submission for ideas competition “Renaat Braem 1910-2010” organised by Flemish Architecture Institute (VAi) and others
location: Antwerp, Belgium
year: 2010
architect: Hans Leo Maes / TypicalPlan
Justaposition
typicalplan = producing + penning |
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a book: JUSTAPOSITION. |
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Justaposition is a collection of mobile photography previously posted on Instagram under the TypicalPlan username.
All photos were shot between 2013 and 2015 and edited ex-clusively on iPhone 3, 4 and 6 with following iPhone apps: Snapseed, Mirrorgram, Mextures, Darkroom, Perspective.
For this publication only limited reformatting was applied for printing purposes.
title: Justaposition. framing the facts to fit the fiction. TypicalPlan images 2013-2015
publisher: TypicalPlan Ltd.
ISBN: 978-988-14472-0-3
date: 12/2015, first limited edition of 300 signed and numbered copies
details: soft cover, 100 pages
Press
A selection of publications featuring work by TypicalPlan
Read MoreVlaanderen 2002 no-space odyssey
in planning
typicalplan = planning |
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VLAANDEREN 2002 NO-SPACE ODYSSEY. |
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Due to a government decision the small Flemish polder village of Doel will finally yield to the expansion of the port of Antwerp. About a thousand inhabitants will be forced out of their houses and distributed over new suburban developments. A village community with a rich history is destroyed.
By relocating to low-density neighbourhoods a bad thing begets worse: the space-consuming port expansion is multiplied by housing the former village dwellers in suburban villa’s.
Can this tragedy instead become an opportunity?
If destruction of the village is unavoidable for economic reasons, isn’t it our duty to offer the inhabitants a real alternative?
The port expansion is accompanied by the abandonment of the old small-scale port facilities near the centre of Antwerp. The gradual dissociation of city and port leaves a barren no man’s land in its wake. Would it not be self-evident to relocate a village destroyed by harbour expansion to the scorched earth left in the wake of this capitalist bulldozer?
Instead of being fragmented by the destructive powers of the port, the village would reappear densified, more concentrated in the eye of the storm.
Instead of causing fragmentation, the disappearance of the village becomes an opportunity for a research into new forms of high-density housing.
An investigation into high-rise dwellings:
+ Can an apartment building with a surplus of shared common spaces become a vertical village?
+ Is not the flaw of modernist high-rise planning to situate public space next to the building, thus minimizing the possibilities of interaction and interweaving between public and private space? (The so-called landscape on the untouched ground plane beneath the “pilotis” is just greenery as scenery.)
+ What if circulation spaces were inflated so they function as real transitory semi-public zones within the building?
+ What if corridors became streets?
The old village becomes a blueprint for the creation of multiple transitory levels of privacy. But whereas the structure of the old village meant that houses looked into each other in the front and at the back, here the inhabitants are offered an unhindered view of the river at one side and its hinterland to the other. Public streets are up- and downwards. A true vertical village.
type: graduation project Master of Architecture, St.-Lucas Institute of Architecture, WENK (Brussels, Belgium)
location: Antwerp, Belgium
year: 1999
architect: Hans Leo Maes / TypicalPlan
A Bridge as a Mirage
in planning
typicalplan = planning |
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A BRIDGE AS A MIRAGE. |
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Where the mirage above the African desert road
–the optical illusion of water-
becomes the real seawater
over the submerged
bridge to the dream of Europe.
A breakwater, concrete with a polystyrene core,
floating a few centimeters under the water surface.
People walking on water.
The significance of the connection between two continents
matched by the magic of an apparently supernatural feat.
Not just the official link to the promised land,
the breakwater also protects the illegitimate crossings
by boat from rough seas.
(a hidden agenda?)
On the other side,
the fata morgana of the Gibraltar rock
a promise of prosperity,
as elusive as the mirage of water above Africa’s desert roads.
Where the perception of each other has always
been defined by myths, dreams and desires,
the link between the continents celebrates this
complex relationship in a magical act.
“The high elegance of a fictional bridge which barely takes the trouble to exist. A mirage is a fantasy, but a mirage becomes more interesting when it actually does exist […]” - American science fiction author Bruce Sterling about “The Bridge as a Mirage”
type: submission for ideas competition “Project Heracles” organised by Domus magazine, shortlisted by jury member Bruce Sterling
location: Strait of Gibraltar
year: 2011
architect: Hans Leo Maes / TypicalPlan