Garden rooms in Ghent
Put-Away Street is a design response to our reflections on the typology of the Flemish beluik, a form of row house. The beluik is a naturally insertive element into an existing condition, often situated within the core of an urban block. The common yard at the centre of a beluik functions as an urban room, from which the ‘theatre’ of inhabitation can be observed and social interactions enjoyed.
In 2020, we experienced the city folding in on itself. Suddenly, the domestic interior had to sustain all professional, caretaking and social activities. For many, especially those without private outdoor space, the doorstep of the home became an important social space, allowing residents to engage in fragments of public life. In response, we proposed a series of interventions which externalised the doorstep from the home, making use of underutilised parts of the city and allowing them to be reappropriated as work spaces, play spaces, ateliers, greenhouses or social spaces.
In the spirit of the beluik, we reappropriate existing garage sites into tuinkamers, garden rooms. Tucked away inside city blocks, many of these sites were originally beluiks, demolished and replaced with garages in the second half of the twentieth century. Following the footprint of the existing buildings, a two-storey greenhouse structure is built up around the existing single-storey garages, maintaining the site's current density. The porches become doorsteps and can be used as small spaces for cultivation, shade and neighbourly interaction. Like the original beluik, the tuinkamers face inward onto a shared yard. Both individuated and connected within the intimate yard, the design creates a flexible, shared urban room which offers much more to its residents than it takes away.
Project: Competition entry, transformation of disused garages into garden rooms
Status: Unrealised
Location: Ghent, Belgium
Date: 2020
In 2020, we experienced the city folding in on itself. Suddenly, the domestic interior had to sustain all professional, caretaking and social activities. For many, especially those without private outdoor space, the doorstep of the home became an important social space, allowing residents to engage in fragments of public life. In response, we proposed a series of interventions which externalised the doorstep from the home, making use of underutilised parts of the city and allowing them to be reappropriated as work spaces, play spaces, ateliers, greenhouses or social spaces.
In the spirit of the beluik, we reappropriate existing garage sites into tuinkamers, garden rooms. Tucked away inside city blocks, many of these sites were originally beluiks, demolished and replaced with garages in the second half of the twentieth century. Following the footprint of the existing buildings, a two-storey greenhouse structure is built up around the existing single-storey garages, maintaining the site's current density. The porches become doorsteps and can be used as small spaces for cultivation, shade and neighbourly interaction. Like the original beluik, the tuinkamers face inward onto a shared yard. Both individuated and connected within the intimate yard, the design creates a flexible, shared urban room which offers much more to its residents than it takes away.
Project: Competition entry, transformation of disused garages into garden rooms
Status: Unrealised
Location: Ghent, Belgium
Date: 2020