002 Meulestede Noord Ghent

In the Meulestede-Noord district in Ghent, widely divergent, more or less urban fragments lie next to each other without any cohesion, relics of past developments. Without imposing a prevailing new order on the area, the intervention introduces a delineated structure that can also guide future developments. A modified street plan and carefully positioned, unambiguous volumes connect the existing fragments, rather than emphasising the gap between the various developments. A clearly defined, recognisable public space is created, which incorporates the diversity of the area.

The simplicity of the volumes is emphasised by the facades. The dwellings are clad in brickwork in six different shades. The renderings preserve the solidity of the volumes and give the surfaces a certain rough structure, while the colours add a rather graphic aspect to the buildings.

The buildings reveal a different character every time they are viewed from a different angle. By using similar colours in simultaneously perceived facades of different volumes, a plastic relationship between the different volumes is achieved. In this way, certain parts of a building appear to be related to the nearby volume rather than to its own volume, and the urban spaces also take on multiple meanings.

The park in the core of the area is laid out in such a way that it is visually bounded as an open space by the surrounding buildings. The new OCMW community centre with its post office and police station forms a fourth, new boundary.