Photo of the site: a road for cyclists and walkers parallel with the Schelde and a branch which leads to Heusden. On the plains, all is beautiful meadows.
1. The start
Our starting point was to see the Vélostation as a landscape pavilion. An architectural sculpture that is placed in the midst of a green landscape, a building that you can see from far distance, and say oh maybe we can stop there and have a drink. The pavilion's hat would be our main sculptural focus.
There is this notion of visibility of the pavilion in the landscape, it's perception from the outside, the passenger - but then there's the prevalence of the other direction as well: from inside to the outside.
And that is when the notion of a shelter comes to be.
We both had this idea of a shelter. You know, a roof for hiding underneath when it rains - regardless of the vélostation being open or not. Then, being under that roof, you stare at the landscape. It is you looking at that landscape.
Designwise, two major things. There is one platform on which we built a constellation of volumes, all held together by a slanting roof, let's say a hat. By doing so, underneath this hat, we create these positive and negative spaces. The directions, or let's say the positioning of the pavilion is crucial, practically but also regarding the different views towards the landscape.
a first major positioning of the pavilion: partly encapsulated in the slope, a fine hint to the passenger, just peeping above the flat line
2. The final design
Floorplan of our final design: rigid forms on a rectangular plate, a funnel-shaped entering in between the two volumes. With technical and sanitary space in the left volume, little cafe in the right volume - which is extended to the terrace in good weather conditions. positioning of the pavilion is so that cyclist can easily enter by coming down the existing slope, and that the terrace and cafe have a great view onto the landscape.
In this picture of the model, you clearly see the positioning of the pavilion within the landscape. A piece of grass is semi-hardened for easy bike acces towards the pavilion.
helicopter view
atmospheric section
