Looking through
Author(s)
Simone Gobbo (IT)
Alberto Mottola (IT)
Davide De Marchi (IT)
Client(s)
City of Gembloux
COMPETITION TEAM
Simone Gobbo (IT)
Alberto Mottola (IT)
Davide De Marchi (IT)
architects
Europan 10 Gembloux
winner
2013-2015
The project is grafted in the ancient urban centre, with its tangle of irregular and narrow streets, and it's designed as an operation of coherent integration with the existing urban tissue: in this case the south front of the building is entirely opened on the Parc d’Epinal, that becomes the central garden for Gembloux citizens.
The definition of specific points of view focused on the symbols of Gembloux activates a process of fragmentation of the unitary mass of the building into three smaller parts, that adjust to the urban scale of the city and house different functional programs.
The resulting fragments, covered with a copper cladding, take advantage of the various elevations of the project site and generate an articulated sequence of public spaces complementary to each other. Between each of these blocks there are glazed diaphragms: empty space between solid building masses, places of transition from where the user can appreciate the surrounding townscape.





This project is connected to the following themes
Shared spaces - Programmatic patchwork
The town, town hall and park form waymarks on a route that becomes an opportunity to introduce a variety of spaces for social interaction.
Shared spaces - Link - promenade
By introducing new buildings into an existing fabric, the project develops a series of fragmented public spaces, framing the urban landscape and Epinal Park.
Nature - Proximity / Horizon
The programme as a whole is fragmented in such a way as with to maintain coherence with its context: the morphology of each building is designed to emphasise the visual connections between inside/outside in relation with the town’s iconic monuments.