Kristiaan Van Weert
Ecopolis
21
Ecopolis
21 is a proposal for an ecological urban project planned on 'Du Sable
Park' in Chicago. It can be read as a 4D urban garden, an attractor and
event-structure for inhabitants of the area and greater Chicago as well
as tourists.
Ecopolis
21 redefines the classic urban and garden models. It takes up the idea
of combining different thematic gardens with associated urban programs,
injected on the site under 1 roof, a building body. Typical garden/parc
functions will be linked and intensified while being broadened with urban
functions within an architectural language of flow and continuation. Multiple
environments are woven together by circulation, making continuous interaction
possible.
This hybrid
body works as an abstract entity in which formal characteristics of a
landscape are inserted - an ecoscape.
6 garden blobs are hung in the space with voids in between, creating different
atmospheres.
The circulation
through the building allows for a continuous flow which generates extra
events, mostly temporal functions as opposed to the more established functions
with specific locations in the building. Multiple landscapes are fluidly
distributed and linked and make interconnection between the different
activities possible. This spatial articulation generates new modes of
inhabiting space: an architectural model modified into a self-organized
system.
The established
gardens are:
- Night Garden
- Rock Garden
- Herbal Garden
- Wet Garden
- Urban Garden
- Native Plant Garden
Kristiaan
Van Weert
Antwerp (Belgium)
title: Dipl.Arch., M.Arch.
e-mail: kris@zappness.net
http://www.zappness.net
description: Kristiaan Van Weert graduated as an architect in Belgium and went on to earn a Master of Architecture at the Architectural Association's Design Research Laboratory in London. Before returning to Belgium to establish his own practice he worked for several offices in Rotterdam, Munich and London.