Asylum place for OLVA
interaction + light / dark + free space
quiet space for students, teachers and guests for a humanities school
design tc plus
Thirty years ago the original chapel of the college at Bruges was transformed in a study hall. Only the rood loft was conserved and rebuilt as a small
chapel. With the lapse of time, even that chapel was no longer used and served mainly as a storage space.
That chapel has now experienced a metamorphosis: it is now an asylum place for the pupils: a place for silence, a place to settle down and a place to recharge.
The room has been painted completely in dark-blue chalk paint and can be used as a writing surface from floor to ceiling.
There is a large, clear light object in the space, forming an interior room, used for class (exceeding) discussions. The dark-blue space is horizontal and invites to individual use, the bright space is vertical and invites rather to a group experience.
Before you enter the room, you pass a golden transitional space where you can leave your shoes in order to preserve the silence in the following room.
From the entrance area you can see a fountain. So the cleaning of the blue chalk space can become a ritual act.
During the evolution of this space the teachers, pupils and the direction
became aware of many empty and forgotten places in the school site where life could in one way or another get a different dimension.
So a network of places are growing and the catholic identity of the school is
unfolding in its own but enthusiastic way.
designers:
Tom Callebaut, Cindy Tirry and Natalie Allaert
