Les Ballets C de la B and LOD
production studios for a dance company and musical theatre company at Gent
Two buildings. Two production studios for dance theatre and music theatre. For Les Ballets C de la B and LOD. Where they were expecting to have to share a single building, each found its own building. The buildings stand there, parked on a site that – at first sight – seems impossible, surrounded by 17 different sides. The site is given order again by buildings and open space. Open space as urban space. Open space as private space between the buildings and their surroundings.
Two buildings, copied. A reflection. A copy, but different. Two buildings. Back to back. And yet, looking at each other.
Two closed buildings. And, nonetheless, two open facades. Facades that offer an insight into the building. A particular insight. Open facades that nevertheless also offer an insight into the construction. Of the building. A layering of columns and beams: steel, wood, concrete, and masonry. Construction that shows the face of the building. Detail of the building. The facade opens the building by unravelling the thickness of the facade. And suddenly the subsidiary spaces become visible. The piling-up of those subsidiary spaces becomes visible. An accumulation bound together by a staircase. In this way, the heart of the building – the studio – becomes visible from time to time. And vice versa. Looking out from the studio through the pile of spaces. Looking outside from the intimacy of the building. Likewise from the studio’s loggias. Windows that bring the outside inside. Context. Inspiring context.
Back to the outside and look at the studio’s closed facades. This skin, too, is peeled, layer by layer, in the same way. And leaving openings to allow green growth over the whole facade.
