Parlement
The Beyaert courtyard is located between the Federal Parliament and the House of Parliamentarians. The project consists of a redesign of the ground plan.
The current situation presents a street flanked on one side by a flat neoclassical façade, and by a succession of eclectic buildings arranged in a comb-like pattern, whose gables give rhythm to the passage on the other. The parking spaces on the site are lined up in the hollows formed by these buildings and the street is now mainly used for access to them. The aim of the project is to transform this crossing road into a place where people can stop, and to give priority to pedestrians.
The intervention is light, simply covering the surface of the street. The new floor is a welcoming carpet that dialogues with the two facades and sets the scene for their opposite. The treatment of this new floor finds its subtlety in the material nature of the brick, the patterns, textures and colours created by their arrangement. The project is also an opportunity to introduce a more abundant nature, scattered according to the sunshine.
On the side of the eclectic façade, a collection of brick patterns is arranged according to use: public thoroughfare, pedestrian path, low wall, bench, landscape intervention, entrance, exit. This is the exercise of the base.
On the side of the neoclassical facade, a concrete emergence organizes access, planters and benches. This is the exercise of the pavement.
In the Presidential courtyard, which is at the back of the neoclassical building, we used the same idea of a carpet. We replaced the cobblestones that covered the floor with a covering made of typical Belgian materials: blue stone and red marble. The bluestone elements are treated differently, sometimes sawn or chiselled, sometimes bush hammered, so as to present a great diversity of texture. This variety is emphasized by the bands of griotte marble that punctuate the surface.
