Buda Art Center: a new cultural centre designed by 51N4E

The object is no longer to be looked at, but an essential key to read and understand the city

by Malcolm Clark
2
2 Love 1975 Visits

Buda Art Center, located on Buda Island, a new expanding cultural district in the heart of the Belgian city of Kortrijk and designed by 51N4E, was obtained from the transformation and reuse of a former textile factory. The building, therefore, no longer represents an object which is looked at, but becomes the essential key to read and interpret the development of a city.

The architecture with its compact volume was adjusted to the new arrangement through two main lines of action: first of all a large central void within the building framed by a pentagonal perimeter containing the staircase that connects the different levels.

Secondly an open pavilion was annexed with access to a public road, made of yellow bricks recovered from the existing construction. The front entrance of the pavilion is precisely the new façade of the complex.

The Buda Art Center is an innovative type of cultural container that refers to the past, maintaining its vocation of productive plant. If most of the surrounding buildings are almost hidden within the urban fabric, Buda Center is in constant dialogue with the rest of the city: its architecture does not aspire to become an icon, but inevitably generates in turn, a new built environment.

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    Buda Art Center 26

    Buda Art Center

    Kortrijk / Belgium / 2012