Belgium-based architecture practice Wim Goes Architectuur has won the inaugural Pop-up Award, organized by British magazine The Architectural Review.
The winning project, titled Refuge II and located in Flanders, Belgium, is a palliative care facility for a client suffering from terminal illness. The temporary structure is housed within an existing carport and was a group building project, completed by friends and family under the guidance of the architect and specialist consultants.
The client had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an incurable and aggressive condition that would soon render their current house unsuitable for care. Wim Goes Architectuur’s solution was to convert the concrete carport adjacent to the current house into a “barrier-free space” for eating, sleeping and washing. Zones are separated only by curtains. The space can adapt as the client’s requirements change, providing accessibility and comfort throughout the progression of the illness.
More than 100 family and friends, guided by specialists, helped construct the project using modest materials such as straw and clay – facilitating fast construction and ease of future recycling, as well as making the build accessible and familiar.
The building process also provided those close to the client with a means to deal with the mental barrier that had been created by the diagnosis. The Architectural Review explains: “With the life of the building so intertwined with the life of the client, the process of learning how to build and, at times, having to improvise, was mirrored by the process of individuals coming to terms with the client’s situation.”
The director of Wim Goes Architectuur, Wim Goes, will be in Melbourne this month to speak at Diversity and Community, a two-day conference examining how architecture might be a positive force in uncertain times.
The event takes place on 10–12 February 2017 and is hosted by the Architecture Foundation Australia and supported by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) as part of the Victorian Design Program.
The program of international speakers also includes Bangladesh-based architect Marina Tabassum, whose firm Marina Tabassum Architects received a 2016 Aga Khan Award for the Bait Ur Rouf Mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh; and London-based Níall McLaughlin, principal of Níall McLaughlin Architects and recipient of the 2016 RIBA Charles Jencks Award, presented in recognition of a major contribution made internationally to the theory and practice of architecture.
Australian speakers include Architecture Foundation Australia tutors Glenn Murcutt, Brit Andresen, Richard Leplastrier and Peter Stutchbury.
Other international architects speaking at the conference are Meredith Bowles (Mole Architects, England), Mpethi Morojele (MMA Studio, South Africa), Per Arnold Andersen (Daylight and Architecture magazine by Velux Group, Denmark), Mette Land (Mette Lange Architects, Denmark), Diego Montero Espina (Diego Montero Arquitecto M+, Uruquay and Argentina), Bijoy Ramachandran (Hundred Hands, India), Erik Sommerfeld (Colorado Building Workshop, USA), Piers Taylor (Invisible Studio, England) and Camilo Moraes Zambrano (Estudio Norte, Chile).
View the full program on the Architecture Foundation Australia website and purchase tickets via Eventbrite.
