Saturday, March 6, 2010

Antwerp Tower Competition - Justification.

This concept is derived from the form and ‘stone frame’ of the completed tower and attempts to balance and compliment this existing condition as well as offering a contrast through abstraction and materiality. It allows the unfinished tower to be retained in its entirety with the addition of the new structure presenting a continuation of an ongoing process. No building can ever be fully completed.

The new tower is composed from three timber-framed elements that slot inside each other, creating a tiered effect in an abstracted interpretation of the completed tower. The choice of material is an acknowledgement of the considerable amount of timber used in Cathedral building, which, instead of being expressed, is usually concealed behind stonework.

The wooden frames would be constructed from colossal engineered timber beams. Building a structure on this scale out of timber would present a major construction challenge emulating the original feat of engineering undertaken to build the completed tower at the end of the Middle Ages.

Banners could be hung from the new tower providing it with a secondary function as a setting to display large scale, contemporary art works on a spiritual theme.

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