The Locus Esse

The motivation behind Locus Esse started with my awareness on our environment. I would sometimes come across something and realise how beautiful it is. A moment should be taken to stand still for such beauty, literally and figuratively.

The way we move around is strongly determined by the spatial composition which could allow us to approach our environment in a more explorative way. The inbetween space could play an important role to achieve that. In this project I did a research on the inbetween space and discovered it gave a particular quality to the design. The result is that "the spatial gradient" became a new term in my discourse. The spatial gradient means that there is no hard distinction between the interior and the exterior space, but instead there is a layeredness, a kind of a gradual transition between interior and exterior. We would be able to move around more gradually and there would be more space and time to stand still every once in a while. In this manner, I believe we could become more aware of the beautiful things around us.

Architectural language and materialisation

The sharp edges and layeredness in Classical architecture have always attracted me. My desire to learn from it led to a profound research of the construction detail. The logic and precise technicity of the connections between the building elements started to create intense inbetween spaces and corners as I developed new parts. It enables my body to relate to the architectural element. As I developed new parts it became clear to me that the stylobate, the column and the cornice were adjusted to the human scale. These three building elements from Classical architecture remained the main principle throughout the design while I tried to search for my own architectural language. Although Classical architecture is mainly taking its language from carved out stone, I used steel as my main material. Steel could have the sharp quality similar to carved out stone, but yet different. It is almost the opposite since steel is mostly used as frames (as hollow and light as possible) while stone is a mass, heavy and full. Steel is a very practical material, but to me it has a very aesthetic side to it as well. It became a tempting challange to make these two materials work together in a harmonious way while each has its own very expressive architectural language.

A project for me

The master thesis Locus Esse explores the duality between technicity and poetics, both approached from the scale of the construction detail and from the scale of the overall spatial composition within the environment. Architecture and nature are not treated as two seperate components but are regarded as complementary to each other. It is a personal journey where each addition in the design process is a lesson learnt from a previous part and each new part is developed based on that. The main aim of the project is to explore the possibilities to create a physical place where I could feel more connected to the elements of nature and architecture.

Studio: Anatomy / The Drawing & The Space - Master Thesis
Year: 2019, 2020
Mentors: Jo Van Den Berghe, Mira Sanders, & Thierry Lagrange
Promotors thesis: Jo Van Den Berghe & Thierry Lagrange