UNTITLED SPACE 02
The PrixdeRome for Urbanism & Landscape 2000 demands a “new type of public space”, an “interface of urban and rural perspectives” in a setting which could be characterized as a typical Dutch landscape; urban in concept, rural in character. The project mainly concerns the re-design of flow.
1. The existing structures are demolished.
2. The flow of traffic on the site is restructured, creating a traffic interface; interconnecting routes to and from every possible destination, rural as well as global. The flow defines a larger “Untitled Space” on the site, which is accessible for anyone and reachable from any direction. Here, nothing happens, but anything could; eating, drinking, working, sleeping, dancing, dreaming, driving, thinking, talking, walking, jumping, changing and so on; . The site is asphalted, perfectly linking up with the adjacent roads.
3. The lay-out of a new gas station conforms to the flow; emphasizing its spatial quality. Fuel pumps are designed as several self-contained service units; completely self serviced, fully equipped with devices for water, air, food, drinks, vacuum cleaning, etc., and automatically paid with credit card, pin or cash.
4. The clear and simple steel roof structure of the fuel units, as well as all the above mentioned devices, are chromium plated; referring to the popular and slick esthetics of fast cars and other appealing engines.
5. The roof structure, columns and ground plane are clad with slightly mirrored glass panels, creating a series of smaller “Untitled Spaces”, more individual by size and function, but collective in their proximity and serial usage. The surrounding landscape, the sky above, the ground beneath and the occupants with their cars are reflected and thus artificially multiplied on the matrix of glass panels. The reflected images define the different spatial characteristics of the “Untitled Spaces”, depending on their direction and position on the site and changing with the weather, the season or the time of day.
