SQM: Broelschool Demolition Workshop

During Biennale Interieur 2014, the abandoned Broelschool in the centre of Kortrijk, Belgium became the location of a site-specific intervention combining a physical dérive through the sprawling building with a timeline-based investigation of key events in the history of domestic architecture. For the duration of the Biennale, visitors had the last opportunity to explore the building before it is demolished to make way for the construction of apartments. This transition became an opportunity to critically examine the contemporary condition of domesticity. Space Caviar worked with ten artists, designers and architects from different countries to take part in the Broelschool Demolition Workshop throughout which participants collectively designed and built a path through the building, while creating a series of graphical and physical interventions on the architecture of the school. The work uncovered hidden aspects of the building and its history, interspersing them with fragments of text and data related to the history, politics and economics of domesticity. Using the building itself as a source of reusable material, the workshop became an opportunity to publicly reflect on architecture’s life-cycles and the shifts in the economies it embodies.

Credits

Project team:
Tamar Shafrir, Joseph Grima, Martina Muzi
Organised in collaboration with:
Studio Folder(Marco Ferrari, Elisa Pasqual) and officina GISTO (Alessandro Mason)
Broelschool Demolition Workshop participants:
Simon Beckmann, Raphael Coutin, Vanessa Gerotto, Andrea Levorato, Marina Mangiat, Giulio Margheri, An Pan Thi Khanh, Roel Van Herpt, Joan Vellve, Leanne Wijnsma
Photos:
DSL Studio

The use of the Broelschool was made possible by Leopold de Keyser.
Special thanks to:
Pieter Blondé, Céline Lagae from Interieur 2014, Pieter Michiels from Buda Lab, Jan Boelen, Gaia Cambiaggi and Lorenza Baroncelli.