CHAPEX
A surface of 66,000 square meters spread over three floors in two separate buildings. An average floor ceiling height of eight meters. A volume up to half a million cubic meters. In the middle a 12,009 square meter lobby space. Brick glazed cupolas and inviting double but point mirrored stairs connect upper and middle floor and this by an along sided set of columns.
Delivered by the start of the seventies, the PALAIS DES EXPOSITIONS aimed to become the showroom of the power of the heavy metal industry that has marked Europe from Germany to the Netherlands, Belgium and France. By the mid-seventies the tide turned, and the industry faded slowly but steadily away. The floors able to hold up to 3,000 kilograms per square meter never saw full use again.
The complex is embedded between the city center - the upper city - and the outskirts of the city - the lower city. The slope on the city side of the ‘Palais des Expos’ barely leaves one floor high visible. On the other side, all floors are visible. The result was a fracture rather than a connection. The infrastructure of roads and tracks cut off the ‘Palais des Expos’ from the lower city. On the side of the center, the building appears as it is without actually fitting in with its surroundings.
The foreseen budget was only one-third of what a decent but normal budget would have been for an all over recovery. The call of the competition envisioned that only the 12,000 square meter tall middle lobby of the building would be state of the art in architecture and also zero-energy. The only other requirement was an extra parking level to be created under the building.
Our proposal coped with all this differently. We needed only one-third of the foreseen competition budget as we opened the central part to become a terraced park, that reconnects the below and above city. No energy. No architecture. Only the architecture of what is available.
Studying the possible future needs of use we stated that no extra underground parking was needed as half of the building could be easily made available. All savings could now be used for a practical and functional upgrade of the whole complex. An asbestos removal campaign became part of it.
That summer of 2015 we entered our proposal for the competition. Offices were close yet – A JDVIV by that time still A DVVT and AgwA and only few collaborators participated -. We took it at risk. Mentally we knew that the proposal answered the expectations in the most fundamental way. It was a zero-energy building as it no longer needed any energy. And it was state of the architecture as it was by our act – rather attitude – not just state of the art but state of the day. But of course: it was not at all what one would expect. And unsure it would meet any juridical criteria. As also criteria are not made for such.
The city of Charleroi seems to have understood the power of the message. A message of at least nowadays but in fact without exaggeration what the future deserves as a way of attitude. The Charleroi Bouwmeester recognized it was now his turn and see what he made possible.
The project of PALAIS DES EXPOSITIONS comes in a history of projects from ROT-ELLEN-BERG ( JDV A / A DVVT / A JDVIV) via CARITAS ( A DVVT / A JDVIV) but also today like BABY YAR ( A JDVIV ) or BAC GENEVA ( A JDVIV / KOSMOS ) and many others.
The project of PALAIS DES EXPOSITIONS became inspiration for the 3,33% - 33,3% - 333% studio at the teaching and research chair of JAN DE VYLDER at the D-ARCH IEA at ETH Z being part of the ‘SHARE ON ARCHITECTURE AND ATTITUDE’ ideas exploring economies, ecologies and ergonomics taking in mind the baselines UNIVERSUM CARROUSEL JOURNEY as also FORM LIFE URGE. Zurich is depicted as RE-ZU-RICH and project envisioned with students taken planned and started city-development project as study topic of debate but also interference. And this at the moment and in a public discourse.
Today A JDVIV ships between the 66.000 m3 of PALAIS DES EXPOSITIONS at a budget rate of 33,3% as the construction of a small house of 66 m3 at the same rate of 33,3%. The circle since ROT-ELLEN-BERG is round: 100’000 € as a new standard. Name it basic.
The process of the project PALAIS DES EXPOSITIONS is yet depicted in the exhibition LES USAGES DU MONDE in 2020 and on the invitation of ARC-EN-RÊVE, the Belgian Architecture Magazine A+ in which an opinion piece has been included under the tittle RE-QUESTION-RE, as today in the Monographic Exhibition at BOZAR Brussels on the work of AgwA, as also soon in the exhibition EXPERIMENTAL ARCHITECTURE at VAi Antwerp as part of the thirth cycle of the exhibition series on Architecture and Care and in the exhibition A LOT WITH A
LITTLE.
