(15-09-2009) Siesegem Aalst

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15.09.2009 / HUB presents competition design.

 

Siesegem Kouter is a 100ha large agricultural site of high natural value. It was chosen as a development zone for industrial and research activities that needs to kick-start the otherwise demising economic activities in the Aalst region. Wanting to live up to financial expectations, but not wanting to destroy the prominent qualities of the existing landscape, HUB choose to come forward with a radical strategy: all elements of natural or landscaping value are preserved and enforced into a continuous system of valleys, forests and meadows; the negative space within this system is brought down to a minimum footprint, thereby creating island-like zones for densified development. The outside boundaries of these islands are preserved for ‘soft’ research activities overlooking the open landscape, while the interior of the islands is preserved for ‘hard’ industrial activities mainly dealing with their own inner logic.