Rotor
ROTOR
“Matters lasts, and matters invite seriousness”
“We function more as researchers who posit hypotheses and try to prove them. We do no bring ‘order and truth’”
“Look again” – “Why should I care?” “Look again.”
Rotor asbl-vzw is a Brussels based cooperative architecture practice that investigates the organization of the material environment. It develops critical positions through research and design. Besides projects in architecture and interior design, it also produces exhibitions, books, economic models and policy proposals. Often invited to give lectures, hold workshops, give advices by Universities, Schools, and practices all over the world, Rotor members have the chance to spread an original way of looking at the material flows and their interconnections with different fields of life, such as art, history, social changes and politics.
Contents
1. History
In 2005 Maarten Gielen and Tristan Boniver founded Rotor asbl-vzw to fix the ideas emerged during the setting light installation for DJ sets. During their first efforts in shaping spaces for music events, Boniver and Gielen thought it could be practical to work as a collective and joined forces with…
1.1. First office, first/seminal projects
1.2. Usus/Usures, 12th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, 29th august – 21st November 2010
Rotor represented Belgium's French Community at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, titled Works in Progress. The exhibition curated by Rotor occupied the Belgian pavilion at the Giardini. The project explored wear as a reaction to use in architecture, through a group of objects collected during research projects conducted in Brussels. Exhibited on the pavilion walls, these items showed the sign of waste, while evoking a mysterious/surreal appeal.
1.2 Ex Limbo, Fondazione Prada, Milan, 2010
The project was an investigation of the architectural and scenographic elements realized for the fashion show sets designed by Prada and OMA for more than a decade. After being used, they returned to a status of raw materials and were placed in storage at different locations.
The starting point of this project was a curiosity for the materials used, the reasons why they have been conserved, and how this was practically managed. Rotor’s work consisted in bringing forth the ‘remnants’ of a world that after a moment of meaningful splendor is discarded and stored. The exhibition space hosted a labyrinth of elements that bore witness, simultaneously, to the amount of work involved in producing each fashion show, and to the silent existence of its materialization beyond the event.
1.4 Growing team and new office
At the moment of the exhibition at Fondazione Prada, Rotor members were six. Gielen and Boniver were joined by Lionel Devlieger, Melanie Tamm, Benjamin Lassere, and Michael Ghyoot. Works was divided equally with all the members and the preferred research method was a sharing of thoughts and results to create a final display and text that had incorporated all the different views. With the visibility acquired and more commissions received, the team had to be enlarged and to give in, to some extent, to a less univocal method.
At this point, Rotor headquarter was at Rue de Laeken 99 in the center of Brussel.
1.5 Leonidas, Anderlecht
Since early 2017, Rotor asbl-vzw and RotorDC are based in Anderlecht, in a former chocolate-factory owned by Citydev (a large Brussels public building owner) at Rue Prévinaire 58. Offices, indoor and outdoor deposits, a workshop, find their own place in the new environment. Collaborators grow up to forty, equally divided between women and men. Though there is a person in charge of the project, for practical reasons, the group of collaborators working on the same project keep working sharing opinions, ideas, researches in order to obtain a shared result and not the expression of an individual vision.
2 Ongoing Projects and Spin-offs
2.1 RotorDC
Founded in December 2016, Rotor Deconstruction (aka RotorDC) is a pioneering company in the field of salvaged building components. It is conceived as a separate project inside Rotor activities. The teams involved dismantle, condition and sell materials from quality buildings undergoing transformation or demolition. All the materials can be viewed and ordered online or through a visit to the deposits in Anderlecht. Rotor Deconstruction also helps building owners, contractors and architects on how to integrate these elements in their projects.
2.2 Opalis
This is an online inventory of the professional sector in salvaged building materials. After a thorough research in the field, which meat visiting dozens of dealers in second hand building materials, Rotor understood that that the sector as a whole is realizing only a very small part of its theoretical potential, both in terms of collecting salvaged materials as in offering these materials for sale. The results of theirs visits and researches have been merged together in an online guide: Opalis (Opalis.eu.) This online archive wants to bridge the gap between second hand dealers and commissioners, architects, and building contractors, as this is crucial to anybody interested in strategies of reuse. This site contains detailed information and images of all dealers in a one-hour-drive radius around Brussels, as well as information on different types of materials. Since the first rounds of visits in 2012, the scope of the website has been enlarged and now covers the whole Belgian territory, France and Netherlands.
3. Notable Design projects
3.1 Mode and Design MAD, Brussels, 2012-2016
This is a project for a design and fashion center in Brussels conceived in a joint team with the architecture office V+. The assignment is the result of an architectural competition organized by the City of Brussels for the transformation of an existing office and warehouse complex in the Dansaert neighborhood in the center of Brussels. The aim of MAD Brussels is to regroup the offices and workshops of entities active in fostering the work of Brussels-based design and fashion talent. The project proposed by V+ and Rotor is radically conservative. Instead of demolition, as was suggested by the brief, it proposes to preserve the building volumes and make use as much as can be of what is already there. In so doing, it was possible to display a high level of tolerance towards the existent and combines this with a high standard for anything new to be added. The end-result is a building far richer in typologies than could be realized with a design from scratch.
3.2 Abattoirs de Bomel, 2014-2015
In this project, Rotor acted as matchmakers between a building and its occupants. The building was a freshly renovated 1940’s former slaughterhouse, in Bomel, a rather underprivileged neighborhood of Namur. The future occupants were the team and users of a community arts center, run by the Théâtre of Namur, previously installed in the heart of the city, and now looking forward to move to Bomel. The building is owned by the city; the arts center was only marginally involved in the follow-up of the renovation project. As a result, there were gaps between the building and the needs it had to fulfill. The renovated 3000 m2 facility was also completely empty of any kind of furniture: storage units, tables, chairs, kitchen equipment, toilet roll holders, for which Rotor provided equipment, reflecting on how the place would be used and run. Because of a tight budget, but also on explicit demand of the commissioner, a lot of equipment and materials, found on site, in the commissioner’s stocks were restored to be reused, or they have been acquired on the regular second-hand market. In Bomel, Rotor had a full chance to use, for the first time, the full array of materials they had dismantled since and to design new furniture and solutions with that materials. Most of the equipment was built by a Rotor team that lived and worked for two months on-site, using the artist residences of the center, and a newly installed workshop to work. The arts center opened its doors on October 18, 2014. A second, corrective phase of works took place in 2015.
3.3 Temporary Office for Zinneke, 2009
This space was meant to function as an office for a limited period of time (3 months up to 1,5 year). Therefore, Rotor decided to limit their intervention to the construction of adequate furniture and the refurbishing of existing elements. Our aim was to use exclusively reclaimed materials. The furniture consists of reclaimed office tables and drawers enveloped in disqualified, i.e. water-damaged, plywood. All connections were made with bolts and screws to allow future dismantling and reuse. The walls are partly covered with reclaimed wood wool cement panels, in order to enhance the overall acoustic performance of the space. The partially dismantled ceiling was kept as such; the panels had already been removed. The existing light fixtures were thoroughly cleaned and repaired where necessary. We also added a circuit of adjustable spotlights to provide individual desks with sufficient illumination.
3.4 RDF181, 2007-2008
RDF181 was a temporary structure on a wasteland in the center of Brussels. For a year, it housed Rotor's headquarters as well as occasional exhibitions and meetings. It was dismantled in March 2008.
3.5 Temporary office – Plan B, 2007
The space was conceived on short notice and set up over the course of a week in June 2007, following the assignment to rethink a 240 m² space, destined to house a meeting room and a landscape office for 12 people. The refurbishment had to be modular, last for a year, and operate on a very low budget.
4. Notable Exhibition Projects
4.1 Underground in the City, 2019-2020
4.2 Da quassù è tutta un’altra storia, 2018
As part of Manifesta’s 12 City on Stage section, Rotor were invited to reflect on the controversial area called Pizzo Sella, the central hill of Monte Gallo, north of Palermo, which, forty years ago, was colonized with a housing development project. After hastily facilitated approvals of building permits, concrete pours, sales, aborted construction and endless lawsuits, the colonized hill has become a poster child of Italian real estate corruption, and a haunting blind spot in the Palermitan landscape. Rotor were asked to explore scenarios of interventions and resignification. Starting with traces left by hikers, herders, pilgrims, goats and boars, the intervention explores the possibility to stitch back the hill of Pizzo Sella through the reconnection of hidden paths running along the cliff of Monte Gallo, above and behind the housing complex. Nearby the cliff, a belvedere is turned into an observatory for some of the breathtaking panoramas, doubling as a place to meet, rest and find cover. This permanent intervention offers emancipating vantage points on the mountain, the city, the country and the sea surrounding it, overlooking a century of dialogue between man and landscape. From above, the scarred hill turns into a healing device, offering relief from its prolonged gridlock.
4.3 Behind the Green Doors. Architecture and the Desire for Sustainability
2013
Rotor won the competition for the Oslo Architecture Triennale with a project on sustainability and its implication on nowadays architecture, design and social practices. Economic, social, technological forces align to enable ideas and modes of organisation unimaginable just a few years before. In the first decade of the 21st century, the ultimate political ambition of European society was to break away from existing schemes in favor of a model that would be in harmony with the environment. To achieve that goal, architecture (at all scales) is brought forward as a strong tool to build a sustainable society. As a starting point for the main exhibition, Rotor looked at a broad variety of building projects that claim to be sustainable. Rather than starting from an assumption as to what is to be considered sustainable, and then trying to find good examples to illustrate our point, we have chosen to document what others call ‘sustainable’. Significant fragments and relics that bear testimony of the environmental aspirations were collected and 600 pieces were selected. Each of these is presented as an original artefact, accompanied by short, factual captions that help the visitor to understand the context it was taken from. The exhibition includes product design, graphic design, urban planning, engineering as well as many other disciplines in its purview.
The exhibition aim was not to convince the visitor to live his or her life more sustainably but instead wants to show how the concept of sustainability operates as a powerful agent of change in today’s world.
4.4. Oma/Progress, 2011-2012
The exhibition OMA/Progress was the result of a six months investigation during which Rotor had privileged backstage access to OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Rotterdam). Numerous visits to building sites, archives and offices worldwide were made and Rotor had free access to project discussions and partner meetings, and so on. The exhibition took place at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, and it was an original way to present the complexity and influential work and vision of OMA and of its founding member, Rem Koolhaas, who, instead of curating their own retrospective, they entrusted Rotor to do it. The result was a fresh and original insight to OMA work method and achievements.
4.5. Grinbakken, 2012
Used in the past to transfer gravel and sand between ships and trucks, the Grindbakken was a 160-meter-long concrete structure in the docks of Ghent. Due to a masterplan to redesign the docks, it was about to be transformed into a multi-purpose area accessible to the public, supplied with water and electricity and painted white as an empty canvas for future activities. When asked to present a first intervention in this space, Rotor selected and documented specific areas of interest, and 36 frames were built on-site to protect these areas during the cleaning and painting. Since then, the Grindbakken has been progressively taken over by other interventions. The current state of the installation can be seen in the Grindbakken at the Dok Noord in Gent, a location publicly accessible 24/7.
5. Current Projects
5.1 Pont Neuf, 2019 – ongoing
5.2. Interreg NEW - FCRBE - Facilitating the circulation of reclaimed building elements in Northwestern Europe, 2019 – ongoing
Since January 2019, Rotor is leading an Interreg NWE project entitled FCRBE - Facilitating the circulation of reclaimed building elements in Northwestern Europe. Today in NW-Europe, only 1% of building elements are reused following their first application. Although a large number of elements are technically reusable, they end up being recycled by crushing or melting, or disposed. The result is a high environmental impact and a net loss of economic value. This project aims to increase by +50%, the amount of reclaimed building elements being circulated on its territory by 2032. Focusing on the northern half of France, Belgium and the UK, the project also covers, with a lesser intensity, the Netherlands, Ireland, the rest of France and Luxembourg. This area houses thousands of SMEs specialized in the reclamation and supply of reusable building elements. Despite their obvious potential for the circular economy, these operators face significant challenges: visibility, access to important projects and integration in contemporary building practices. Today, the flow of recirculated goods stagnates and may even decrease due to a lack of structured efforts. To respond appropriately to these challenges, the project sets up an international partnership involving specialized organizations, trade associations, research centers, an architecture school and public administrations. It is rooted in earlier initiatives that were successfully launched, on a local level.
5.3. Already There: ADS11 studio
Hosted by the Royal College of Arts (London), the ADS11 studio examines practices of deconstructing existing architectures, working with a series of sites and collaborators to develop an understanding of the methods and design possibilities of dismantling and reuse. What is the logistics of deconstructing buildings? And the potentials and limitations of reuse? How is design affected by working with fragments and leftovers of past architectures? The studio works with the recovery of materials, design and construction, as well as research and exhibitions. One common thread unites all these activities: they all start from existing conditions. During the academic year 2019-2020, ADS11 continues the investigations into the contemporary transformations of Greater London. The studio is based on Rotor's work but also foster the collaboration of guests and partners. Conversations, and practical and design explorations inform the work. The program is a continuous immersion in the ethics and practice of deconstruction and reuse – examining the real-world impacts of our designs and constructions. Not only does ADS11 address questions on sustainability and reuse, but it also wants to trigger a different approach to history and historical production as a source of innovation.
References[edit]
Rotor, Michaël Ghyoot, Lionel Devlieger, Lionel Billiet, André Warnier (ed.), Déconstruction et réemploi. Comment fair circuler les éléments de construction, Presses polytechniques universitaires romandes (PPUR), 2018Rotor, Devlieger, Lionel (ed.), Behind the Green Door. A critical Look at Sustainable Architecture through 600 Objects by Rotor, Oslo Architecture Triennale (OAT), 2014
Rotor, Bendikte Zitouni and Ariane D’Hoop (ed.), Usus/Usures. Etat de lieux/How things stand, Éditions de la Communauté français Wallonie-Bruxelles, Bruxelles 2010
Rotor (ed.), with the contribution of Benedikte Zitouni, Deutschland Im Herbst, Ursula Blickle Stiftung & Actar-d distribution, Kraichtal 2009
Rotor[edit]
<https://rotordb.org/en><https://rotordb.org/en>Rotordb. Missing or empty |title= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)</ref></ref>
This article "Rotor" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Rotor. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
|
This page exists already on Wikipedia. |
