Meise Botanical Garden logistics building
Nieuwelaan, Meise 2023
At the botanical garden of Meise, the realization of a building dedicated to the maintenance of the garden creates an ensemble of three related buildings that delineate a logistical outdoor space at their center.
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The building is enveloped in a heavy wall of rammed earth, a ‘friendly wall’ that maximizes the path leading to the boiler house and the logistically usable area. The wall does not present a boundary to the neighbors but rather a piece of nature: a specific vegetation will develop on the wall in the microclimate under the trees. In the logistical square, a number of colossal columns stand like ancient trees in the garden. Between the columns, there is access to the workshops, the storage area, and an outdoor space, all covered by a sloping roof streching along, supported by tensioned wooden beams.
The boiler house will be restored and prepared for a new future. It is evolving into an energy house for sustainable energy generation and water recovery.
'A built quarry'
Everything in the botanical garden revolves around time. Time that is stored in the trees and plants. The garden is never the same and shows us very directly how everything around us evolves over the years. In contrast stands the seemingly unchanging architecture. After all, a public building is constructed for the long run. Seemingly. Because here too, time intervenes, slowly. Buildings weather, acquire patina, are modified, expanded, and eventually, some day, demolished.
The designs aims to offer more than a functional solution for the user. It seeks to capture transience and temporality. The building is conceived a a living ruin. Built for eternity, it also serves as a source of materials for new constructions. A built quarry.
Moreover, some components of the building are old from the outset. Made of recuperated concrete segments from other buildings, the columns have already lived a full life. Stacked like regular columns, they stand as silent witness to the passage of time and nature surrounding the building.
