Dongon

摘要

In 2016 the Flemish government held a contest for a reception pavilion for the historic castle of Gaasbeek, Lennik (Brussels). The castle is, as a museum, open to the public, so are the extensive grounds surrounding it. The museum rightly takes pride in its rich heritage collection and remarkable archive and also welcomes interventions and exhibitions of contemporary art. The role of the new reception pavilion is to act as the pivot point between the car park and the castle's grounds and house its shop, reception, historical library, archive, staff rooms, restrooms and closed viewing depot. Inspired by Lhe landscape paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30-1569), the architects designed the pavilion as a visual beacon at the outskirts of the landscape, inviting visitors by its intriguing appearance. The building is conceived as a stacked building with a semi-underground square layer. Subsequently, an angle per building layer is cut off clockwise, creating a rotating movement in the building to end up on the roof floor in an octagon. This typology refers to the 18th and 19th-century garden pavilions at. the castle gardens. A rounded wall would create a "hortus conclusus" or enclosed garden, an outdoor antechamber to the park and castle, creating a meeting point and a location for small events. The pavilion interior is conceived as a studiolo, a reference to the small private Wunderkammers of the Italian Renaissance palaces where the owner could retreat for personal study or house his private art collection. Just like a studiolo, the interior has wood paneling in the form of sideboards which could double as a retable or as a secluded accessible alcove, depending on whether the shutters are opened or closed. Window openings are carefully deployed to create vistas on the landscape or to illuminate a designated area. Soft zenithal light lets the interior bathe in an intimate atmosphere. A large open space acts as a balcony and connects the different levels in an upwards movement.