Building on the abstracted, urban archetypes of City Remnants (2023), BRUT Collective and vzw artecetera are joining forces for Arena. The word arena derives from the Latin “harena” or “sand”, and thus refers – once freed from competition – to a place in motion. As an architecturally defined stage, the arena offers a place for dialogue, doubt and friction. A place where ideas and existing structures are questioned, and where unexpected encounters and connections arise.
Arena encourages reflection on social themes such as urbanisation, architecture, heritage, decay, nostalgia, connection and collectivity. Spread over the three floors of the northern Broel Tower, Arena reveals its three layers: foundation, object and debate.
G2308 is a competition design by GAFPA for an office building in Ghent. The model on display is neither an architectural model nor a sculpture, but a 1:1 structure assembled from both existing and custom-made components.
Within the project area’s masterplan, GAFPA superimposed a 55 × 55 m grid, defining the project’s perimeter as a square. Its internal plan follows the historical deep structure of the nine-square grid. The design transcends its original program and is tailored for flexibility.
The model, G2308 Office Building, abstracts itself from its surroundings and from the masterplan for which it was designed. It is presented as a “type”. In this way, it represents not only the potential of typological cross-breeding – in this case, a spatial hybrid between an office building and a parking garage – but also the potential of reuse as a design strategy.