Kortrijk - Van Marcke site

The study and design assignment for the drawing up of a master plan and possible implementation assignments for the Weggevoerdenlaan site in Kortrijk was awarded to the temporary association Omgeving, UAU Collectiv.

For the redevelopment of the abandoned Van Marcke site on the Weggevoerdenlaan, the city of Kortrijk joined forces with the distribution company Van Marcke. Together they want to shape a future-proof new district. The site is approximately 15 hectares in size and is located within the ring road of Kortrijk, within walking distance of the station and Campus West, one of the most important clusters of higher education in the region. Until the 1970s the famous Kortrijkse Kunstwerkstede Gebroeders De Coene was located here. The vision on the site should translate the city’s ambitions in terms of its further spatial development into a spatial programme and design.

The proposal by the temporary association Omgeving, UAU Collectiv, Orientes, Hugo Snoeck, AAVO Architecten, INGENIUM respects the historical power of the site and focuses as much as possible on a gradual redesignation and transformation. The design provides a clear answer to the required flexibility in the form of a master plan that can be implemented gradually and that can grow with changing insights. According to the design team, a strategic site like this must evolve along with the social transition and be able to respond appropriately to new opportunities, opportunities and insights, in a continuous improvement process.

In the development strategy, the proposal focuses on the unique position of one landowner. Unlike a traditional development approach, where the properties are filled in and fragmented in the short term, this offers the possibility of continuing to approach the project area as a whole, albeit with many stakeholders and users. A cooperative steers the development and is an operational steering post, an investment fund and a management group. In order to achieve this transition step by step, a curator is appointed who monitors and directs the unity and quality of the development. The spatial transformation is linked to a slow and incremental investment process, which already has the attractiveness of the site from phase one.

The ambitious plan is based on a thorough analysis of the existing building plots. The designers propose to work with the existing urban rooms and public joints. By means of ‘building passports’, the possibilities of the buildings can be determined at an early stage. The passports not only indicate which elements of a building are valuable and must be preserved, but also which interpretation best suits which type of building. After an initial clean-up of the site, a beautiful, valuable shell is created that can be used immediately for temporary use (laser shooting, exhibitions, showrooms, etc.) or forms the basis for a final use, for example for housing, SMEs, education, a market hall, etc.

Wout Maddens, alderman for urban renewal projects in Kortrijk during the press conference on Wednesday 13 November: ‘This is making a city in practice together, we are drawing up a new district of 15 ha, within walking distance of the station. This is one of the most important urban renewal projects for the next ten years. The fact that this is being realised in collaboration with the Flemish Master Builder and Van Marcke guarantees that this will be a model site where people live, work and learn - in short, where they can live’.

Kortrijk town council wants to have a master-plan drawn up for the Weggevoerdenlaan site. This site is located inside the town’s ring-road, at walking distance from the station and from Campus West, one of the region’s most important higher education clusters. The aim is to generate a detailed development plan for the whole area.

Van Marcke is a Belgian market leader in the wholesale distribution of equipment and appliances for bathrooms and heating. It has grouped a number of branches in Kortrijk into a single brand-new logistical complex. As a result, the main site on Weggevoerdenlaan is now free for redevelopment. The site has an area of about 15 ha. Until the mid-1960s it was home to the Kortijkse Kunstwerkstede Gebroeders De Coene, an innovative woodworking company whose buildings Van Marcke purchased. De Coene built the Belgian pavilion for Expo 58. This building, with its characteristic trusses, is still standing on the site and is now a classified monument. The site is characterised by a substantial height difference and is surrounded by, among other things, a school building, houses, business premises, a shunting yard and a bus depot.

The vision for the site should translate the town council’s ambitions for its further spatial development into a spatial programme and design. Kortrijk town council has over the last few years defined these ambitions in a very extensive participatory process together with its citizens and entrepreneurs. This plan is called ‘Kortrijk 2025’.

The most important elements of ‘Kortrijk 2025’ that are relevant to this project are:

• To enhance Kortrijk as a business-friendly town by creating space for entrepreneurs at strategic places in the town and by reinforcing the ties between higher education and business.
• To enhance Kortrijk as a connected town by focusing on interweaving such aspects as housing and work, both in the project area and in the surroundings (schools, Campus West, neighbourhoods etc.) and by raising the bicycle network to a higher standard.
• To enhance Kortrijk as a green-blue town by means of integrated and climate-oriented design, by removing hard ground surfacing and by ceasing to occupy more open space.
• The town council decides together with its citizens, entrepreneurs and other users about spatial changes in the town.

The development of this site must give a clear signal to the labour market that Kortrijk is an attractive place to live and work.  The main objective of this project is the regeneration of Kortrijk as a city to live and work for a skilled workforce.

The starting point for the renewed use of the site is therefore a maximum concentration on the retention of workspace and its maximum interweaving with other urban functions in and around the area. A substantial part of the site will be reserved for SMEs and other workspaces, preferably with links to higher education. In addition, there will also be room for more housing and green elements.

The site is characterised by a significant relief differences, the functional use of which still needs to be determined. It is surrounded by a number of facilities, the most important of which are a school building, residential buildings, business premises, a shunting yard and the bus depot of De Lijn.  There is also a train station within walking distance and this is an important asset for the site in the realisation of its philosophy.

The master-plan should contain a conceptual development of the area so as to make room for the set programme, with a proposal for buildings (in terms of volumes) and layout of the open space. For the buildings, in addition to the volume, initial indications are also to be formulated of their later architectural elaboration. The design team should be able to define the architectural quality in terms of preconditions for its future development.

Van Marcke wants to make a social statement by means of this redevelopment. Both the operational management and the technologies that the company distributes have the same philosophy of sustainability and innovation. 

Van Marcke wants to make a meaningful contribution to the well-being of the planet without compromising comfort for users of its products.  This site aims to be a living example of how Van Marcke’s know-how can combine a comfortable living and working world with sustainability and nature conservation. The future use of the site will be built around four basic themes: living, learning, thinking, doing which together guarantee integrated sustainability.

The functional use we wish to find in the final result is as follows:

• Living: housing, both in multi-family homes and ground-oriented housing, in green surroundings
• Learning: schools that supply the people and innovations we shall need in the future
• Thinking: business incubation and offices
• Doing: a workshop zone for SMEs

Kortrijk Town Council and Van Marcke are looking for a design firm that can translate this vision into:

• A single overall design in which the various functions are harmoniously interwoven and which implements the overall vision of the future that the town council has developed with its citizens and entrepreneurs under the ‘Kortrijk 2025’ flag
• A vigorous architectural design that brings unity to the variety and variety to the unity.
• State-of-the-art architecture that transcends banality and functionalism while yet remaining affordable
• Technical knowhow that is able to integrate tomorrow’s technology into the functional needs of the development.

The aim is to create nothing less than a site that is a model at a European level, which through its visionary architecture and sustainable functionality integrates man, work and development into a single microcosm. At the same time, there may and should be reminders of the industrial past of the site.

Following the delivery of the master-plan, Van Marcke may decide to award all or part of the assignments for its implementation to the design team, but is not obliged to do so.

Allocation Criteria

1. The quality of the concept and vision and of the research by design, checked against the aims and expectations of the principal as formulated in the specifications:
   a. in a broad social framework
   b. more functionally applied to the user’s requirements
2. the approach to sustainability (the degree to which the chosen interventions contribute to a qualitative and future-proof building)
3. the process-orientation and process-readiness
4. the composition and expertise of the design team
5. the estimate of the cost of the project and the fee

The respective weighting of the criteria is as follows: 4 / 3 / 3 / 1 / 1.