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message. In such a way that it is no longer clear which symbolic value is part
of these façades, from the fad for hundreds of renovation sites where windows
are dismantled (upsurge in demolition) or from the virtue of ecological design,
breathing new life into or stamping novel rhythms on the cycle of materials. Very
large buildings, subject to terms of reference and to codified efficiency goals,
include numerous functions to blend to cohabit. A frame that is sufficiently flex-
ible is necessary: the patchwork offers its intermittent assembly, inserted into a
simple and robust frame, with an initial order, but open to development. Is it cur-
rent? Untimely? Its role here is highly symbolic: firstly it expresses the specificity,
diversity and coherence of European culture. Through its technique and its policy
of reuse, it illustrates the European Union’s adherence to environmental matters
and its commitment to satisfy them.
But the patchwork says something else. Since in this case, it brings together
windows, it not only puts up their multiple frames on the façades, it deploys their
poetic resources. They are living environments; they are the precursors of the
exchange: between the atrium and the street; between neighbouring houses;
between the rooms and the city; between Brussels and Europe. And these win-
dows are made “from this secondary material of which the altar must be made”.
the PATCHWORK
