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37
demolition companies are not short of work. During
his studies at
mit
in 1971, the young Philippe Samyn
began to become aware of the problem. Soon this
concern was ever-present, both in his personal crea-
tions and his theoretical writings. As he has shown in
several transformational projects, it is often possible
to take advantage of an existing structure, such as his
recent work on the Spaarlaken building
(01-465)
or the
Erasmushogeschool in Brussels
(01-407)
, managing to
get them to comply with the strictest safety criteria. In
this respect, it is doubtless the most ordinary buildings
that are the easiest to adapt. And yet the point is not
to criticise inventors, whether of reinforced concrete or
plastics. It is others, less scrupulous no doubt, who do
not think twice about taking the most immediately
profitable path when building structures that end up
being hazardous. It should be emphasised again that,
with few exceptions, the training given to architects
and engineers does not yet address this issue. The
fact remains that the very production of certain con-
struction materials needs to be re-examined, and that
regulations (independent of regional differences cited
above) are far from being coherent; the same is true of
environmental incentives.
It is worth mentioning two examples of regional dif-
ferences here. The Haute Qualité Environnementale
standard (Environmental High Quality, or
hqe
) – which
Philippe Samyn used for his project for the Tour Signal
at La Défense in Paris
(01-533)
– was first ‘a consensual
theoretical foundation before becoming a trademark (!)
in France. The aim of
hqe
was to integrate principles
of sustainable development, as defined at the Rio
Summit in 1992, into the built environment.’ It is clear
that there is a large-scale effect and that the question
of ‘overall cost’ of construction and urban development
is an important evaluation criterion. The concept of
sustainable construction, which has been implemented
in Philippe Samyn’s projects and structures in Belgium,
rests on three fundamental pillars as defined by the
Seco control office and the Scientific and Technical
Construction Centre: the ecological dimension, the
social dimension and the economic dimension. The
ecological dimension also includes climate variations,
biodiversity and the provenance and use of materials.
The social dimension is concerned with the wellbeing
of users, building accessibility and even aesthetics
(although one wonders what criteria are used to judge).
The economic dimension covers the analysis of the
functions of use and risk analysis, the value of the ‘life
cycle’ and problems of upkeep. Culturally speaking,
Philippe Samyn aptly points out that there is a contradic-
tion between the culture of architects (who are, at best,
concerned with the social aspects of their work) and
that of engineers, which is based on criteria to do with
the physics of the construction. It is up to both sides to
bridge this gap through training and education.
1
Philippe Samyn, Etude de la morphologie des structures à l’aide
des indicateurs de volume et de déplacement, Brussels, Royal Academy
of Belgium, 2004.
01-515
Total service station,
Ruisbroek, 2007
01-407
Erasmushogeschool,
Brussels, 2000–2002