Page 189 - ELEMENTS EUROPA (EN)

ELEMENTS EUROPA 185

6 SOLAR CULMINATION

[P]erhaps as a result of our gratitude to the roof-over-our-

head, it has always been super-charged with local cultural

meaning. The paradox of the roof is that this indelible

regionalism – styles are ultra-recognizable (the Black Forest

roof, the Chinese roof) – coexists with universal principles

and physical structures that must be adhered to in order

to keep the roof up and the weather out. The roof used to

be our closest connection to the heavens, used to express

and forge political, sacral, and societal connections. While

ancient roof structures become

fetishized, sustainability colors our

roofs blue (photovoltaics), green All eleven floors of the double patchwork facade above the ground floor

(vegetation), and white (reflective), are marked by duckboards destined to convey a threshold effect and act

and our new political centers are as a drip strip to prevent water from running over the oak window frames.

covered by flat, basically invisible Through repeating their horizontal projection, those narrow platforms

roofs, new structures are made constitute one of the main ornamental elements of the building; they

available through digital design… stretch out the profile outlined by the bays, balconies, strips and cornice of

though we lack the skills to articulate the Residence Palace, along Rue de la Loi to a whole different scale. The

the roof’s political and primal qualities… three floors added on top of the old building imposed a new crowning

Rem KOOLHAAS, Elements of Architecture conception. A somewhat monumental treatment of the newly formed

– 14. International Architecture Exhibition, ensemble should match the attic, the parapet and the two flame-finial

La Biennale di Venezia, 2014, back cover. lanterns placed on the northern corner of the classified edifice. The

solution came from the least classical propositions. A same cover would

encompass both the old and new ones, supporting many photovoltaic

panels on its entire surface. This results in one of the clearest evidence of

mastery of scale effects and the general sizing of the composition. The

profile overlooking the street solves the articulation problem between the

Residence Palace stone facade and the Europa’s wood and metal mesh.

The Europa is higher and wider, the height difference is made up for by the

three floors built on top of the roof of the renovated building, their zinc

cover appearing backwards from the moulded plan of the former facade and

displaying a balcony protected with a stone balustrade. Above the metallic

cornice surrounding the last floor roof of the patchwork facade with its

horizontal wire-mesh, the scale of the large openwork roofing supporting

the photovoltaic panels unites the three parts eventually joined together in

Average yearly insolation energy in Belgium. the ensemble: the Residence Palace, the monumental patchwork and the
100 % = 1100 kWh/m²y. three new floors levelling the height of the other two. Over the void between