Salvage & Play
Public space married to infrastructure. What a brilliant way to inspire civic pride and good citizenship; bringing everyone together and encouraging playful dwelling and changing perceptions of a recycling centre. One person’s waste is another person’s resource, and recycling centres are an essential link within the circular economy.
We visited Recypark during our office trip to Brussels on the day of the skatepark’s inauguration. Recypark is designed to be a recycling centre with 11 types of bulky waste and re-use zone and a public space with a skatepark and pump track facilities, open to all and active, situated in a densely-populated area. A structure of large timber archways salvaged from an old horse pen forms the canopy, hosting all these under one re-purposed roof structure with a specific identity.
The former equestrian centre was bought by a regional waste management organisation (Recypark’s client) before the project’s detailed design. The existing structure was carefully dismantled and stored for re-assemblage. Improvised techniques and testing formed a big part of the design and delivery process to ensure durability and meet the standards.
A publicly-funded project of reuse and recycling where the city’s logistical necessities meet the citizens’ social needs.
The theme of reuse is seen with inventiveness and imagination also manifested in specific building features and in how the land uses are mixed and interrelated creating a different type of density that echoes a contemporary response to the city’s needs for all generations.
