Shoe Quarters
Civic Architects
DarcStudio
The project 'Shoe Quarters' or 'Schoenenkwartier' forms a hybrid between a learning center, a museum for regional history and craftmanship, an exhibition space for shoe design/fashion, manufacturing laboratories for developing new shoe design techniques and public areas.
The building complex is situated in the town center of the regionally located city of Waalwijk, a typical example for shrinking city centers of middle-sized and small cities within Europe. It aims to continue the narrative of the city's important industrial history of shoe manufacturing. It shows and amplifies this narrative to provide a low-profile and generous place to meet, learn and remember for the local community, and at the same time a high-profile international center of knowledge.
The architecture tinkers with the historic architectural language of the heritage. We cut it open, we re-interpreted it and we added new contemporary layers of architecture. The project interweaves history and future of the place and the community on all levels, from the programmatic to the aesthetic.
hYBRIDS
↪ How can we rethink traditional city planning and respond to the urgencies of the continuously evolving urban environment?
Shoe Quarters
Civic Architects
DarcStudio
The project 'Shoe Quarters' or 'Schoenenkwartier' forms a hybrid between a learning center, a museum for regional history and craftmanship, an exhibition space for shoe design/fashion, manufacturing laboratories for developing new shoe design techniques and public areas.
The building complex is situated in the town center of the regionally located city of Waalwijk, a typical example for shrinking city centers of middle-sized and small cities within Europe. It aims to continue the narrative of the city's important industrial history of shoe manufacturing. It shows and amplifies this narrative to provide a low-profile and generous place to meet, learn and remember for the local community, and at the same time a high-profile international center of knowledge.
The architecture tinkers with the historic architectural language of the heritage. We cut it open, we re-interpreted it and we added new contemporary layers of architecture. The project interweaves history and future of the place and the community on all levels, from the programmatic to the aesthetic.
hYBRIDS
↪ How can we rethink traditional city planning and respond to the urgencies of the continuously evolving urban environment?
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