Delimiting the Outside

At first sight, the closed brick wall of the extension to Z33 house for contemporary art, design and architecture in Hasselt is quite clear about its definitions of outside and inside. Z33 is part of the Hasselt Beguinage. The Beguinage is inside, the city is outside. In her text titled An Atelier (2012) Francesca Torzo explains how space can be defined “as a physical entity normed by measure, width depth and height, or can be formulated as a reference frame where subject and things map the distances. Space can also be defined as scene of our experiences through perception, where physical factors, proportions and human behaviours collaborate.” Her design for the extension to Z33 is all about this layered search for an architecture mediating between inside and outside. In this lecture, she’ll also explain her vision behind her other design projects.

The walls of the Beguinage separated the life of devout women from that of the regular citizens. With only one opening to the street, a patio – the new wing designed by Francesca Torzo is a contemporary interpretation both of the typology of an enclosed, religious site with a single gatehouse and of one typological cornerstone in this interiorized world: the walled garden that lies between the common courtyard and the doorsteps of the individual houses of the Beguines. The historical and contextual interpretation of inside and outside strongly influences materiality. The facade of the extension is of dark red, diamond-shaped bricks which reflects the historic masonry architecture of Hasselt. Behind this brick surface there is an innovative construction of a double solid wall: an interior warm structure coupled with an exterior cold structure. Much effort has gone in the research into this materialization, and it included close interaction with brick manufacturers and craftsmen on the building site.

Francesca Torzo studied in TU Delft, ETSAB Barcelona, Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio and IUAV in Venezia. She worked at Peter Zumthor and at Bosshard Vaquer Architekten before starting her own office in Genova in 2008. Since 2017 she is professor at Bergen Arkitekthøgskole, Norway.