The Institute of Environmental Abstraction

The project explores the notion of hope where there is a presentiment of expectation. Scientists deploy standards of measurements to discover how the universe operates. These help us measure the extraction of petroleum and ignore the process which is seen as ‘free’. Many of these methods now tell us of our planet’s gradual demise, yet they are rooted in extractive, unsympathetic measurement.

Through the study of digital and analogue methods of projecting light, the project aims to deconstruct the projection phase as well as the reception phase. This reveals the fragility of digital phenomena as once the surfaces are abandoned a crude shell is left. The frescos of Byzantine churches are never neglected and natural phenomena such as clouds drift endlessly across the sky. They have inspired the dazzling atmospheric light of Byzantine domes. Elements such as: window orientation as well as angular windowsill cutting significantly increase the effects of the “cloud of light.”

Situated in Brussels at the gates of Ninove, the site rests adjacent to a canal that divides the old town from the Heyvaert Quartier, former agricultural land that is today peppered with new builds. Within this boundary The Centre of Environmental Abstraction projects an abstracted view of our changing physical world. Through models and computing the project searches for methods of presenting both simultaneously. This research recognizes the contemporary culture of the image in architecture and as a result explores contemporary processes of its materialization.

Looking up at the site’s overhead tram lines, they subdivide the sky while powering Brussels’ tram system. Could these lines be reinterpreted and mapped as a structural system that shrouds the center? How can this deliver an architecture that captivates as the Byzantine churches once did?