The historic Flemish city of Oudenaarde has selected BobMcMaster and krft for the new cultural site through an Open Call procedure. The site contains the current city theatre, the art academy and a monumental former fire station.
The cultural site, an old bastion between the medieval core and the 19th century romantic city park, will form the link between city and landscape, between 'cour' and 'jardin' - theater jargon for the left and right sides of the stage.
A compact, new 400-seat theater is being built on the site behind the monumental street wall. An open foyer space connects old with new: the new hall with the existing smaller hall, the offices for the culture department and a culture café in the old fire station. It will be a place where theater visitor and theater maker meet: a house for the performing arts.
The building volume has been kept as compact as possible to leave the rest of the site as free as possible, leaving room for improvisation. An unprogrammed outdoor space is an enormous added value in a city that is full of life, but in which space is proliferated. Events can take place here.
The complex parking issue has been solved with a theatrical form of parking in a circus arrangement, which can function as a lowered arena for an event when the parking lot is closed off. For example, even the demand for parking offers spatial added value to the site and parking a theatrical exercise.