The Watch
樓 "鐘" 樓
2020
Statement:
The site used to be a Chinese restaurant but for some reason, it had shut down for years. It is located in the area surrounded by some historic buildings, such as Historical City Hall Kortrijk and Belfry Tower.
The Belfry tower was used to be a clock for this town. It worked like a machine to control people's daily life. Also, the square where it was situated was used as a place where people gather around and celebrate for ceremonies. However, the Belfry tower is not functioning anymore, it becomes a monument to celebrate the past.
From my personal experience, I found out the town does not have enough shops or stores to get the watch or time measurement tools. Also, people can only find those tools in the shop where they sell jewelry or other luxury items.Therefore, I wanted to propose a design where people can gather around and celebrate history via the invented time measurement tools.
Design strategy:
Clock on the wall - Both the history of Kortrijk and the buildings itself have strong history with it. Therefore, it is a great opportunity to make the building a time measurement machine and every single dial on the wall will move when the time passes. It represents the idea of celebrating the history of Kortrijk and every moment of people's daily life.
Functions / program of the building - Entire building is a watch workshop, people can visit the site to enjoy the making process of the watch. Also, the staircase on the side could lead the visitors to see the different parts of the workshop, such as the manufacturing space, display space, storage, testing room and packaging room.