The Modulator

Abstract

As part of the Public Building studio, the track 'Music Marvel' was offered. The goal of this track was to create a music building in the Binckhorst, The Hague, that not only provides a space for musical performance, but does something greater, by contributing something to the location, city or music as a whole. The Binckhorst is a former industrial site that is in full transformation by the municipality to a lively urban area. The old industrial character of this site often gets lost in the process. At the same time, as has come forward from the site and manifeso research, what the Binckhorst is lacking is exchange. Both old and new projects are often walled off or turned inwards, and don't contribute to the site as a whole. The same is the case for the Binckhorst in the city of The Hague. It is where the municipality put all the functions it did not want elsewhere, and the location has barriers on all four sides, giving the people of the city and surroundings no reason to go there. The design brings this exchange back in the form of musical exchange. From case study research, four functions and their interrelations were derived that contribute to musical exchange. The four functions are performance space, practice space, workshop spaces and meeting space. In practice, these functions together lead to buildings becoming musical incubators, bringing forward musical interaction and musical talent. The design combines these functions in different ways to create different scenario's of musical exchange. It does this by re-using containers found throughout the Binckhorst and transforming them into modules with different musical and auxiliary functions. These modules can be rearranged in any manner within the space of a re-used canopy from BAM, the square that is created in front, an old craneway, and the waterfront of the old Binckhaven. The containers are moved and stacked using the old harbour cranes, and moved by using transport casettes. With this modular system many different configurations are possible. The design illustrates the possiblities of this system with three variants that play into the capabilities of the building, missing concert capacities in the city, and the ambitions of the municipality as mentioned in the Popnota 2017. Material re-use, circularity and the identity of the site are important themes in the project. The majority the building consists of re-used materials, sourced from the Binckhorst. Wherever this was not possible, mainly circular alternatives where used. The building is assembled in such a manner that is can be taken apart again. By re-using materials from the Binckhorst, using the characteristic elements of the site, and incorporating elements in the Binckhorst lost in redevelopment, such as street art, the identity of the Binckhorst is preserved and shown in the design.