EGEM

ISABEL LOQUET- LISA FRAEYE

---

WAL[L]K

The Egemse clay pit and stone bakery are abandoned since 2011. The purpose of the province of West Flanders is to make the site a public green area, with recreative activities in the reconverted industrial surrounded buildings. Further, the clay pit will be partially filled, to give nature a chance to develop apart from the swamp area.

WAL[L]K is a 1m thick rammed earth wall of 20m high coming out of a hill. At the top, it offers walkers the wide view into the inaccessible clay pit. At the bottom, it offers bird species nesting holes. These holes are formed by perforations through the wall, as a result of the rammed earth formwork. Some perforations are filled with wooden beams, to create platform stairs.

WAL[L]K is accessible at the street level, located on the walking route around the clay pit. This walking dynamic to sense nature is continued in the circulation route. When entering the wooden construction, the walker descends with stairs that follow the hill. This continues into a split where the route can go left or right from the rammed earth wall. Rising stairs bring the walker to the viewpoint, from there the route makes a loop back to the entrance.

WAL[L]K is made from grey clay and crushed red bricks waste. Both are found at the building site itself. The foundation in the hill is constructed with rammed dry concrete. The concrete is proportionally added to the rammed earth mix to create a smooth gradient transition.

WAL[L]K received his form in a functional way, one thick wall was a clear solution to cover the 20m pit height. Additionally, it aligned with the conceptual principle, a purified simple structure made a modest and subtle approach possible towards nature. The light wooden construction follows the same modest approach because of deduplicated columns.