We all know Toyo Ito japanese imprint and international vision but do we know Toyo Ito's belgian pavilion and his vision of the city of Bruges?
In 2002, the master of the Sendai Mediatheque was chosen to construct an ephemeral pavilion for the event "Brugge, european capital of culture". He called it "the Burg" in symbolism of the water city also known as the Little Venise.
It's a wonderful metallic structure as simple as clear is it's concept. It's a deployed metallic sheet that looks like a bee nest where you could see through the town house. It gets it's stability with the polycabornate sheets on it.
Why do I talk about it?
I was in Bruges days ago with a fellow architect and friend Séverine CHEVALIER. We were amazed to see that people/tourists didn't care about the pavilion. Hidden Behind the town house, it's literaly putrefying due to time and no care. During the last 8 years it has been debated if the town who keep it or not... It is after all an ephemeral architectural object...
But as we approched the object we would read a sign that says that it will finally be restaurated soon! :D Currently, the town is looking for the budget for the restauration (400 000€ estimated) and apparently a dutch architecture office has been nominated for the revival of the pavilion.
Now, let's hope this is not just a project on paper but that we will actually see an object come (again) alive.
