A JDVIV / IVJDV A + ETC Once ahead of its time, this old psychiatric clinic was a unique place where each department operated like its own villa, set within greenery. Over time, the villas were destroyed and replaced by typical hospital buildings, disconnected from their context. When the building once again faced demolition, a new director halted the process and raised the question: “Could the building lead to another way of life?”
A workgroup with doctors, therapists, and patients, together with a curator, launched a competition that set out three goals. First, to introduce a white loggia so the villa would harmonize with the others in the park. Second, to keep the villa as close as possible to its found state, respecting the traces of demolition. Third, to install a pavilion that is openable and changeable, symbolizing continual transformation.
In this process, a pebble ground, opened windows, a basement turned into an auditorium, old chimneys, and greenhouses became part of a renewed place. The building was not a finished result, but the project itself―context and traces were the material. Craftsmen knitted in concrete blocks to repair the brickwork and replaced window frames while sharing only simple ideas rather than detailed instructions. Wooden floors and greenhouses will be replaced gradually, while a small coffee bar and a summer school are soon to be introduced.
The school will debate the project with every participant―director, doctors, inhabitants, and visitors―and aims to make changes at that very moment. This place avoids waste today, saves space today, and reveals a new longing for the future through today’s experiment.

A JDVIV / IVJDV A + ETC
A JDVIV / IVJDV A + ETC is a multi-disciplinary practice in which the making and the thinking are deeply imbedded. Inge Vinck is professor at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf and Jan De Vylder is holding the chair at ETH Zurich.