The Letter Box

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RESEARCH BACKGROUND: The Letter Box is affiliated with Van Den Berghe's durational project WoSho - a personal architectural lab operating since 1986. On site, two existing columns requiring repair were rebuilt - one bigger to fit a letterbox inside. The installation in the Belgian Pavilion at the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale 2016 - the most significant presentation of architecture to an international audience - shows fragments of 13 selected projects exhibited as full-sized replicas to demonstrate "what craftsmanship can mean during a period of economic scarcity" (Jan De Vylder, Curator BRAVOURE). RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: The project explores fundamental notions of architecture through the construction of a modest, residential letterbox. Pragmatic rebuilding of two columns at the front of Van Den Berghe's house was framed by conditions of scarcity - limited time, materials and ambition - but was performed with respect and consideration of proportions, repetition, construction processes and reused materials. This careful attentiveness also encompassed the presence and pride of the original landowners, expressing a merging of "...dignity with necessity and functionality. This is cultural sustainability." (Bravoure, Scarcity, Beauty pp. 17). RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: Van Den Berghe's work also appears in the high quality, corresponding publication, Bravoure Scarcity Beauty (pp. 45-47) and includes a one-on-one interview with the curatorial team (pp. 16-17). This brick project demonstrates Van Den Berghe's research on the study of the architectural fragment - i.e. the capacity of the architectural fragment in its crucial role as an interface between the whole and the detail for the transference of design information in design processes.