OFFICE 248

Positioned right at the entrance to the new Mediapark in Brussels, the Media House is a stack of three compact, stepped volumes, each accommodating a particular aspect of the programme. The largest box at the bottom, with the deepest plan and a porous public ground floor, holds broadcast production with recording studios and an auditorium. The middle volume contains media offices, the one on top rentable workspaces. The steps of this pyramidal formation are green terraces, providing each of the three volumes with its own ‘ground floor’. Conceived as a transparent structure of columns and slabs, the building is a flexible container that leaves the necessary space to adapt to the ever-changing forms of contemporary media. Here, the elements of the architecture serve as technical instruments. The canopies on the concrete facade provide solar protection, their depth varying depending on the orientation. On the north side, the canopy is shallow and gives access to the evacuation stairs. The columns of the facade perform as technical shafts, while the frieze of each volume carries a scrolling ticker display in bands of decreasing size.