RTBF Media Square
The new RTBF headquarters for the public service media of the French-speaking community in Belgium is taking form around Media Square in the newly created media park in Brussels. The project seeks to establish a harmony with its future neighbour, the VRT headquarters for the Flemish broadcasting corporation.
The competition entry reinterprets the archetype of an urban palace, which combines the qualities of a private residence with those of a public building. This is translated in the creation of large public spaces with a focus on detailing and personalisation of the interiors. The RTBF inhabits the shared space of the city and is inhabited by its users.
The opacity of the urban palace reference is substituted by transparent façades with infinite depth, revealing clearly to the outside what is produced on the inside. The building becomes a "naked palace" which through its simplicity, expresses a common identity. Within its compact outline, the building offers a highly interconnected layout that promotes interaction rather than hierarchy, by stimulating collaboration between the production, editorial and administrative functions. The cross-section also reveals the internal dynamics of the project, which superimposes and connects three different worlds: at the base, connected to Media Square, the studio spaces; in the centre, the world of information organised around the newsroom; and at the top, the world of offices arranged around a series of hanging gardens.
