TY - THES ID - 134762719 TI - At the Threshold of encounters AU - Výbohová, Vanda AU - Ooms, Tomas AU - KU Leuven. Faculteit Architectuur. Opleiding Master of Architecture (Ghent) PY - 2021 PB - Leuven KU Leuven. Faculteit Architectuur DB - UniCat UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:134762719 AB - Merksem, a district of the municipality and city of Antwerp, is a very interesting place to get lost. Rather a small-scale area is offering different scenarios behind each corner and sometimes even right in front of you. Layers of cold industrial elements are interweaving with welcoming domestic areas. Large steel-framed warehouses and blank concrete walls are facing a small garden with a private bench in front of the house. Grains of straw scattered over the ground. Seagulls screaming on one side and children from the school on another one. Reading a poster announcing an art exhibition is interrupted by passing by a truck. You have to be careful and aware. You are not on the city street nor the warehouse gateway. You are. Merksem is about relations and compromises. Where two different characters meet there is a need for appropriate mediation. Places for machines and places for people are blending in all unexpected ways. A hole in the iron fence connects children from the streets with truck drivers on a football field. A memorial statue with benches is located right in front of a pneumatic grain unloader at the water site. Along the streets, you can observe and appreciate a graffiti exhibition on a blank brick wall of a warehouse. There is much more, and it is ok not to see everything. Because side product of layering is covering and hiding certain parts. ER -