2016 Nadine NievergeldNadine Nievergeld - Tour de Curiosité
Tour de curiosité is a house for a collector situated in Liège. It’s about cherishing and preserving the personal collection of a female collector. Depot and expo meet in a project that connects the visible with the invisible. It’s not a museum nor a private house. It’s a new typology which contains the characteristics of both.

It became a personal translation of my own interests that have come together in an architectural homage to the collector. It’s an autobiographical quest that started from my fascination for the Dutch themes ‘Vergankelijkheid’ (ephemerality) and ‘Verzamelen’
(collecting). A theoretical research into the reception history of both themes led to the major subjects that served as a basis for this project. It’s the 16th century wunderkammer and the escapism.

The theme of the wunderkammer can be connected to the private house and can also be seen as a precursor of the museum. This project explores the role of the wunderkammer and how it manifests itself within the contemporary architectural discussion. Connecting
ephemerality with the escapism and the sublime in architecture.

The project shows a very fascinating relationship between the object, the person and the space. It generates a paradoxical connection between the exhibition and the archive, the conventional and the unconventional. In this way it investigates what role architecture can play in a time in which both the visual and the visible, have taken a major role in our daily lives. It also explores how ephemerality, in combination with the urge to collect, can relate to the Architectural discourse. Not only in the final architectural design but also throughout the whole process. Embracing coincidence and imperfection. Seeing the design as a collection and accept the fact that architecture is ephemeral. It would be an illusion to think otherwise.

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