Horst - stage for a music festival

Horst covers a range of events in the field of art, architecture and electronic music, culminating in a yearly music festival. For each edition of the festival, architects are invited to design unique stages and dance floors. The Horst festival had its first edition in 2014 in the Castle of Horst, Holsbeek and moved to ASIAT in 2019, a former military terrain located in Vilvoorde, north of Brussels.

For the 2021 edition, Rotor was asked to design a stage with special concern for circular construction principles in this ephemeral context. The structure needed to protect the DJ’s and the public from rain and sun on a minimum 200m² surface, set on an irregular terrain.

To meet this demand, Rotor decided to investigate the realm of agricultural structures and greenhouses. It is one of the few fields in which the reuse of structural elements is kept up: sheds and barns in steel portal frames or greenhouses in galvanised steel tubing are still routinely dismantled for reuse.

A crew from Rotor and Rotor DC went to Normandy (France) to dismantle an existing greenhouse - a beautiful “barrel vault” model found for sale online - and have it transported to Vilvoorde. The structure was reassembled during a one-week workshop with volunteer workers. By extending the central columns, the greenhouse quickly lost its agriculture features, while overcoming the site's erratic topography. These minimal interventions do not compromise the structure’s future salvage and reusability, while still giving it a customised touch. The triple-ailed, almost gothic former greenhouse occupies more than 600 m² and was covered with a fireproof white textile to create a shady space protected from the rain underneath.

The stage, called Unglued, was successfully used during the 2021 festival edition. For the upcoming editions, the structure will remain on the site and will progressively be re-appropriated by different teams of designers.

Design team Rotor

Tristan Boniver, Stijn Colon, Lionel Devlieger, Victor Everaerts, Gaspard Geerts

Dismantling team Rotor(DC)

Tristan Boniver, Léa Bottani-Dechaud, Stijn Colon, Victor Everaerts, Gaspard Geerts, Louise Huba, Victor Meesters, Luna Pittau, Arne Vande Capelle, Victoria van Kan, Vincent Vergote

Team Horst

The whole team of volunteers: Zoe Brennan, Zoë Cassady, Valentin Defaisse, Samuel Hoornaert, Nacef Chakir, Nikki Weynants, Ottavio Paponetti, Maya Bogaert, Maria Glionna, Jihana Nassif, Irati Lasa Amo, Hannes Müller, Dominic Daly, David Hurley, Benjamin Poignon, Alice Beiglig, Anna Brylka, Julian Devos, Gianni Villa, Bavo Gladiné and Mattias Staelens