Fisheye is a multidisciplinary agency with a firm belief in vision. We’re convinced that working towards a common goal is essential for great collaborations. It’s in this spirit Fisheye was selected by the municipality of Wetteren to conceptualise, design, produce ánd install an interior solution for the repurposing of the old, empty church in the Overbeke neighbourhood.

We immediately aligned with the project team in our aim to not only give this religious building a new purpose, but also to actively involve the local community by creating opportunities for local inhabitants. This project needed to bring people together and offer locals an accessible, durable place to relax and host events. Connection is the keyword, and it’s these dynamics and modularity we used as backbone to present our creative vision.

After a little site visit and multiple conversations about placemaking and public spaces our creative team came up with a versatile solution to answer all needs. Our vision for Overbeke church was based on providing tools for locals and we almost literally translated this concept into macro & micro building blocks. This approach allows many different and not so permanent setups in the vast and open space, and tackles acoustical problems at the very same time.

To illustrate our vision we created 3D printed scale models of our building blocks, and used this to communicate with both local inhabitants as well as municipal councillors and the mayor. Looking forward, locals will also be able to plan their event setup using this scale model, which will receive a prominent place inside the newly founded community centre building.

For the bigger part of our interior concept we created 6 movable macro units which can be used in many different setups. These giant building blocks can be individually connected and include all necessary details such as power supplies, LED lighting, heating, acoustic panels and audiovisual solutions.

The shapes, including different playful roof structures, are based on the looks of mid 19^th century worker’s houses, when Overbeke was a thriving neighbourhood thanks to Felix Beernaert’s large factory. As for colors we chose a bright and rich color pallet referring to the holy water basin in the corner of the church.