AD RIPA - anchoring, docking, mooring.

This thesis stems from a deeply personal experience—the loss of my sense of anchorage, which left me with a profound feeling of displacement. I lost both the place I always called home, Ypres, and a central figure in my life, my grandfather, who, in many ways, also represented my home. This experience prompted me to explore the types of spatialities that are tied to one’s sense of anchorage, and to consider how spaces, outside of the home, can be designed not only to help me find my own anchorage, but also to be deeply connected to the place where they are created.

To understand the concept of anchorage, the verbs “anchoring,” “docking,” and “mooring”, representing different ways a boat halts, are explored. Metaphorically, these terms illustrate various spatialities where anchorage takes place. Docking relates to the home, while anchoring refers to the broader landscape. Through these verbs, I investigate what gives both the home and the landscape their interiority, compelling us to remain anchored in these spaces. I identify four characteristics of anchorage: the presence of waterways, recognizable spatial details, and the convergence of personal and collective memories. These traits are embodied in places I call “b(l)ank spaces,” symbolized by the verb “mooring.” Just as a boat finds a temporary mooring point, people can find retreat in transition spaces, often located at the borders between built space and the natural landscape. These b(l)ank spaces belong to no one, and therefore, to everyone, and can become nodes leading back to the dock. The design traces a mental journey along the water from Ypres to Ghent, encountering three b(l)ank spaces. I translate their interiority into architectural interventions that allow for temporary occupancy. The first b(l)ank space is an abandoned homestead in Ypres, reimagined as a public yet secluded place. A redesigned flat barge, used historically on the waters between Ypres and Ghent, brings me to the second b(l)ank space near the Boezinge lock. Here, I introduce a "spits" boat, where the hull itself becomes a b(l)ank space. Architectural interventions, including two types of hatches, allow entry from both the water and the embankment. The final space, beneath a bridge in Ghent, serves as a permanent resting place for the vessels, symbolizing the continuous search for new b(l)ank spaces.