M HKA Ensembles

Installation, 18.51 x 6 x 2 m.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. BK7609_M380).

The maquette Vipcity - De zeemijl (Vipcity- The Nautical Mile) is a component of "De Onaangepaste Stad” (The Unadapted City), a design-base urban planning study that Deleu, together with his T.O.P. office (Turn On Planning), worked on since 1995. “The Unadapted City” is realized in successive phases. After the earlier-designed districts Brikabrak (1998), Dinkytown (1998-99) and Octopus (1999), Vipcity is the fourth stage: a large subdivision for 38,000 inhabitants in detached houses over a 7.5 kilometer-long urban axis. The length of the city-fragment is proposed to a scale related to one nautical mile: one arc-minute along a meridian of latitude, or 1851 meters. The architectural model is at scale 1/100 and thus has a length of 18.51 meters. Aside from six office-buildings, Vipcity – The Nautical Mile also contains the necessary infrastructure for hotels and restaurants/cafés, sport and leisure, social amenities, transport, etc. This district also has a handy circuit of bicycle paths and an aerial tram. Luc Deleu aspires to demonstrate that some people can still have a hold on the world, and that a gigantic concept such as ‘The Unadapted City’ can even be realized by a small firm, like the T.O.P. office here has done in maquette form.