Genk centre trivialities

If Genk is the name of the city, what does the verb ‘Genken’ mean, then? How do you ‘do’ a city, how can you ‘be’ a city or in slightly other words, how do you ‘live’ a city? The city council and administration are convinced that the lively parts of Genk are to be found in the neighbourhoods. Thus, the general research question and starting point of the project was: How to create more diversity and atmosphere in the city centre, making use of the qualities present in the neighbourhoods?

By living and working on-site, we gradually discovered that also the city centre has qualities and opportunities, relatively unseen up till now and maybe closer to the much-praised qualities of the neighbourhoods as you could expect, so the research question became: regarding the centre as one of the gears, which role and identity can it assume to stand out against the other gears and neighbourhoods and what can it add to the city of Genk as a whole?

The atlas of Genk, 48 reflections divided in six themes, is the result of the search for the meaning of Genk-centre. Out of these reflections, three routes or walks are distilled that all encircle a specific theme: passages or (shopping) arcades, secret squares and unnoticed architectural treasures. Among these, the best kept secrets of Genk can be found: a selection of the discoveries of each route has been photographed and added after the key map within the atlas.

Hunting ground: Genk (B)
Hunting period: 2016
Client: Stad Genk