Maastricht Fashion Quarter: Weaving fashion industry into the city of Maastricht through studios and exhibition spaces, where fashion and its production are brought closer to everyday life

The Maastricht Fashion Quarter weaves the fashion industry into the city of Maastricht through studios and exhibition spaces, where fashion and its production are brought closer to everyday life. The project is set within the ambition of the municipality to transform Maastricht into a ‘Fashion City’. Despite this ambition and the presence of young fashion graduates in the city, design offices remained scattered or pushed to the periphery of the city, resulting in designers being invisible in the city centre currently occupied by high street brands. The site chosen is therefore the inner city plot currently occupied by the Bijenkorf and the V&D department stores occupying the whole block. By hypothetically demolishing the current department stores, the proposal reimagines the plot as a neighbourhood with courtyards that open the block up to the public. The fashion quarter becomes a place where people meet not only to browse and buy, but to learn the craft of handling clothing and to reflect critically on the fashion industry and sustainable consumption. Surrounding the open air courtyards are a fashion museum, local designers’ shops, café/bar, studio spaces, tailoring school, library and archive. The project looks at architecture through the lens of fashion. The relationship between inner and outer linings parallel the use of plaster on the courtyard facades and brick on the street facades. The proposal aims to provide backdrops, expressing the particular Maastricht elegance, which enhance the clothing displayed and can be ‘dressed up’ during festive occasions