This project explores how continuous iterative drawing and model making can contribute to a deeper understanding of the challenges and potentialities of an existing building in its relation to a new programme.
In Brussels, a post-industrial landscape split in 2. One side has flourished into one of the most bio-diverse places in the city. The other is filled with a multitude of smaller industrial buildings. At the edge of a railway track a warehouse from the 60s is repurposed into a vocational construction school. The circular ideology is embedded in the school by a recuperated material depot. Consequently, the project focuses on only intervening where needed, using quick & dry interventions as much as possible.
Through an extensive research consisting of drawing and model making the discrepancies between the challenges and potentialities of the existing building and the new programme are explored. This deep understanding; of what there is and what is needed, makes it possible to intervene efficiently in unexpected and playful ways.

This project focuses on sound in architecture and the urban environment. The location of this project is Friche Josaphat, a green and biodiverse area located in Brussels. Being a void over the last years, this place changed into a biodiverse landscape. The main question of this research is: what is the sound of the Friche? By listening and analyzing these sounds through making music, information about the context of the building site is gained. A sonic plan is made which serves as a base for the landscape design. A Sonic & sculpture park has been designed where the sounds of the Friche will be emphasized through adding more diversity in the landscape of the Friche and adding sculptures, sound art and places to listen to the sounds. The visitors center that is designed is one of the two entrances to this park. This building creates a gradient in sound from the urban environment of brussels to the park and introduces the visitor to sounds. The building also shows a gradient of materiality from urban to green. The visitors center is an educational place for people from the neighbourhood and contains a café and exhibition about sounds and green. After designing the building a new sonic plan is made, but then on building scale. Music is composed to emphasize the different atmospheres in the building.

This research project addresses the urban development issue of fragmentation in Brussels, Belgium, by using a vacant wasteland as a case study. It examines three key phenomena—Bronxification, Disneyfication, and Brusselization—that have contributed to the city's fragmentation into disjointed patches, a condition referred to as Capsular Urbanism. The research uses a patchwork metaphor to explore borders and boundaries through textiles, aiming to redefine elements that mark urban edges and define border zones to reconnect fragmented urban areas.

The methodological approach combines a literature review, site observation, and metaphorical exploration through textiles. A distinction is made between boundaries, which are physical barriers that create separation, and border zones, which are transitional areas where interactions take place. The research unfolds in two primary stages: examining the physical boundaries of the Friche to understand its structural characteristics and spatial relationships, and using textiles metaphorically to explore strategies for reintegrating urban patches. Findings emphasize the importance of overlaps where interactions happen. By strategically positioning public amenities at these edges and fostering multifunctional spaces within buildings, urban fragments can become interconnected, promoting social engagement and reducing physical and social isolation.

This strategy is applied in the design project for revitalizing an old warehouse currently used for hosting EU Parliament events. Positioned on the border between two municipalities, the site offers an ideal opportunity to address fragmentation in Brussels. The proposal involves expanding the event space and transforming the warehouse into a cultural hub that caters to both EU professionals and the local community. This transformation enhances the building's role as an event venue by turning it into a vibrant, inclusive hub that bridges diverse groups, fostering interaction and unity in a previously fragmented urban area.

In a world increasingly under pressure due to housing shortages, urbanization, and climate change, the Friche Josaphat stands as the last green in town in the midst of metropolitan Brussels. However, urban green spaces are usually experienced by distracted urban audiences, preoccupied by day-to-day issues of bills, work, and children, or absorbed in the over-stimulating digital worlds within their smartphone screens. Therefore, it is important to rethink contemporary approaches to nature and urban green space.

The design of my building intertwines memorable and immersive experiences with nature in a cinema and housing tower to allow residents and visitors to discover the special and sublime in our everyday lives. It is rooted in my research into land art projects, which provide great insight into exaggerated constructions of nature and how sequential journeys and vantage points influence their designs. I also looked into drawings and projects of stage set designer/ architect Hans Dieter Schaal who explores in almost endless experimental drawings, different surreal pathways surrounded by a synthesis of natural settings and man-made structures. I created my own drawings that speculate on spatial experiences and journeys for my project. They were done instinctively, with elements recognizable of the Friche occasionally interjected, such as the train tracks and sloped terrain surrounding the edges of the site. They tie in architectural themes I have been addressing such as augmented nature and hyper-nature, immersive experiences, emphasis on journey to create a theatrical staging of spaces and allowed me to speculate on the relationship between my proposed building and the Friche.

By provoking those who experience them into re-encountering their relationship with the natural world, this can lead to new engagement and imaginations, even empowering them to make changes. In doing so, urban green spaces become not just environmentally resilient against the increasing forces of climate change, but also resilient from demolition to meet demands in ever-growing cities.

The research of the relationship between a traveling theatre and it's context on an abandoned rail yard in Brussels, followed by the proposal of an urban plan and new theatre building ensemble at the site entrance.

The street is perhaps the most prosaic of the city’s public realm, allowing us to view the very ordinary practices of life and livelihood – a space to move or pause, to meet friends, post a letter, to buy goods and is composed of an amalgamation of rooms along it. Due to the possibility of maneuvering, it tends to exhibit the external spatial reinforcements taken to mark a person’s position. This makes a street not a linear study but a system of social and spatial labyrinths. Hence, the street gives a peek at not only what was and what is, but also the lived realities of allegiance and participation by understanding the social and cultural formations occurring within itself. This is observed by unfolding the street to understand the levels of interactions (or scenes) within the layers between the building and street.
The thesis focuses on the field between architecture and urbanism, on the domain between public and private. It is an attempt to bring an interactive notion to ‘street’ and its role in the design of urban areas and smaller architecture projects. It aims to reinforce the quality of open space within and between the built structures and the existing corridors by blurring the borders of inside and outside.

The goal of this research is to create a new understanding of the individuality of the city of Liége, by constructing a “logic of architecture”, a logic rooted in place, through a personal (dynamic) understanding of the site and its people & positioned within architectural theory, presenting a new interpretation. Hence, the design acts as a testsite for the research: testing, validating and showcasing the newfound “logic of architecture”, which is a product of the research process. The research strives to define three key elements (window, entrance, structure) within their autonomous reading as well as the part they play in the social ecology of Bressoux, thereby creating ground for the elements to propose design solutions based on the way they invite human life into their consciousness. Researching construction of the city over time through ordinary elements that give meaning to the city.

This project delves into the transformative potential of human-centric architecture as a catalyst for social connection, urban revitalization, and empowerment in the neighborhood of Droixhe in Liège, Belgium. Drawing inspiration from the collective Les Amis de L'Étang, comprising 15 social organizations, the research explores the concealed narratives behind facades and the daily lives of the communities residing in the neighborhood. Uncovering a pressing need for suitable spaces and housing tailored to the requirements of marginalized women and poorly represented social organizations within the modernistic ensemble of Droixhe, the site specific project proposes a women's house as a multi-functional complex, re-interpreting the role of the public, communal and domestic space. Aiming to promote social safety and empowerment for women, the project at the same time revitalizes and enhances the neighborhood through its public functions, with it's community kitchen as main urban connector. By transcending conventional design paradigms and activating curiosity through architecture, this proposal seeks to invigorate Droixhe, forging a vibrant, inclusive living environment that empowers its inhabitants.

This year's urban architecture graduation studio proposes a site specific approach within the district of Bressoux, on the fringe of the city of Liège. Seeking for opportunities in the working class district, after the industry has left the stage, a courtyard on a corner is found. Behind the perimeter wall, basic necessities for those in need are taken care of. A food bank, a restaurant, a social desk, a shower. The project proposes to rethink the collection of functions by adapting the existing masonry structures through carving & grafting. Opening and adding, allowing for new ways of occupation. And then to add something new to the table. Opening the gate for 24h and introducing a shelter and transit home, offering a bed during the night. Scenographic models and drawings are used to design and represent the spaces of the courtyard, as well as the objects & life within them. 

Liège with its post-industrial identity has a long history as an important manufacturing center in Europe for steel making and coal mining. However, the segregation between production and the city, has made the industry detached from the urban condition and the everyday life. Today, whilst new urban productive typologies were spotted in Liège that offered chances for hybrid and innovative making, manufacturing found its root to thrive in the city – and this is what we identified – a new industrial urbanism.

“A good city has industry.”

This design project argues that industry should be part of the city. It aims to develop a new factory type with the involvement of human scale and everyday life in the current urban setting to eliminate segregation between human and machines, and thus suggests a mixed-use program with a focus of work and production.

So, how can production be visible and fit into the city?

The design approach is to go hybrid, to combine production and consumption activities, and to have a closer loop from producers to consumers. The project hopes to achieve a productive co-existence of different functions within a building.

Today’s concerns are not only about how to design a factory building working efficiently as a machine, but also the social aspect of a factory, for example, the human factors which guide the spatial design for circulation and interactions for the workers, neighbors and commuters.

“Made in Liège”, the project is strategically located next to the Bressoux train station entrance area, at the intersection of the railway and a bridge, thereby forming an important urban transition between the industrial area of Droixhe and the neighborhood of Bressoux.

Having a long and linear shape in connection with an existing bridge, the building is almost like a train with many carriages, which you can enter separately, and they have their own identity but still be able to work together. In different carriages, it responds to different researched aspects (productive urbanism, working environment, social interactions) under the topic “Human & Machine”. When different cabinets come together, it becomes a mini city in one building.

Theatrum mundi and the idea of ‘the city as a stage’ is the foundation of this research. It configures the our area of interest within the realms of stages, sets, scenes and backstages by defining their interrelations and metaphorical exchanges within the spaces in a city. The approach analysis and defines application backstages on architectural design and sheds light on the current conditions of the backstage. The research reveals the material, immaterial, spatial and ecological conditions of such workspaces that aid in cultural production. The study of landbouwbelang as a backstage displays its uniqueness as a case study and by use architectural drawings these leanings further validates the design approach towards domestication of existing infrastructure towards appropriability for a production environment. Additionally, it showcases cultural production as a new kind of performance, that in the design is further staged. Inspired by the set designs of the movie dogville(year), the methodology suppresses the curtains and reveals the working and organism-istic nature of cultural production. Domestication and appropriation is not a static phenomenon.. Hence, the methodology needed to be something that explains the mutating phenomenon. Inspired from the movie dogville, where the the ideas about set and props has been taken to a new dimension. In a way the approach with the markings and layer of imagination, it lead to me answer my questions and reveal the backstage at the same time. For he viewer to understand the variations, shaping of spaces and domestication of existing built fabrics. Landbouwbeland is a labyrinth and one loses the idea of space, and orientation within it, hence the final product will showcase the labyrinthic nature of landbouwbelang, this learning is transferred into the design, through fixed directional markers that align with the spine of the functions. By allowing the domesticity into the production space, it was suggested, there is a greater possibility for a fluid relationship between individual and group practice, unlike the formalized spatial and temporal structure of the rehearsal which brings individual practitioners together at a set time and for a specific purpose.