This year's Interiors Buildings Cities graduation studio focused on reimagining the contemporary art museum typology through the lens of M HKA in Antwerp. The process of designing a new museum building, guided by principles of anti-monumentality and a dedication to public engagement, led to a site-specific intervention revolving around the excavation of the former Zuiderdokken area. This intervention not only influenced the architectural expression, but also resonated with M HKA's anti-institutional identity.

The act of excavation serves to shape the architectural character of the museum and the park's topography, as the excavated soil is repurposed for rammed earth construction. The idea of excavation extends beyond the physical act of digging, it also encompasses the exploration of negative spaces and interstitial areas within the design. These spaces are intentionally integrated to create opportunities for art encounters, social interaction and various levels of public engagement throughout the museum experience.

M HKA museum of co-existence. This graduation project rethinks the open museum through co-existing. A public institution in today’s day and age should not only be used by regular museum visitors. According to me the institution also serves a role in the city and neighbourhood it sits in. Especially in Antwerp, a multicultural city with people from very diverse backgrounds, I envision my museum as an important place for gathering and encounter for these diverse people in the city: non-museum visitors with encounter as a first way of mutual acceptance and co-existing.This theme of “co-existing” is furthermore expanded with co-existing between humans and non-humans. My project is about creating a truly open museum: not only for humans but also for non-humans, as there is a necessity to do this. Cities are becoming more and more densified by buildings, and this means that the city’s ecosystems get disturbed with less space for insects, birds, bats and plants. Extensive research into the urban ecosystems in nature have led to strategies to invite a new, wider audience to the museum: animals and plants.
I’m creating a dialogue between park and buildings. By inviting nature, into and around the building, spaces become bio pleasant and comfortable. Two of these spaces are the Urban Living Room and Winter Garden. By doing this and using plants inside for a healthy atmosphere, I’m also able to invite non-museum visitors to the museum. Just like a living organism, the museum is flexible in its use and adapts to the changing conditions (summer/winter and day/night). During the design, the cycles of nature were a key inspiration.
The projects aims to set an example with regards to the nature inclusive design strategy and the topic of co-existing (between humans & between humans and non-humans) as these topics are two relevant and important topics which are applicable to many densified and multicultural cities in the world.

The Flemish Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA) is an institution strongly rooted in the existing fabric and socio-political framework of Antwerp South. The museum is located on the outskirts of the city, which has undergone consistent urban development and urban planning as the city grew into one of the most diverse metropolitan areas in Europe. In this development, the Antwerp Museum of Contemporary Art gradually sought to evolve with society and make way for a larger institutional purpose that pushed the museum agenda towards a more formal and generic interpretation of art spaces and how they are interpreted in light of the current zeitgeist.

In my final project, I revisit the meaning of art presentation in relation to cultural building by reconnecting with MKHA’s historic approach of capturing the essence of conserving and presenting contemporary art, an identity and genesis of an institution that has curated its growing collection between less conventional building layout and architectural fabric.

My design proposal is based on the sustainable idea and design language of reusing existing building tissue, specifically the former courthouse building which is assigned for the new developments of the M HKA or at the time entitled: Vlaams Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst (VMHK). A building typology that exists of two prefabricated office towers that are connected by a low-rise structural addition and entrance.

Here, the practice of preserving and exhibiting art in an anti-museum condition becomes relevant again through the presence of existing structure and building layout, which, in resemblance to the former MHKA building, reinforces this familiar identity in which exhibiting art bears the title ‘symbiosis between’ anti-museum condition and institutional purpose.

The graduation thesis deals with the architectural redevelopment of the National Bank of Belgium. It examines how this refurbishment can benefit the bank, the city of Brussels, and its inhabitants.

Built to its limits, the introverted character of the complex reflects the historical need to secure Belgium's financial reserves within its walls. Since its completion, however, there has been a fundamental change in the demands placed upon it. Industrial functions, such as printing and storing currency, have moved out of the city or abroad. At the same time, finance is becoming increasingly digitised. In response, the National Bank decided to redefine itself physically.

The proposal examines the optimisation of space through various changes to the layout of the offices to fit the bank's desired programme, as set out in the competition brief. The project recognises that the reduced surface area required by the bank allows a large part of the site to be given over to the city. The proposal not only suggests not new uses but new spaces that become part of the urban fabric, establishing connections and refuges for urban life, both public and private.

Co-curator & scenograaf ‘Marie-José Van Hee architecten. A Walk.’ – De Singel Antwerpen@en

The outcome of constantly striving for economic growth and making a profit has led to a city in which every building is seen as a product. Power, ownership, and mass tourism are taking over the city, exacerbating the housing shortage and making the housing prices rise to an unprecedented height. As a result, inhabitants are being pushed out of the city, while the discussion of housing as a human right is being ignored and wellbeing and equality are undermined. Alongside this housing crisis, tourism has developed into an economy with negative impacts on the city. Being a product for the almost 17 million visitors has been very overwhelming for the only 830.000 inhabitants of Amsterdam, which becomes visible through anti-hotel protests. This raises the question of the right to the city. The main objective of this project is to design a hotel that does not see tourism as a thread for the locals, but instead, as a resource. Considering different ways in which tourism can still take place in harmony with the wellbeing of Amsterdam’s inhabitants, I started to think of an architectural model in which tourists and residents live in the same building, benefitting from each other. The idea is a model where residents have a guest room in their home. The money that the guest room generates enables them to live in the city. The City Hotel will consist of multiple of these units, all housing a guest room. Together, they will form a collective house, sharing multiple facilities like gardens, a big kitchen, a dining room, working spaces and a laundry space. Thereby shifting the almost parasitic relationship between tourists and residents into a symbiotic one.

The project wishes to provide a case study in the way that the natural world can be integrated within the city life. The project site is located in Amsterdam at the island Uilenburg. Where it takes into account the doughnut economics model to create a social and ecological balance in the city. The existing buildings together with the newly designed buildings will continue what the city of Amsterdam started in 1915 when they planned to improve the living conditions of Uilenburg and make a healthier city. The design considers the historical aspect of the Uilenburg and its buildings. By creating a building which is directly into contact with different types of nature with a variety of gardens. A city hotel is designed for young people in transformation from dependence to independence. Creating a place where young people together with their neighbours, plants and trees can flourish.

Currently, a new administrative centre for the municipality of Brussels, Brucity, is under construction. A building that represents itself as a developers block and lacks any description of truly defined public space which allows the public to engage with its governance and its politicians. As a critique, a new city hall has been designed. Partly, by reusing the concrete skeleton of an existing apartment block, laying in between the given plot and the Boulevard Anspach. The new design tries to represents itself as a city hall through themes of openness, togetherness and generosity.

This project is about a city hall design for Brussels, Belgium. As a Palace for people, a city hall should not only provide a comfortable and efficient working and serving environment, but also a common area for people to assembling, a stage to present themselves. in this project, a public route featured by nature will be created, which connected the public exterior and public interior, making the public space not only permeable in plan but also in section.

Exhibition installation with artist Juan Duque in the frame of ‘Naturomorficznie’.@en

Exhibition work students TU Delft.@en