The Stockholm City Library was designed by Erik Gunnar Asplund and constructed between 1924 and 1928. A lack of space has always been a problem, already after three years, the fourth wing of the building was constructed, completing the square. After this, only minor changes have been made to the library. Around the turn of the century, libraries were faced with a change of identity with the rise of neo liberalism and the increase of digital media. A 2006 competition sought to expand the library 3-fold; this competition was abandoned for political reasons and public unrest. In 2012 and 2014, two programs were written, leading to the commissioning of British architecture firm Caruso St John to work out a proposal to renovate the library and connect it with the underlying bazar. Again, this project was abandoned for political reasons. In 2023, the Interiors Buildings Cities studio was tasked with interpreting these briefs and finding a way to change to Stockholm City Library to turn into a contemporary one.

This project specifically, works completely inside the building, trying to as little as possible to preserve as much as possible of Asplund’s original architecture whilst still optimizing its operations and creating space for contemporary library programme. To achieve this, the library is relieved of the overhead programme that is intended for the system of public libraries in Stockholm, programme has been shuffled around, and opportunities were found where interventions could be done.

Within the rotunda and the perimeter halls, only conservation work has been undertaken except for the basement, and on the entrance floor below the rotunda and in the north wing. These spaces have the least original qualities and are therefore places where new interventions can be made. Here contemporary library programme is housed like a city living room, a café, group rooms, and a lecture space. The geometry of the circular drum, within the square perimeter halls, creates left over spaces: poché. Originally these pochés were intended to be lightwells, through time they have gradually been filled with servant functions, circulation spaces, ducts, and storage spaces. Because of their young age and their inferior architectural qualities, there are more liberties for demolition, however keeping elements that are still of practical use like elevators. The project fills these poché spaces to a degree, with new spaces that aid the functioning of Asplund’s library and are in dialogue with his architecture. These infills now have a dignity and aid the Asplund library in its functioning to ensure the preservation of this architectural masterpiece.

The Stockholm City Library project involves refurbishing and extending the building, incorporating nearby Annex buildings, Observatory Hill and the city itself. Inspired by Gunnar Asplund’s design principles—spatial harmony, material quality, and poetic expression—the project honors the library’s role as a cultural landmark and storytelling space that resonates across cultures. Drawing on Sweden’s values of political neutrality, hospitality, and cultural inclusivity, it aims to create spaces that welcome minority communities, immigrants, and diverse narratives.

The intervention is organised into four key components: the enhancement and extension of a bazaar area, including the creation of two new courtyard gardens; the refurbishment of the existing library with new, light-filled covered spaces; new functions to the Annex building, connected to the library via an underground passage; and the addition of a dedicated storytelling room with a cloister, creating a unified space that bridges both buildings with an outdoor garden. The design reflects the evolving role of modern libraries as community hubs where people feel a sense of belonging and connection, addressing social isolation by fostering communal interactions. Drawing inspiration from traditional living rooms—where art and decor often narrate cultural stories—the project establishes a platform for storytelling and knowledge exchange.

Ultimately, this project seeks to restore the library’s historic character while introducing new architectural elements that harmonise the Library, Annexes, Hill, and the surrounding cityscape, enhancing infrastructure and creating welcoming spaces that celebrate community narratives.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA), is in search of a new building. Influenced by the anti-museum philosophy of the ICC, M HKA aspires to integrate itself into a network of regional museums while concurrently positioning itself within a broader global context. The institution has identified a promising site within a suburban neighbourhood in Antwerp, strategically positioned between the Scheldt quays and the city park, the site commands a central and strategic position, seamlessly connecting two crucial urban spaces.

Recognizing the global trend towards the increased need for financial independence among museums, M HKA is adapting its approach to ensure long-term sustainability. This adaptation involves enhancing visitor experiences and diversifying revenue streams while maintaining to enricht cultural engagement.

The redesign of the museum is informed by this growing need for financial stability. Interactive displays will be integrated to facilitate visitor engagement and bridge the gap between art and the public. Additionally, the inclusion of a publicly accessible roof terrace, known as the forum, will offer panoramic views of Antwerp and can be used for a range of cultural events.

A notable architectural feature of the museum’s redesign is the suspended white cube which is exclusively dedicated to art exhibitions. The suspended construction enables the creation of unobstructed floor plans, affording significant flexibility in exhibition layout design.

By this redesign the museum seeks to inspire, educate, and engage visitors while strengthening its ties with the city of Antwerp.

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.

This project stems from an interest in institutions and the materialisation of politics within them, implicit and explicit. Art and architecture both have the capacity to be a scaffolding upon which protest and proposition of alternative relations can be built and communicated. While museum and art has always been implicated in commercial and political reality of power and authority, with the retreat of public funding and an increase in private, there is a gap which museums try to fill by adopting business strategies of shopping malls to cover the huge costs of heating, cooling and dehumidifying their expansive interiors in addition to competing with the private art market. At the same time, they strive to maintain their authority through institutional responsibility towards the society.

The aim of my project is to question the role and impact of architecture in the politics of a museum, with an understanding of the complex reality of museum-making. The interrogation of the original competition brief for the new Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp (M HKA) with regards to the budget, the spatial ambitions or demands, and the fundamental sustainability of resources, led me to propose why an alternative proposal for the M HKA could and should be put forward. The economic and spatial arguments, together with my position towards the climate crisis and research on the history of the institution, have resulted in a proposition radically different from the original brief, but still very much connected to it and resulting from it.

Adapting the existing courthouse building on site for a public archive of contemporary art not only allows a more intelligent budget distribution, but forces different power relations with regards to public funding, its responsibilities and sense of permanence. Densifying and reducing the amount of space required for art encourages more targeted architectural decisions, other types of spaces, actually fitting more appropriately into the existing courthouse building.

This project inscribes itself in a trend of public archives, while at the same time taking a critical position of an outsider-insider. The adaptation of the courthouse for the new MHKA allows a unique focus on the processes before and during the construction, acting as an event in the city, making transparent the process of change and adaptation.

The architecture of the new museum will be an expression of its positioning towards art, the public and the city. As my graduation project, it also expresses my position towards an uncritical building culture of competitions, ethical and professional sensitivity to the larger social and environmental context. By preserving the court building, I argue that embodied carbon is as valid an argument against demolition as heritage value and by interrogating and negotiating the demands of the competition brief against its budget, type of institution and the current economic, political and ecological reality, I question the role and responsibility of the architect in the face of multiplicity of crises.

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.

The Future Bank involves the transformation and adaptive reuse of the National Bank of Belgium in Brussels. A vast closed off urban block, designed to safeguard the states treasures hasn’t moved with the ever changing ambiguous role of the bank. The project introduces a new public plinth for the city of Brussels to appropriate together with a conglomerate of different office environments for the banks employees. As architect, taking on the role of bricoleur, the existing building structure has been approached as a source of pre-constrained materials. The metaphorical tools of the axe and pocket knife are used to eke out new meanings within the existing building structure. The misfit building will be healed by stitching together on different scales. In that way creating an architectural continuity which allows future adaptation and even an informality that invites to do so. The minimal interventions aim to heal the existing, minimizing our impact on the limited resources that our planet has to offer. The result is a strategy which must be considered before diminishing a building that misfits its contemporary role.

The National Bank of Belgium stands as a fortified conglomerate of historic patchwork structures, within central Brussels. With its inherent role having shifted from that of a safekeeper of physical goods towards a mere office, the building can be made publicly accessible, taking on an active role in the city.
By understanding the existing building through the layers of the shell (as physical infrastructure with a lifespan of about 60 years) and sets (of furniture and partitions which are constantly replaced) the bank can be manipulated and re-used.
The careful clearance of the inner courtyard allows for an extension of the existing ‘shell’. A new framework, inserted within the courtyard, only revealing itself as chapters within the monumental facade.
The bank's excessive storage of outdated ‘sets’ become active elements in the spatial formation of the new bank. Providing an alternative narrative to the rapid regeneration of the office interior.

The design tries to reconnect a forgotten part of the city through the design of city block with a focus on public space within the block itself. Simple and clear elements help the visitor to identify these public spaces. By offering both clearly defined and ambiguous spaces there is room for interpretation and freedom of use. Tourists and locals alike benefit from the public interiors that offer a multitude of functions. The architecture of the city block is a modern interpretation of the existing architecture on site, it tries to harmonize the incoherence of the site by using strict facades and elegant entrances. By weaving a new city block into the existing fabric of the city a new connection is made to this forgotten part of the city centre.

Stenen Hoofd City Hotel together with a wetland create a new conditions on a previously not maintained pier in Amsterdam. Based on the Doughnut Economics and Hotel Typology research this intervention responds to the local ecological lens of the Amsterdam's Doughnut Model. Biodiversity of the site is enriched by the wetlands flora and fauna while the City Hotel helps to support Stenen Hoofd economically. The project aims to provide a new quality to the pier and its users.

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 Craft Huis reimagined what a hotel is in the Doughnut Economy of Amsterdam. As The European tourist capital, Amsterdam has been afflicted by social segregation and ecological damage, particularly the historic centre. The future hotel of Amsterdam, The Craft Huis, is designed as the place where tourists can learn from and live with local artists, craftsmen and the community of Amsterdam. At the same time, the hotel supports the local economy and the artists living in the city. The Craft Huis is designed as a Palazzo for craft: the composition of the facade is inspired by the traditional Italian palazzo, with a central open space that works as workshop as well as public interior for the community of the Jordaan.

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.

Research__Brussels as an urban stage of differences__Activism I Activation__Political Space My work is an investigation of the city of Brussels, of public space and its citizens. The results of the analysis of the city of Brussels show above all the diversity of the city. The city can be seen as a fragmented, heterogeneous and superimposed space of differences, complexity and problems, but also as an opportunity and place of appropriation. The city is therefore the subject of attention and observation. By using the method of making a section through the city, it can be seen that the east-west connection through the city brings together politically important institutions, cultural facilities and public spaces, but is separated by certain obstacles (boundary), such as streets, topography or the canal. These different demonstrations of power can be seen throughout the city; from the ornamental town hall on the Grand Place to the transparent monoliths of the European Quarter, these buildings are theatrical yet tired and seem to actively distance themselves from their citizens. However, it has become clear that public spaces in the city centre extend around the chosen site (pedestrian zone - ground floor). I would like to link these public spaces further and consolidate them as a place of expression for the citizens. Instead of taking public space, I would like to give the citizens space to participate in political and democratic events. It is clear in Brussels that the willingness of citizens to participate is high and that they articulate this. The possibility of gathering in public spaces reveals to citizens a sense of power through the crowd. There is an awareness of power within the amount of people.‘Like a Greek agora, the city must reassert its most ancient function as a place where people come together face-to-face.’ City: Rediscovering the Center by William H. Whyte (Author), Paco Underhill (Foreword); University of Pennsylvania Press; Reissue edition (September 22, 2009)But what is a political space and how does it express itself? Can we find this political space in everyday life? In my work I take the stairs as a political space. It is not so much the polarity of start and end that is recorded in this difference in level, but rather the tension between rise and fall, light and shadow, gravity and levitation, mind and body. The stairs are a primary motif of social interaction. A space that is constantly in motion due to the purpose of movement. This political space is especially intended to address the idea of being in between._Concept and Design__Site & ProgrammeThe location is in the city centre. In the past, it was also occupied by an architecture that was intended to serve the population. However, as a public institution: market, event location and parking garage. The starting point of the project is the new centre of the city administration, the so-called BRUCITY, where the Brussels city administration is centralised. It is a project under construction. I see the resulting building as a provocation to investigate the nature of civic architecture in relation to public space and democracy. I set myself the task of designing a building that occupies less public space and thus creates a place to meet and pause in front of the building. The building will be the workplace for civil servants and at the same time the interface between them and the citizens of the city. The above ground floors will serve as workplaces for different departments of the city administration. The underground floors will house the municipal archives and the Council Chamber. While the meetings are often closed to the general public, the Council will be visible to the citizens from the street. The building will be accessible from different directions, and will initially lead everyone through a public space. There you will have the possibility to get orientation, information and if necessary to register. A public staircase with different framed views of the city and into the building will guide the person or group of persons through the building. On the top floor, the citizens will be offered a room with different and individual possibilities of use, as well as for meetings and events. It leads to a belvedere and opens up a clear view over the city. The citizen stands on the roof and sees the own city surrounding oneself.The new urban configuration will be a place of connection between people, but also of political and cultural exchange. Not only can we make demands on democracy, we must allow ourselves to be demanded.

The project "Celebration as Revolution - Transformation of Copenhagen's First Waterworks to Public Bath" investigates how the celebration of worker's movement in the 1970s has developed into Copenhagen's largest annual festival "Distortion". An industrial heritage site, the Waterworks plant, is proposed to be reappropriate for cultural and celebrative purposes in relation to water and pleasure.

Protest has become a ubiquitous part of urban life as a result of the conditions that command processes of urbanisation. This project concerns itself with the advocation for spatial agency in cities by understanding how public space can contribute a form of cultural resistance within turbulent political and social contexts. The thesis aims to be understood as a manifesto; an architectural provocation that is committed to the democratic potentials of urban spaces. The research focused on the 2019 Santiago protests in Chile, a relevant precedent that demonstrates how ‘deliberative democracies’ of 21st Century Latin America are being challenged under current economic and political climates. The project considers the phenomena of protest as a manifestation of collective conscience translated into the physical occupation and de-powering of an urban territory, specifically the transformation of Plaza Italia to Plaza Dignidad in Santiago.

Throughout the previous 50 years, Latin American cities have experienced radical rates of urbanisation. A concrete plateau situated within the Andes Mountains, Santiago’s urban growth has been galvanised by the implementation of a neoliberal economic model under the dictatorial regime of Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s. It appears only the San Ramon tectonic fault line is capable of limiting the subordination of the rural to the urban, exposing the exploitative nature binding capitalism and urbanisation as a critical anchor of political and class struggle. The production of a protest culture has become a pivotal part of public life, where protest is not so much an abnormality, but a continuous urban condition in flux. A capacity for change commences with the awareness of the societal production of space, and the right to command and disrupt the urban structure: to decolonise the city.

In an effort to understand the capacity of public space to engage with processes of decolonisation, the research references fields such as sociology, political theory, and material culture to ensure a comprehensive analysis of the place. An in-depth theoretical understanding of the historical, cultural and political contexts supported observational work carried out during the protests in Santiago. This provided the framework for further post-situ ethnographic research on the spatial processes of decolonisation. In order to illustrate the act of decolonisation of Plaza Italia to Plaza Dignidad, a graphical documentation of the city's quotidian conditions alongside the destruction after protest took inspiration from methods and techniques used in archaeological drawing. The traces of protest thus delineated potential sites of intervention and provided a graphical representation of the physical, material and spatial conditions of the place.

During the months of protest, monuments throughout the country were repeatedly damaged and dismantled in a collective effort to reject the acceptance and permanence of stone statues that gave testament to a manipulated history. From monuments to ruins, the remains of colonial, oligarchical and patriarchal figures littered the streets, pronouncing the continent’s stolen identities. Within the urban fabric, the imposition of Monuments represent loci of power and conflict, where the iconographic glorification can be experienced as a violent intrusion on the public and collective sphere. Thus the re-purposing of monuments becomes the significant genesis of the project. By removing the existing statues from their plinths, power is dislocated and the status of the monument is redefined. An iconoclastic inventory documents these artefacts, their material, their dimensions, and their histories. The extensive catalogue archives the data of the defaced monuments and their respective plinths, in order to imagine how these artefacts could be re-appropriated and represented within public space in a sensitive and democratic manner.

In relation to the city, the brief imagines embedded scales that resist urban conditions and provide moments of spatial agency. The protest route is understood as an urban territory composed of three significant elements: the presidential palace, the street and the plaza. As the city’s main site for mass social manifestation, Plaza Dignidad forms a focal point within this symbolic and political landscape, through its convergence of principle roads, the river Mapocho and the Andes mountains. Translated into a programme, the project forms 3 spatial infrastructures: a Cultural Itinerary along the protest route incorporating the constellation of remaining plinths within the identified urban territory; Plaza Dignidad a civic infrastructure for urban ecology, civic engagement and public mobility; and a Public Archive facilitating a civic programme that aims to re-define the monument through the documentation and conservation of defaced statues. The urban strategy speculates a collective collaboration with actors within the city. Alongside the Chilean Council of National Monuments, the existing cultural and educational institutions that populate the avenue Alameda take responsibility to intervene with the surrounding empty pedestals according to their specific institutional programme, creating a constellation of didactic moments that puncture the public space.

The project focuses on the design of Plaza Dignidad as a monumental void that resists the dense urban fabric contained between two existing linear infrastructures: the L1 Metro line and the Mapocho River. Through a cultural, historical and political itinerary along the protest route, the spatial experience of a continuous public space seeks to be pedagogical and symbolic, by focusing the citizen perspective to engage with the provocative idea of ​​the horizon as a device to dismantle urban spatial hierarchies and power structures. The proposal to materialise Plaza Dignidad as a new horizon in the city encouraged the design approach to focus on the articulation of the territory and the ground. Expressing the plaza as a plinth, it is designed as a civic stage for daily rituals and social manifestation. The communication of the soil was extended to the material and construction processes. Led by an investigation into the existing soil conditions and the sedimentation layers that revealed the geological formation of the site, the main construction methodology sought the use of earthen construction, referring to vernacular traditions and proposing unconventional uses of the construction of rammed earth underground.

As an idea that tries to recover an urban territory to its people and its environment, the project brings together Plaza Dignidad, the Mapocho Riverbank and an underground public archive into a connected programme. The river promenade and peripheral gardens populate the urban site with native flora that once grew in abundance throughout the Santiago valley. In a symbolic gesture that relocates statues underground and replaces them with stone caryatids, these abstracted geological sculptures redefine the monument. The concept of ​​the ‘natural monument’ transcends the entire project across various scales and extends to the materiality of the square, which celebrates the richness and beauty of Chile’s geological diversity. The status of the political monument is subverted and redefined through ecology by empowering place, culture and memory.

The act of decolonisation comes from displacing political power and iconography, by returning a piece of the city to its indigenous landscape in which the re-appropriation of the square becomes a catalyst for the re-appropriation of the city as a whole, confronting the political and redefining the horizons between the ground, monuments, people, the city and the landscape.

Research about the ideal characters and role of activities in terms of social interaction and people gathering in a culture diverse neighborhood. How to create opportunities for residents to interact and find common activities to improve their relationship is the main intention.