Design with (addiction) Care: The role of the urban, architectural and human perspective in designing addiction care in Liège

‘Design with (addiction) Care’ is a reflection on the role of an architect within the humanization of addiction care, primarily the design of the typology of a hostel. It is deeply rooted in the studio theme of the scarred city, where both the vulnerable scarred urban tissue as well as vulnerable people demand careful architectural reasoning....

The Urban Inversion: Void as Volume and New Interior to the Neighborhood

Both urban voids and Bressoux are facing the same issue - exist in the city but do not belong to it. The voids are the by-product of urban planning, and the relationship between positive space (massing buildings) and negative spaces (voids) is barely included in design consideration. Generally, these spaces are perceived as a phenomenon of...

Embedding a shelter for the homeless: research and design proposal for a homeless shelter integrated in the streets of Bressoux

This project was concerned with the design of a homeless shelter in the neighbourhood of Bressoux, Liège. Positions of three architects regarding the attitude of Weiterbauen are explored and expressed through an essay, ultimately shaping a personal architectural position towards the social and architectural embedding of a homeless shelter in the...

(Out of the) Ordinary: towards an intimate portrait of the city

The project “(Out of the) Ordinary: towards an intimate portrait of the city” investigates how we can build housing, to accommodate ordinary life, within an industrial site. It gleans and introduces domestic qualities into a large cellulose storage facility in an attempt to reintroduce the industrial site to Maastricht and provide the city with...

Honigpoort: a community space for and by improvisation | bricolage

The shopping mall the Molenpoort (Nijmegen) was constructed in 1972 and is creating this hyperreality; an indoor world without rain, wind or snow. The invention of Victor Gruen, a foreign typology from America occupies all the negative space within the building block. Victor Gruen’s idea for the mall was a building where the community would...

A Health and Wellness Centre for the city of Nijmegen: A place for escape in Nijmegen’s city centre

This thesis aims to develop a new urban and architectural condition for the site of the existing Molenpoort shopping centre, within Nijmegen’s city centre. The project aims to investigate how play can be considered as part of urban and architectural design in an attempt to make a healthier and more engaging city to live in.

The spring: a place of fertile ground and growth

Transform is the keyword for the situation we are in. The climate is changing and we do to. Our needs change every day, and we like the change. We like the transformation, because that is life. We search for goals. Goals that help us to become something we always wanted to be. This year was all about learning and evolving and I enjoyed every...

City Curriculum: Constructing a common place for culture and knowledge exchange

The city of Nijmegen is in a process of losing its unique identity and urban fabric, as a result of a continuous commodification by the interests of private investments. The rise of commercialization creates an environment of strangers where the emphasis lays on individual perspectives and activities, accessible only to particular social groups,...

Common Ground: Urban Architecture

Nijmegen, the oldest city in the Netherlands, is characterised by its topography, scale, and liberal attitudes. Described as ‘old city, young vibe’, Nijmegen is known for its left-wing politics, stimulated by the presence of Radboud University. It has a heterogeneous population of different subcultures, social groups and nationalities that...

Interlaced. A 1970s mass social housing transformation interlaced with a new built social housing complex

The main subject of the studio is “Spolia”, that can be explained as: “the left-overs or <<spoils>> of a building, which find themselves back in a new structure”[1]. The use of spolia can be economically, ecologically or aesthetically motivated[2]. However, the remains of the previous buildings are not only actual, physical elements...