When you walk through a city or a building, you’re often not aware of it, but architecture has a direct impact on people’s well-being. You don’t have to do anything at all, you just have to be. It is precisely this that means architecture carries a responsibility: how do you, as a designer, deal with that influence? At the same time, the built environment is never a blank canvas, but always the result of a layered process over time.

In the current urban context, this layering is under pressure. The growing demand for space and housing often leads to demolition as a solution, with the risk that history, and with it the identity of the neighbourhood or city, will disappear. This project, therefore, stems from the conviction that architecture should not be based on demolition, but can instead build upon what is already there.

This project focuses on the transformation of a plot with two existing buildings in the Heyvaert neighbourhood in Brussels. A neighbourhood with a dense urban fabric where living and working are intertwined. In this neighbourhood quality of life is under pressure, whilst at the same time a new linear park is being introduced along the route of the former Petit Zenne. This park calls for openness and accessibility, whilst closed and inward-facing blocks characterise the existing urban structure.

Through research into Deep Space, the historical layering of the building block and fieldwork conducted on site, the spatial and social structures are made clear. These insights demonstrate that Deep Space possesses both risks and qualities, that historical layers can guide new interventions, and that existing social structures are valuable to preserve and strengthen.

This research has led to the following question:

How can a closed urban block be transformed through architectural strategies of opening, connecting, and grounding to create a safe public park?

These findings are translated into a architectural design centred on strategies of opening, connecting and grounding. By transforming two existing buildings and adding two new volumes, an ensemble is created that opens up to the park and makes the previously closed block accessible through the introduction of new public entrances. The design demonstrates that existing spatial and social structures can not only be preserved but actually strengthened.

In doing so, the project reinforces the belief that architecture, by working with what already exists, can have a direct, positive and tangible effect on human well-being.
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The contemporary city is increasingly shaped by processes of mobility, migration, and displacement, yet the architectural dimension of arrival often remains overlooked. Situated in Heyvaert, one of Brussels’ most culturally diverse and socially complex neighbourhoods, this project investigates how architecture can support processes of arrival without imposing external solutions upon existing urban conditions.
The research begins with a critical reading of Heyvaert as an entanglement of cultures, economies, and spatial practices. Rather than approaching the neighbourhood through conventional top-down models of urban renewal, the project proposes a methodology based on listening, observation, and contextual engagement. This position is articulated through The Help Network: Nine Points for Structuring Arrival, a manifesto that frames architecture as a process of positioning rather than prescription.
The resulting proposal combines housing, public services, and collective spaces within a former industrial block. Existing buildings are selectively reused and reconfigured, while new interventions introduce temporary and long-term housing, a training centre, employment and rental agencies, a daycare facility, and shared public spaces. These programs are organised around an internal courtyard connected to the future Kleine Zennepark, transforming a previously enclosed condition into a new node of social and spatial exchange.
Rather than functioning as an isolated architectural object, The Help Network acts as a framework for strengthening existing neighbourhood relationships, demonstrating how architecture can facilitate belonging through support, interconnection, and adaptation. ... Read more

In the Brussels neighbourhood of Heyvaert stands a wall, a stoic structure closed off from its surroundings shaped by vibrant street life, trade, and cultural diversity. It is part of a building that has quietly endured many changes. This project engages with the structure’s critical transformation, recognising that to open it up is to expose the building to the social, spatial, and economic forces that shape the neighbourhood.

As the neighbourhood faces change through the disappearance of the car trade, its streetscape, informal economies, and existing ways of living will be fundamentally altered. Based on the “Drivers of Change” research, the project understands these transformations not as isolated events, but as part of an ongoing urban evolution shaping the future of Heyvaert. This proposal responds to these shifts by offering stability and support. Seen as another chapter in the development of Heyvaert, the building adds to the emergent patchwork that makes up this complex urban situation.

The building is vertically extended, adding openings within the old walls, and a new structural logic that builds upon the existing. Three stepped-back housing volumes are positioned above a productive and educational plinth, creating a softer transition towards the surrounding streetscape and the adjacent linear park. The project seeks to make ongoing change less disruptive and support the local residents most affected by it, through introducing spaces and shared areas tailored to the needs of the existing community. Through its facade composition, material choices, and integration of collective spaces, the project aims to remain socially anchored within the neighbourhood.

In contrast to profit-driven redevelopment, the proposal explores an alternative approach rooted in the needs of residents, everyday urban life, and the careful transformation of what is already there — positioning the architecture not in a way that is imposing towards its surroundings but carefully balanced within the existing urban fabric.
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In the graduation project Living the Pause, the phenomenon of “hanging around” in the public spaces of Hoboken and Kiel in Antwerp was researched. Fieldwork was conducted to investigate where people hang around and how they do so. The findings from these observations were later translated into an urban and architectural design for the neighbourhoods of Kiel and Hoboken.

The project was designed through the lens of facilitating for the ‘in-between’. Meaning creating spaces where hanging out is encouraged. The program includes a primary school, a kindergarten, and a theater. The two schools are housed in a former office building of one of the factory halls of the Blikfabriek, a former rim factory in the south of Antwerp.
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Gradients of Comfort explores how architecture might propose a more layered and adaptive understanding of comfort - one that acknowledges its fragility, but sees in that fragility the potential for richer sensory experience and more resilient public architecture. Today, comfort is typically defined in absolute terms, where anything outside a narrow band marked on comfort charts is labeled as undesired. This view is embedded in the logic of contemporary building practice, where systems for heating, cooling, lighting, and ventilation are treated as secondary, yet necessary add-ons - mechanical and concealed, but ultimately dominant in shaping spatial experience. In existing structures this often results in unsustainable technical solutions and economic strain.

Set in Hoboken, Antwerp, the project proposes the transformation of the former can factory known as Blikfabriek into permanent public and educational spaces. It asks how architecture can engage with existing conditions - rather than overwrite them - and how comfort might become a medium of negotiation between body and environment, rather than a fixed standard. In this way, the project contributes to the Urban Architecture graduation studio’s broader inquiry into how the halfway city might retain its civic dynamics and remain open to public life, even as the move toward permanence becomes inevitable.
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This year, the graduation studio of Urban Architecture focusses on the development of a suburban area. The aim is to turn this low town into a downtown in which the pioneering spirit of generosity and reciprocity survives.
The project envisions a possible future for a collection of factory buildings located on the former can and rim factory terrain of Hoboken, Antwerp. Based on thorough research about leftover materials, reuse networks and reuse craftmanship the project proposes the building of Herbouwhuis.
Herbouwhuis is a reuse cycle centre, consisting of:
- Herbouwschool: reuse cycle school
- Bureau Herbouw: architecture, building and research office
- Herbouwateliers: ateliers for reuse artists
The proposal of Herbouwhuis fits within the design of a 300.000 m2 masterplan that centers around Lageweg. The masterplan approaches the site as part of Antwerp’s social, cultural and material ecosystem. Inspired by the pioneering community at Blikfabriek, it proposes a strategy of reconfiguration, building on existing qualities of the industrial heritage and material flows. Using time to its advantage, the plan aims to establish a culture of care by reusing discarded materials the city produces. The masterplan operates as a demolition contractor, recycling centre and thrift shop at once. By focussing on exchange points at the edge of industry and neighbourhood it increases the contact surface between materials and residents.
The design project consists of three acts, each representing a different phase.
Act 1 elicits the methodology, taking the existing situation as a serious starting point and using reuse craftmanship and improvisation to intervene and open up.
Act 2 shows what the building site would look like on a bigger scale and how the methodology leads to an architecture that tries to connect to its neighbouring developments.
Act 3 envisions Herbouwhuis in operation. It illustrates how the architecture of Herbouwhuis facilitates materials and agents to flow through, interact and go their own way.
The design of Herbouwhuis went together with the design of a curriculum for Herbouwschool. This curriculum was derived from a manifesto and education programme for Bauhaus by Walter Gropius, dating back to 1919.
My aim is that the growing reuse network and places like Herbouwhuis exponentially elevate the amount of reuse architecture in the urban landscape. That it becomes common sense to think in cycles and value the potential of leftover materials. As a reuse architect I’d like to be transparent about the origins of the materials I use, because it informs the user and might inspire others to turn waste into gift. ... Read more

Werkplaats is a graduation project situated in Hoboken, Antwerp. It reimagines the partially abandoned industrial site, the Blikfabriek. Through the adaptive reuse of two existing warehouses and the addition of a new structure, the project brings the disparate buildings together to form a coherent environment. The complex is designed around a dual program: a university of applied arts and an extension of the Hoboken Academy. These complementary functions enable the project to operate as a hybrid system where the intensity of university and academy activities fluctuates throughout the day. This generates a continuous flow of people through shared spaces, ensuring the complex remains active from morning until evening.

By balancing the industrial character with new interventions, Werkplaats explores how education and culture can activate heritage and catalyse urban regeneration. ... Read more

This project reimagines a former factory site, called the Blikfabriek, in Hoboken, Antwerp, as a vibrant social and cultural area. This project presents a potential new urban masterplan for the site and an architectural design for a community theater. The project begins with research into neighborhood dynamics, particularly the lack of inclusive public spaces. Responding to these insights, the group masterplan introduces a sequence of shared spaces along a new central axis that activates the site throughout the day.
Within this framework, the individual project transforms an old factory hall into a community theatre and drama school. This project is set in one of the abandoned factory halls. Key architectural elements of this hall, such as the orginal load bearing structure and the original brick facade are preserved as much as possible. A spacious theatre café forms the social heart of the building, opening onto a public square with flexible seating that invites casual interaction. Studios, rehearsal rooms, and study nooks provide quieter, inward-facing spaces for learning and reflection. The design of these spaces is rooted in researching and observing the community and residents in Hoboken.
By blending adaptive reuse with human-centered design, the project fosters community engagement, supporting both structured cultural programs and informal everyday use. It highlights architecture’s potential to strengthen social ties in diverse urban contexts.
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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.
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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. ... Read more

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. ... Read more

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.
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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.
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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. ... Read more