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.

Tracing M. C. Escher’s creations chronologically, one can see how the observational sketches of Italian cities and landscapes that he made in his youth became the basis and reference for most of the works he created later in life. Escher used those images he memorised and sketched out to create his so-called mindscapes, which are the dreamlike and unreal realities. In my thesis I would like to address how these mindscapes are shaped through the use of real elements. I find very interesting the relationship between tangible components, such as buildings or cities and the compositions they create, which suddenly lose their plausibility and present something that has no right to exist. Throughout this paper I will focus on what has most fascinated me in the artist's œuvre - how did he graphically synthesise his observations and then transposed them in such a way as to create something impossible and inexistent. For that purpose, I will conduct a thorough analysis of the artistic process behind the creation of mindscapes.