The brief of this year ‘s studio is to address the the transformation of the National Bank of Belgium located in Brussels. However, since its completion, there has been a fundamental shift in the requirements placed upon it. Industrial functions like the printing and storage of currency have been relocatedout of the city, or overseas; finance is becoming increasingly digital; while Belgium’s membership of the EU has led to much of the Bank’s traditional role being subsumed into the European Central Bank (ECB), based in Frankfurt. In response, the National Bank has decided to redefine itself physically. As an architecture student, I am more prone to understanding the correlation between the social issues happening at the moment and the architecture. Social impacts of the transformation of the bank and its potentials to become a social role in the city are valuable to be explored. Other than that, it is crucial to find out the social relations between the bank and the public, also within the bank, so as to deliver a design proposal that can address the current social issues in the city while the bank itself can benefit from the renovation. Starting from 1985, the international young immigration has surpassed internal outflow of the city, Brussels and they become the main reason of population growth, causing the rejuvenation of the population at the same time. However, the availability of affordable private housing and social housing is not able to support the growth and it turned out that suburbanization of young generation happened. Due to the impacts of suburbanization, the socio-economic and cultural geographic patterns have created boundaries between communities living side by side with little interaction, causing intense hierarchy of social structure. This kind of social segregation poses a challenge to the long-term viability of the city. Meanwhile, the social relations and structure within the bank is another issue to be tackled with. The conventional office design of the bank has caused little communication and interaction between staff, leading the bank itself to become a complete introvert that is unable to engage with the public properly. Therefore, it is a good opportunity for the National Bank of Belgium, an institution with the image of authority to take up a social role of challenging the current social structure of the city and eliminating the boundaries between communities in a way that the future generation and the bank itself can be benefitted from its renovation.

The research of the thesis explores to what extent a multi-species design practice in architecture based on affordances informed by the act of human and non-human space-making in abandoned ruins helps to achieve a symbiotic relation between architecture and biodiversity. For this purpose, a theoretical framework triangulating affordances, multi-species design and architecture was developed. This was done throughout different exploratory methods such as reviewing literature, as well as an on-field studies of the abandoned ruin “Palácio Ford” in Porto, Portugal. The architectural project is about the design of a multi-species residency consisting of different kinds of towers that contribute to the growth of an urban forest by interaction with the environment. The interventions were developed as Baubotanik structures which combine living trees and technical construction methods in one object. Thus, the project explores new ways of living in a growing architecture which forms an urban forest within the city of Porto.

For centuries, women have been underrepresented in society and this has affected the built environment, where prevailing gender ideologies are translated into architecture. In the light of changing social patterns and developments in feminist debate, it’s important to understand and contextualize architecture in relation to gender. This paper aims to rediscover housing by two Icelandic architects, Högna Sigurðardóttir and Sigvaldi Thordarson, through the scope of feminist theory. Both architects were influenced by modernist principles, yet they had very different approaches to housing design. The goal is to explore how gender roles are represented within their residential buildings, and which factors may have influenced their design choices. Architecture is not merely a spatial science but includes social, political, economic, and cultural aspects. This understanding of architecture as a reflection of its environment leads us to examine the Icelandic context through the lens of feminist theory, in an attempt to expose the means of the architects.

Public-participation in housing practice not only happens with architectural participatory notion, instead it was already exercised differently in the history of Amsterdam according to the governmental urban planning visions. To provide more insight for contemporary participatory practice, instead of interpreting architectural public-participation as an isolated architectural concept, this paper studies public-participation holistically by using both contemporary visions of public-participation and governmental visions of urban planning to re-evaluate the participatory situation in housing practice in the Dutch Golden Age(17th century), post-industrialization period(20th century) and contemporary period(21st century) of Amsterdam. The analytical session evaluates levels of public-participation in both building scale and urban scale in relation to the socio-economic, political and urban planning visions of government in each period, and indicated that public-participation arose in levels of ‘degrees of citizen power’ under the incomplete plan in Dutch Golden Age, ‘non-participation’ in fully controlled plan in post-industrialization period, and ‘degree of tokenism’ under controlled participatory movement in the contemporary period. The discussion session indicates that public-participation was more influenced by governmental planning instead of architectural participatory concepts, and discusses how the governmental visions in each period together led to the current imbalanced and individualized challenges for public-participation in housing practice in Amsterdam. Accordingly, the conclusion questions the role of architects under the current trend of public participation.

This thesis aims to show the historical development of women in the architectural profession in the UK from 1950-2000. The chosen period and location illustrate a specific period in gender history of the UK where women were studying architecture and pioneer woman architects were recognised, but the field was still male-dominated. This historical development is analysed by two pioneer women architects: Zaha Hadid and Patty Hopkins. The research question is: ‘What is the relation between pioneer women architects and the general position of women in the architectural work field in the second half of the 20th century in the United Kingdom?’.

In recent years, the rise of right-wing ideologies has been a growing concern for me. Across the world, a worrying and alarming increase in support for far-right political parties and movements is taking place. Several signals of a broader shift towards nationalist and populist politics are currently emerging. The recent national elections held between 2021 and 2022 confirmed the rise of right-wing parties such as Alternative for Germany (AfD), the National Front (FN) in France, and Brothers of Italy (Fdl). These political changes have been accompanied by an increase in hate crimes, xenophobia, and anti-immigrant sentiment1. In addition to that, the current political developments have been followed by a resurgence of neo-fascist and neo-Nazi groups. These radical and extremist parties, supported by the mainstreaming of far-right politics, usually draw on the symbolism and rhetoric of past totalitarian regimes. Also, they often use architecture and public space as a means of advancing their ideology. This is the case of CasaPound2, an Italian far-right political movement that takes inspiration from Mussolini’s fascist regime. To create a sense of belonging among its members, this party has established a network of community centres and social housing projects across Italy. Their buildings are often decorated with fascist slogans and illustrations: there, everything is designed to evoke a sense of nationalist pride, in the footsteps of the fascist credo. This is clear in CasaPound’s headquarters in the Esquilino neighbourhood of Rome, which were illegally occupied and whose walls were adorned with images and names belonging to fascist history, as shown in Figure 1. Why are totalitarian regimes still a reference for a certain portion of the spectrum of political parties? What kind of message, dogma and doctrine did they convey so effectively? And how did these regimes, with their diverse ideologies, demonstrate their power to the public? I believe that to influence the culture and the way of thinking of the population, totalitarian authorities controlled the education, knowledge, and arts of the countries they were governing. These leaders took advantage of architecture as a means of pursuing their goals and demonstrating their control over society. From the Nazis, who presumably3 planned the Reichstag fire in 1933 to incriminate the Communists, to Mussolini, who organised the March on Rome in 1922 to ascend to power. The role of the built environment in political and social events of the first half of the 20th century is clear. As architects, we must problematise architecture’s potential for political extremists, and we must be careful about the messages our projects convey and promote. The ethical responsibility of this profession is at the heart of the dramatic events that have been happening during the last few years. How do we, as architects, advance political agendas and influence the social developments of our countries through our design choices? By examining the relationships between artistic manifestations in the first half of the 20th century and the legacy of totalitarian regimes, we can better understand the potential dangers of modern political developments. Were architects and architecture victims of political and social upheavals, or were they actively part of the causes that led to the construction of totalitarian regimes?

This paper researches the approach of a female architect of colour to her career in architecture. It positions itself through background research on the discrimination that takes place in the field of architecture against people of colour and women and applies this gained perspective to the case of Zaha Hadid, as she is a perfect candidate to bring these two points of discrimination together. A case analysis is executed on Dame Zaha Hadid, where her journey through the field of architecture is analysed and reflected upon. The aim of this paper is to establish how broke through all the stigmas and because quite possibly the best known female architect of all time. In the case analysis Hadid’s childhood, education, career and personal development are analysed. Hadid is known to have a strong and extravagant personality. She always stayed true to her art style and always aimed to become greater while remaining unique. Even though she can be seen as a feminist icon, Hadid is not very outspoken on female struggles within the field of architecture and often remains apolitical and unfazed

This thesis examines the relationships between architectural pedagogy and practice within the context of feminist methodologies from the point of view of a student. If the condition of the profession reflects the (changing) reality, I enquire what implications it consequentially has on (architectural) education. By problematising the personal-political circumstances which triggered the emergence and disappearance of feminist architecture cooperative Matrix, operating between the 1980s and 1990s in London, and their methodology in professional practice and education, particularly the Women into Architecture and Building access course, this work reflects on the mutual influences between the role of a teacher and the role of the architect in their approach. Process-oriented practice and thinking-by-doing are put forward as key elements of Matrix’s radically feminist methodology. Through the use of testimonies of practitioners, teachers and students, their writings, lecture recordings and archival material, links between engaged pedagogy and a participatory design process are analysed. The reasons for, and implications of, a feminist approach to design and user involvement are situated within the larger socio-economic and political context to enquire how historical analysis of the conditions within which the production of architecture becomes a mutually-empowering practice can be translated into contemporary circumstances.

This thesis presents a comparative case study of two exemplary for the post-war period projects - Robin Hood Gardens and Park Hill. Although a lot of research already exists on post-war mass housing and on the two projects individually, they have rarely been analyzed in comparison to each other, despite sharing similar characteristics. By juxtaposing Robin Hood Gardens and Park Hill, the notions of failure and success of what once seemed to be utopian ideas for housing are investigated. The main objective of this research is to find patterns in the underlying design thinking, ideas, and practice of the architects behind these projects, which could potentially help in understanding the symptomatic decline of post-war housing. The projects are analyzed on different layers, beginning with the historical context they were built in, the thinking and beliefs of the architects involved, the intentions behind the designs and the reception of the projects. This multi-layered analysis incorporates different perspectives, from professionals to residents, revealing that historical discourse is a collection of various narratives. Rather than providing a simple answer to the decline of the projects, the thesis demonstrates that the outcome of Robin Hood Gardens and Park Hill is a complex synthesis of social, political, and economic reasons.

Lebbeus Woods was an experimental architect best known for his visionary drawings. His entry into the field of experimental architecture was enabled by the conditions in which the field found itself in the 1970s. Through drawing, Woods explored ideas and hypotheses which were unbound from conventional limitations. The field of architecture has been shaped by socio-political factors since the 1980's onwards, which has limited the possibilities of the architect to practice their profession freely. To this end, Woods proposed increasingly radical architectural projects that in turn also envisioned the architect as a leading figure in reshaping society. Although his visions have never materialized they nonetheless serve as a valuable reflection on the purpose of the architect in society today.

With the pressing issues that arise from a society driven and measured by flow of capital and wealth, the future of the National Bank of Belgium and its role to society is questioned as most of its functions are becoming digital or being relocated. A monumental building, representing an institution in an extremely relevant capital, presents itself as a great case study towards establishing and strengthening social relations, communities and identity in a city. Thus the project of redeveloping the National Bank of Belgium has taken a much wider scale. It is not only concerned about the working spaces and architectural quality within the bank building but most importantly, it focuses on what the National Bank of Belgium brings to the citizens of Brussels, opening up as an institution that welcomes the city. After investigating the city of Brussels from its urban aspect, demographics and turbulent history, the location of the National Bank of Belgium appears as a void when compared to its surrounding areas: it is not inhabited by its citizens (in fact it was taken from them) but by empty buildings and offices. The project thus deals not only with the brief of the office and the renovation of the bank, but with the meaning a National Bank can have towards the city it resides in, changing the urban fabric by welcoming a new public in a rather segregated block, contaminating it and allowing for inhabitation to take place. However, before dwellings can be built and the neighbourhood inhabited, there has to be infrastructure. In addition to the urban investigation that pointed at the relevance of educational and cultural buildings in residential areas, the case studies of the Kanal Pompidou and the sportshall Amal Amjahid, both in the city of Brussels, strengthen the argument of how those specific public functions can be used to contaminate areas that have become a void in the city. It is by framing and supporting social interaction among a diverse mix of users and programs, the buildings with cultural and educational functions act as a beginning of urban change. Nevertheless, it is not only a matter of programmatic change. Introducing public life in a building that was made to intimidate and keep outsiders away requires a constant switch between all the scales and alternating between design and research. Thus the main point of the project was to change the message of the National Bank of Belgium towards its citizens, becoming a provider of knowledge through education and culture, and most importantly, playing a main role as the beginning of urban change where the block would transition from being a void in the city to an inhabited neighbourhood. This transition was done by taking into consideration three instruments: social, organizational and representational. The social instrument: Before inhabitation can take place, publicness has to be perceived, therefore it was important to add porosity and vulnerability to the bank building, opening up for new users. Although each part of the building has a very specific use, the way that people are distributed and oriented through the building has no hierarchy, with all the different target groups circulating in the same way, through a periphery that goes through the building. The organizational instrument: The idea of periphery comes from the German architect Fritz Neumeyer who argues that every public space should have a center and a periphery, thus allowing for passive public life to take place, where people are allowed to simply observe. The representational instrument: Nevertheless, this was done by respecting the current language of the bank and not diminishing the building. Although completely new functions are added, the main architecture approach is to destroy as little as possible, reusing most of the building and simply direct the users, changing the current circulation and adding a periphery zone to the building.Finally, all those ideas culminate at the end of the building, where a new exhibition hall is added, showcasing to the city not only what the new National Bank of Belgium is capable of, but who the new groups of people that are inhabiting it are. All those points were taken into consideration in every scale, ranging from programmatic decisions to changes to the façade, reinterpreting objects and following the language of the tiling material found in the building. The framework of the studio where the conciliation between research and design, urban to interior could not be more appropriate to such a complex project, adding a sense of reality that is usually absent in other academic projects. Nevertheless, perhaps it was exactly this complexity and lack of time that proved to be extremely overwhelming at some points. It is not only a tremendously large building but actually three different characters that are put together in one block and now have to change completely. This made me wonder many times whether this project would have been better if done in groups of 3 students, perhaps this way it would have been possible to think through all of its complexity.

Currently due to the virtualization of the way of money and the role of the bank itself of money transactions being replaced, although the National Bank of Belgium has a huge space, it is difficult to play a role in the current society. In addition to this, this huge banking system not only embodies national capital but also alienates it from its urban context. In the future, the National Bank of Belgium will have fewer employees, how to use the extra space to make this building permeable and maintain it as a symbol of the National Bank? This project aims to transform the traditional space of the bank and add new public spaces open to the public by using the working mode of co-working, so as to provide better working space for different social groups. Besides, my project also provides a new public interior for city dwellers by introducing other public spaces. Through the introduction of different programs. The bank will be turned into a huge collection of workspaces, as well as new containers that can contain various urban activities.

A palatial building rests by Rue de Bois Sauvage of Brussels, an intimate street located at the exact point where the lower historic city ends and upper bureaucratic city starts. The Palace remains like a parasite of a larger introverted structure that fortifies an entire urban block to hide the offices of the National Bank of Belgium. The architectural brief for this graduation project requests the renovation of the headquarters concerning the vacancy of office space with the greater intention of opening up the National Bank as an institution. To the light of this brief, this architectural thesis departs from the premise that in order for the Bank to open up it must get engaged in the problems of its nearby reality, the problems of the city of Brussels. The in depth analysis of the history of urban transformation of the city of Brussels led by land speculation, revealed the problems of the Central European capital cities during the second half of the 19th century, which have been unavoidably inherited by the city of the 21st century. The process of urban gentrification of the historic town, firstly by pushing out the working classes to the periphery in favour of the wealthy bourgeois and secondly exploiting land value financially erasing any hint of residential life from the old city at the heart of Brussels’ Pentagon. The result of these consecutive processes of urban transformation can be read in space through the architectural typology of Brussels and have been explained in this research by means of the alley, the shopping arcade, the corner building and the blocks of Brusselization. Understanding them not only as architectural devices but also as urban figures has helped untangling the history of urban gentrification in Brussels which constructed through time a division between the rich bureaucratic upper eastern city and the working class neighbourhoods in lower western Brussels, articulated by a touristic uninhabited historic city where the National Bank of Belgium sits. More than anywhere else, Bd Berlaimont and the building of the NBB are examples of this urban transformation that has emptied from the residential life of this area of Brussels. In a process that anticipated Brusselization, the NBB made sure to erase a mixed block where housing and retail used to make a piece of the city to turn it into a monolithic impenetrable office block. This essential aspect of the site, together with the research make a project with three fundamental intentions: - Create a public route able to establish another point of connection between upper and lower Brussels, increasing the porosity of the city and the permeability of an existing urban structure. - Reprogram the block to revert the process of Brusselization and erode its monolithic nature through the introduction of residential and retail functions. - Maximise the value of the land property which is currently owned by the NBB to launch a program of affordable housing capable of setting a starting point to revert the process of gentrification and land speculation that has historically threatened the process of urban transformation of the city. These three points become the nexus between the conclusions of the research and the design decisions that followed the P2 and P3 examinations. Therefore the final design proposal is concerned with each of these aspects, from the scale of the building mass and how it is oriented towards the city, to the scale of a service staircase that tries to create a partition situation between two different programs embedded in the block. Ultimately, the project envisions an urban transformation led by the National Bank of Belgium where the use of land property, the State of the Bank, is key to face land speculation and control housing prices. The unavoidable typology of Brussels, (impasse, arcade and corner building) builds a city within the ruin of the Palace of the National Bank of Belgium.

The loss of global biodiversity poses a significant threat to ecosystems and human well-being. The growth of cities has played a substantial role in the 70% decline in global biodiversity since 1970. This decline can be attributed to the failure of cities to balance their rapid land take with the preservation or creation of urban vegetation. The loss and absence of green structures within cities has led to extreme temperatures, poor air quality, and inadequate animal habitats, which results in a negative impact on biodiversity, city resilience, and both human and non-human life. Addressing these challenges requires the integration of nature-inclusive design practices into urban planning, aiming to promote the coexistence of humans and non-humans. This work explores the concept of regenerative design in architecture and its potential to increase urban biodiversity in Western European cities.

This thesis explores the creation of anti-fascist postwar memorials in Croatia, as a former part of Yugoslavia, between 1945 and 1990, with a focus on three independent memorials in Croatia commissioned by the same government - Petrova Gora, Kamenska and Jasenovac. The research aims to understand the historical and political context in which these memorials were constructed, as well as their relationship to one another. By using image analysis of the visual and verbal narratives of the monuments, there is a correlation to be grasped, which leads to a better understanding of the topic's multi-layers. The paper addresses questions regarding the architects' roles in creating monuments to tragic events, their ideas, who they were designed for, and who or what they honor. To discover answers to these issues, secondary and primary bibliographies are going to be analyzed, including original images, architectural sketches, written thoughts, and interviews. The study offers insight into the architectural and symbolic values of the memorials and their significance in Yugoslavian history.

The thesis aims to compare the soundscapes of Italian Renaissance gardens and Ming dynasty’s Chinese classical gardens and figure out the reasons behind their similarities and differences through historical research on Italy and China. The research methods are case study, image analysis and literature analysis (secondary and primary). The thesis starts with research on general features of Italian Renaissance gardens and Ming dynasty’s Chinese classical gardens based on two case studies, the Villa d’Este and the Humble Administrator’s Garden. The soundscapes of Italian Renaissance gardens, featured by fountains, apply advanced water technology to make music or imitate other types of sound. Besides, the soundscapes of Ming dynasty’s Chinese classical gardens combine natural elements to make various sounds, always with the sound of water as the background. Then, comparisons are made, finding out that the soundscapes in Italian and Chinese gardens have different emphasis on technology and nature but have common stress on water. The historical contexts of Italy and China are studied to find the reasons for their soundscape designs from various perspectives. The different worldviews and cultural contexts play leading roles in soundscape designs, as social factors and political intentions also influence. Symbolization is widely used in the soundscape design in Italian and Chinese gardens, revealing the reasons for some details and elements of the soundscapes.

This thesis intended to reveal the history of the first-generation female architects in Taiwan with feminist analysis, focusing on two architects from the postwar period, Xiu Zelan and Wang Chiu-Hwa. Through exploring their stories and works, the research aimed to retrieve the absent role models for female students in future generations.