M HKA institution has its roots in the avant-garde, bottom-up initiatives of artists who were escaping the rigidness of institutions and sought for alternative spaces to practice art. There is a fundamental contradiction between what M HKA’s history is and what future it wants. Therefore, I decided to take over the building that exists on the plot to create the last act of appropriation and embody the spirit of the institution by this decision.

As the existing court building could not meet the requirements of the brief and it doesn’t represent any significant architectural values, I treat it as a scenography and a tool to organize a museum rather than a relic. As a result, the massing of the museum wraps and “consumes” the existing structure.

The building is a mediator between two urban qualities - the park and the riverbank promenade. Vast urban space opens for visitors as well as pedestrians who do not intend to visit the institution.

Occasionally, the exhibition part and back office blend together, so the visitor can experience a transparent museum, where boundaries are softened. What is more, exhibitions can happen in corridors or former office rooms as well as in the basement, which compliments vast spaces in the new part of the project and allows for multiple exhibitions to happen simultaneously.

The facade represents the idea of wrapping and hiding, being mostly a solid, hanging element during inactive moments, but it also has the capacity to represent what happens inside the building if needed. Different treatments of metal panels and meshes allow for various levels of transparency and reveal the insides of the institution as well as treating the building as a billboard.

The Flemish Museum of Contemporary Art is a proposition developed in response to the brief released by the board of MHKA in order to expand their institution’s scale and reach.

Located between the most historic part of the city and the newly developed New South it is in relation with both, just as it is in relation with the history of the institution and the unknown future of the world of art. Finding the balance between the publicness of such an institution and the necessity to protect valuable pieces of art was the driving point for multiple design decisions.

My proposition takes advantage of the existing building located on the site and the spatial qualities it offers. The smaller in-scale spaces are supplemented with larger galleries. The old and new parts are combined in a coherent way under a seamless façade. Its monolithic and shiny face stands out in the city becoming a new icon for art and knowledge.

The scope of this graduation project is to design a new building for Antwerp’s Museum of contemporary art (M HKA). A building that can accommodate the museum’s ambitions following the transition from the M HKA to the Flemish Museum of contemporary art (VMHK). The museum has been appointed a location in Antwerp South for its new building and has released a program with its requirements, which has been used as a basis for this project.

Museums are complicated buildings. In order to be able to design such a building, it is necessary to gain a thorough understanding of its environment: the city of Antwerp, and more specifically the museum’s location, the typology of the museum of contemporary art, and of the M HKA itself: its rich history, the type of museum it currently is and its ambitions to become the VMHK.

In its brief, the client describes a desire for an atmosphere of both ‘industrial roughness and domestic intimacy’, as well as it being a ‘robust skeleton and a
volatile space of experimentation’. This notwithstanding, the architecture should
also be sustainable, in a broad sense: in its use of materials, in the use of
existing subsoil (parts), but mostly it should be adaptable to future, different use.

In summary, the design proposal is a new building for the contemporary art museum the M HKA (Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerpen), which in the future will be the Flemish oriented contemporary art museum VMHK (Flemish Museum of Contemporary Art). The project location is the existing court of appeal on the Zuiderdokken in Antwerp. The existing building will be demolished because of spatial and technical requirements and will make room in my proposal for a new museum: The building arises from the park, which the building faces. A landscape slopes up to the building's public ‘forum’ space. It is a raised level, where one can look over the flood defenses onto the river, while the art handling truck enters the building underneath. This artificial landscape, which forms the base of the building, consists entirely of recycled concrete, with various repurposed aggregate materials. Above the forum space rises a large volume, a biobased box, with all the 'silent program' of the museum. The careful placement of circulation cores allows for large art spaces.

This master thesis aims to raise a discussion about the new Flemish Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp. The competition brief for the redevelopment of the M HKA, published by the Flemish Community in 2019, is taken as a key reference point. The brief proposes a move into a new, purpose-built museum on the site of a courthouse building that will be demolished, two blocks down from the current site, as an urban focal point for the newly built monumental linear public park in Antwerp South. Within this urban plan, the existing museum would most likely be demolished to make room for a new housing development.

However, the political and financial motivations behind the move to the new location, which is, according to the brief, based on the site’s iconic potential, can be questioned. Especially since M HKA’s anti-institutional history is intrinsically connected to the existing museum. During the 1980s, a 19th-century grain warehouse was squatted by a group of Belgian artists as an alternative gallery space and was converted to a museum to accommodate M HKA in 1987. Instead of building a new museum on the proposed site, this project proposes a museum building that continues to grow from the existing museum and extends its industrial character. The existing museum is placed in relation to both the large industrial structures, documented by the Bechers, and the cathedral, which can all be characterized as large structures that exist out of different parts that have developed over time and are able to accommodate different alterations by either adding or removing parts. The construction of the proposal is spread out over different building phases so that the museum can be kept open during the construction. The proposed museum of contemporary art is not a static institution but an anti-monument that is able to respond to changing societal, political, financial, or institutional changes, in which the possibility of incompletion becomes part of the building.

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.

Architectural graduation project containing a research and design for the Notre Dame of Paris. The research focusses on reinterpreting the Notre Dame of Paris based on seven interviews. The interviews are bundled in a set of narrative drawings that approach the building and its environment as intangible domain containing rather the social context. Based upon this research a design for a reconstruction is proposed. A new roof and spire is introduced and explained along the ambiguity of the research and by the eyes of people.

This graduation project is focusing on and looking for the function and role of the future national bank, as an outcome of its current physical and social situation. The site of the project is the National Bank of Belgium, located in Brussels.
For its program, the bank has a public function and a reception hall, but mainly consist of office spaces and meeting rooms within a, with security line protected, area. The traditional program, like pressing and storing money, is already replaced to new buildings outside of the city center for better efficiency and land use. Next to that, the public and office program is losing its role due to digitalization. Organisational and programmatic changes are already made, but the architecture is still in its former state. Therefore, it is important to seek for new possibilities, and looking to the future role and image of the bank, whilst learning of the history of the Bank and its site.

The ambition of the National Bank of Belgium's project was to make a National institution accessible to the public. By opening the bank, both ideologically and physically, the dynamic of the bank is radically modified. The confrontation between the Bank and the public provides opportunities to gather, learn and improve. The change is subtle from the outside but radically modifies the way the bank functions.
The creation of a series of spaces within the bank directed towards the different publics of the bank and brings the domestic sphere into the institution itself.
The Bank of Opportunities is a space fostering a new kind of Bank and community.

Over the past decades the act of play has taken on an ever-decreasing form of
importance in society. This not only leads to the absence of its accompanying
architecture, but also to more boring, uniform and hollow spaces. With the ambition of designing for the homo ludens of today, research was first carried out into the characteristics of places where play arises, after which these findings could be translated in architectural objects provoking introspective play through a deep experience of place, to be found at De Hoge Veluwe National Park.

The National Bank of Belgium occupied a large, closed block on the edge of lower and upper Brussels. The building complex will become the workplace of the bank’s 1500 office-based staff. Moreover, the bank sees itself as a more open, permeable environment because of the increasingly digital finance and the move out of security functions. The bank's transformation aims to invite the public to enter the world of bank.
The project proposes the future bank as an open, inviting public interior. It provides its users with diverse urban experiences, new skills, and knowledge, and is an easy place to access for work, relaxation, eating, and learning. Elevated gardens are created in the main bank hall, connecting the public programs and leading people up to the citizen terrace on the rooftop. For staff, they are encouraged to grow their own vegetables and flowers on the newly added balconies and to cook and eat with colleagues in the lounges.

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 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 brief of this year’s studio addresses the National Bank of Belgium located on the border of upper and lower parts of Brussels. The current fortress like megastructure that the bank occupies is imposing power and solidity, but is closing itself completely from the public. With the traditional role of the bank such as printing and storage of currency being relocated outside of the city and finance transitioning to virtual mediums, the National Bank of Belgium seeks to both redefine itself physically and at the same time rethink its role in the society. The future bank is a catalyst of change which would affect the city in various scales - through the future economy, society’s attitude and awareness.

Social equality and justice are among the foundations of the doughnut economy model which the bank and the city of Brussels strive for. However, currently the national bank is merely touching upon this aspects of the model. The national bank fails to positively contribute to the above stated core values, fails to fulfil its mission as a socially responsible and inclusive institution. Moreover, the money-based market system fails to reward many types of critical work—the work of building strong communities, revitalising neighbourhoods, preserving the environment, advancing social justice, and sustaining democracy. Therefore, I asked myself the question what is there to be done to positively influence this model and where is it lacking attention at the moment so the bank could respond to this.

In order to meet these societal, environmental needs, my proposal for the national bank of Belgium is to offer opportunities for fostering more equitable and inclusive economic order alongside with the money-based market within the institution. This way the bank typology goes back to its roots and once again becomes a place of exchange for the public. An exchange of values, knowledge, skills, experience, time. The bank accommodates different alternatives of dealing with the value of things. If we are going to actually rethink the economy in our society, then the idea of fostering alternative banking such as time banking, using local currencies, community banking, community funding bartering in the National Bank of Belgium is already a beginning of putting an emphasis on the fact that there is value in other things apart from money.

The national bank becomes an inclusive space without hierarchies where people are welcomed to express themselves, take part into the alternative banking, protest even by being part of the what might be called a city forum. The project for the national bank aims to engage citizens to come together to form communities and to take part in the micro banking. It becomes a transparent and active institution which fosters other monetary systems apart from the money based one. The national bank becomes an active part of the citizen’s daily life and not just for its employees as it was functioning until now.

This year, the Interiors Buildings Cities graduation studio
has revolved around the topic of the Future Bank. The project addresses the transformation of the National Bank of Belgium set in Brussels, consisting of a vast triangular urban block of 90.000 m2. The bank, designed by Van Goethem just after the Second World War, is an imposing building with a 200 meter long columnar façade rising up from the adjacent boulevard.

As the city of Brussels has declared itself a doughnut economy, the city is moving away from traditional forms of economics. The city is no longer aiming for unending growth, but aiming for stability, equality and wellbeing. Therefore the bank needs to be reframed within it’s new economic and societal context. What image does the bank want to portray in the 21st century?

Here the project began with the grass route movements, counteracting the heavy façade by creating more intimate spaces within the colonnade. This translated into reframing the bank into several parts with a new end stretching out towards the city. This allowed for more intimate spaces to be created within the vast urban block, creating a new public and inviting face of the bank. A new face in the city.

The project seeks to stabilise and reverse the degradation of the pier’s walls so it remains available to its users. The structure acts as a stabilizer for this piece of land, so as not to let it disappear.
The light structure takes inspiration from a bird perched on a branch, a metaphor for young Amsterdammer’s searching for their place in the city. I relate this lightness with the temporality of a youth hostel, where young people come and go, renting cabins within the structure and using the campsite on the pier.
The project encompasses a conversation between the new structure, which encases floors and spaces, and the existing structure of the pier. The essence of the project is showcased in an investigation of the structure, which is expressed as a piece of architecture in its own right.

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 project sets out to investigate what the architectural model could be like that offers shelter to parentless refugee children that now live in camps throughout Europe. To offer the children the prospect of a brighter future, the building sets out to create a safe and protective environment, one that allows them to withdraw and cope with trauma, but also presents means to build new relationships and interaction with the child's new setting.

Therefore the project combines a public nursery and after school care to be used by the refugee children as well as local kids, which acts both as a means of interaction between kids of differing cultures as well as a financial model to fund the private quarters of the building, where refugee children are offered temporary stay until they find a loving foster family.

Jordaan’s Driehoekstraat Hostel targets a group of people that are intent on learning more about material consumption and shared knowledge potentials for more sustainable living. The building and its architecture aims to underline the sustainable values that will lead Amsterdam and various other European cities into a new circular economy. Its guests will co-habit and join together as part of a learning experience that explores a new route into
sustainable tourism.

A strong emphasis on reuse of building products and materials is imperative to show the public and necessary organisations that there is an urgent need for a shift in the resource efficiency discourse in the Netherlands. By reusing and repurposing different elements and materials, buildings, such as Hotels or Hostels, can be justified for their implementation into city models. The chosen site (Driehoekstraat, Jordaan) was intentional to show how such a building could operate and influence the conditions of a neighbourhood and its attitude towards its new economic system.

The project rethinks the City Hotel and its accommodation of tourists within Amsterdam. Additionally, the building answers the question of urban densification and building within the historic centre of Amsterdam and revises the social precepts of privilege inherent to the elite architecture of the ‘Binnengasthuis’ area.

‘De Nieuwe Doelen’ constitutes in a social framework functioning as a collective house for diversity, effectively acting as a charitable institution, where twenty four rooms offer a place to students disadvantaged by their ethnicity and the white, secular tradition that exists within University of Amsterdam. The underprivileged citizens are welcomed to build on a grounded community where they are empowered by the architecture and grandeur of the context and recognised as an integral part of the campus, solidifying their position within the university.

The building enacts as a public platform, resonating notions of discourse inherent to the direct historic context. The project uses the fundamental models of the ‘Intimate City’ as a dogmatic approach; the ‘Venetian Campo’, the ‘Urban Loggia’ and the ‘Vienese Café’ inform the collectivity, informality and public permeability of the project. The notions of hospitality and charity, inherent to the morphology of the context, clarify in the social and spatial characteristics of the contextual model of ‘het Gasthuishof’, the Dutch analogical model to the ‘Venetian Campo’, which are inscribed into the tenet of the building.

‘De Nieuwe Doelen’ opens up a sequence of courtyard spaces that exist within the morphology of the ‘Binnengasthuis’ area. The building naturally extends the colonial architecture of the context, yet it reimagines the characteristics of privilege by creating an open and continuous public interior, existing of the continuous topology of the ground floor and basement and a highly permeable plinth to the context. The community floors rise above the gravitas of the construct; a formal public room of discourse where a telescopic seating system constitutes a sense of fluidity, aiding its multiplicity. By agency of intricately organised thresholds, an open and continuous interior is organised, existing of a collective gallery, as a place of residing, and contiguous rooms of privacy, resembling the highly informing model of the Gentlemen’s Club. Throughout the construct, integrated furniture in both collective and private spaces, establish instruments of appropriation. The formality of the social construct, enacting as a blank canvas, awaits appropriation of its inhabitants, awakening the significance of ‘De Nieuwe Doelen’.