The Stockholm City Library project involves refurbishing and extending the building, incorporating nearby Annex buildings, Observatory Hill and the city itself. Inspired by Gunnar Asplund’s design principles—spatial harmony, material quality, and poetic expression—the project honors the library’s role as a cultural landmark and storytelling space that resonates across cultures. Drawing on Sweden’s values of political neutrality, hospitality, and cultural inclusivity, it aims to create spaces that welcome minority communities, immigrants, and diverse narratives.

The intervention is organised into four key components: the enhancement and extension of a bazaar area, including the creation of two new courtyard gardens; the refurbishment of the existing library with new, light-filled covered spaces; new functions to the Annex building, connected to the library via an underground passage; and the addition of a dedicated storytelling room with a cloister, creating a unified space that bridges both buildings with an outdoor garden. The design reflects the evolving role of modern libraries as community hubs where people feel a sense of belonging and connection, addressing social isolation by fostering communal interactions. Drawing inspiration from traditional living rooms—where art and decor often narrate cultural stories—the project establishes a platform for storytelling and knowledge exchange.

Ultimately, this project seeks to restore the library’s historic character while introducing new architectural elements that harmonise the Library, Annexes, Hill, and the surrounding cityscape, enhancing infrastructure and creating welcoming spaces that celebrate community narratives. ... Read more

The Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA), is in search of a new building. Influenced by the anti-museum philosophy of the ICC, M HKA aspires to integrate itself into a network of regional museums while concurrently positioning itself within a broader global context. The institution has identified a promising site within a suburban neighbourhood in Antwerp, strategically positioned between the Scheldt quays and the city park, the site commands a central and strategic position, seamlessly connecting two crucial urban spaces.

Recognizing the global trend towards the increased need for financial independence among museums, M HKA is adapting its approach to ensure long-term sustainability. This adaptation involves enhancing visitor experiences and diversifying revenue streams while maintaining to enricht cultural engagement.

The redesign of the museum is informed by this growing need for financial stability. Interactive displays will be integrated to facilitate visitor engagement and bridge the gap between art and the public. Additionally, the inclusion of a publicly accessible roof terrace, known as the forum, will offer panoramic views of Antwerp and can be used for a range of cultural events.

A notable architectural feature of the museum’s redesign is the suspended white cube which is exclusively dedicated to art exhibitions. The suspended construction enables the creation of unobstructed floor plans, affording significant flexibility in exhibition layout design.

By this redesign the museum seeks to inspire, educate, and engage visitors while strengthening its ties with the city of Antwerp.
... Read more

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. ... Read more

China’s rapid urbanisation and industrialisation seriously impacted rural areas, which is reflected significantly in the Greater Bay Area. With globalisation and digitalisation, the emergence of Taobao villages has become a new model for rural development in China. However, socio-economic activities entering in Taobao villages with digital technology were unguided and lacked spatial planning. Consequently, the pursuit of economic growth has resulted in the sacrifice of agricultural resources, degradation of the ecological environment, and terrible spatial quality. With the regionalisation and integration of the Greater Bay Area, the need for sustainable rural revitalisation has become urgent.

To envision future possibilities for rural development, this project introduces the concept of Smart Villages, aiming to enhance agricultural productivity and improve rural liveability. With the Dutch layer approach as the main methodology, the project understands the essential resources that support smart village development and evaluates the spatial conditions of rural areas at regional, district, and local scales. To conclude, the key design elements for Smart Villages development include agricultural agglomeration, accessible networks, and rural liveability. Based on these findings, the project proposes a potential Smart Villages development framework that serves as a guide for rural areas. A series of spatial design strategies are also presented and applied to two design cases, Xingtan in Foshan and Chikan in Jiangmen. They represent rural areas at different levels of development, showcasing scenarios of agro-industrial and eco-agricultural development respectively. It demonstrates how rural areas make use of local resources to spontaneously develop into Smart Villages, thereby reducing dependence on urban centres and contributing to the development of metropolitan regions.

The project highlights the need for a flexible approach to rural revitalisation in the digital future. By embracing the concept of Smart Villages, it advocates for sustainable agricultural practices, improving infrastructures, and enhancing the quality of life for rural communities. The proposed framework and design strategies offer valuable insights for planners, policymakers, and stakeholders seeking to foster the sustainable development of Smart Villages in a spatial perspective. ... Read more

The advent of the internet and digital technology has transformed public spaces, impacting human interactions and diluting their original purpose. However, augmented reality (AR) technology, exemplified by Pokémon Go, presents a unique opportunity to revitalize urban public spaces in the digital era. AR technology offers virtual flexibility, empowering public spaces to become multifunctional environments and redistributing the value of urban areas.
To accommodate this transformative potential, inclusive and enduring architectural structures are needed as resilient containers for AR development. This project focuses on designing robust, inclusive public buildings that seamlessly integrate into the urban fabric undergoing AR development. These structures adapt to the evolving needs and activities facilitated by AR, fostering social interaction and a sense of belonging within the community.
The integration of AR technology necessitates a holistic approach to urban design, extending beyond individual buildings to the broader urban context. By leveraging the transformative power of AR, this project envisions digitally enhanced and physically resilient urban environments that accommodate diverse activities and cultivate community. It explores new paradigms for urban design where public buildings serve as adaptable containers for AR experiences, fostering social cohesion and redefining the relationship between people, architecture, and the environment.
Through the integration of AR technology and thoughtful architectural design, this project showcases the potential for vibrant, inclusive, and sustainable urban public spaces in the digital age. By embracing flexibility, durability, and inclusivity, it establishes a foundation for AR-neutral buildings that respond to the evolving needs and aspirations of urban communities, creating a more engaging and harmonious urban environment. ... Read more

This project focuses on the layered history and current situation of District Six in Cape Town, South Africa, which saw forced removals and demolition of non-white residents' homes under the apartheid regime. With only 108 families being allowed to return over the last 55 years later, this project looks at the impact of restitution housing and the tension between the historic community and the adjacent fragmented university campus and student body. Here the focus on the public realm and particularly the street as extension of the domestic sphere posits a hopeful threshold to bridge these two communities. With ultimately the research lending to the design of a cost-effective student residence which orientates its students towards the street and in-turn their neighbours. Here, outdoor gathering spaces, porous thresholds, and a reimagination of historic typologies encourages community engagement.

The project aims to shed light on the complexities of land restitution and the role of architecture in shaping a new and layered community in District Six. ... Read more

The Flemish Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA) is an institution strongly rooted in the existing fabric and socio-political framework of Antwerp South. The museum is located on the outskirts of the city, which has undergone consistent urban development and urban planning as the city grew into one of the most diverse metropolitan areas in Europe. In this development, the Antwerp Museum of Contemporary Art gradually sought to evolve with society and make way for a larger institutional purpose that pushed the museum agenda towards a more formal and generic interpretation of art spaces and how they are interpreted in light of the current zeitgeist.

In my final project, I revisit the meaning of art presentation in relation to cultural building by reconnecting with MKHA’s historic approach of capturing the essence of conserving and presenting contemporary art, an identity and genesis of an institution that has curated its growing collection between less conventional building layout and architectural fabric.

My design proposal is based on the sustainable idea and design language of reusing existing building tissue, specifically the former courthouse building which is assigned for the new developments of the M HKA or at the time entitled: Vlaams Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst (VMHK). A building typology that exists of two prefabricated office towers that are connected by a low-rise structural addition and entrance.

Here, the practice of preserving and exhibiting art in an anti-museum condition becomes relevant again through the presence of existing structure and building layout, which, in resemblance to the former MHKA building, reinforces this familiar identity in which exhibiting art bears the title ‘symbiosis between’ anti-museum condition and institutional purpose.
... Read more

Based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the project deals with the unearthing of spatial and cultural layers of the historic city centre, focusing on the modern urban fabric which was built on the relics of the Judengasse, the centuries-old Jewish ghetto.

The project’s mission involves the reinterpretation of ordinary, seemingly insignificant buildings and urban environments into spaces which carry a layered past, but possibly also a hopeful future for different social groups in the city of Frankfurt. This attempt expands the means through which architectural heritage can be understood and appropriated; by doing so, it invites the contemporary local Jewish community, along with other publics, to reclaim a lost chapter in the city’s history, and to continue writing its story while fully embracing the complexities and conflicts it might bring forth.
... Read more

"Brussels was never destroyed by the wars, but rather by its own people" these words of Victor Bourgouis show the destructive vision of social and cultural spaces in Brussels. The city's vision of urban development is based on top-down politics, fed by the desire to be modern. This affection leads to the non-identification and displacement of citizens. The tendency for the tabula rasa leads to the production of scar, but when the tabula rasa cannot be evoked, terrain vague starts to exist.

Terrain vague is defined by its ambiguous character. The project, which establishes the terrain vague as a walled garden, is a response to the scars that are made by the historic urban interventions. It defines itself as a space with a public character and gives it to those who require it. It gives meaning to a meaningless void in the city. It keeps the ambiguous, informal, and improvised character that is found on terrain vague, and translates it to a space of possibilities and forming a new center point in the European quarter in Brussels.



for more information, please send an email to:
meert.sander@gmail.com

... Read more

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. ... Read more

The National Bank of Belgium stands as a fortified conglomerate of historic patchwork structures, within central Brussels. With its inherent role having shifted from that of a safekeeper of physical goods towards a mere office, the building can be made publicly accessible, taking on an active role in the city.
By understanding the existing building through the layers of the shell (as physical infrastructure with a lifespan of about 60 years) and sets (of furniture and partitions which are constantly replaced) the bank can be manipulated and re-used.
The careful clearance of the inner courtyard allows for an extension of the existing ‘shell’. A new framework, inserted within the courtyard, only revealing itself as chapters within the monumental facade.
The bank's excessive storage of outdated ‘sets’ become active elements in the spatial formation of the new bank. Providing an alternative narrative to the rapid regeneration of the office interior. ... Read more

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. ... Read more

The project "Celebration as Revolution - Transformation of Copenhagen's First Waterworks to Public Bath" investigates how the celebration of worker's movement in the 1970s has developed into Copenhagen's largest annual festival "Distortion". An industrial heritage site, the Waterworks plant, is proposed to be reappropriate for cultural and celebrative purposes in relation to water and pleasure. ... Read more

Protest has become a ubiquitous part of urban life as a result of the conditions that command processes of urbanisation. This project concerns itself with the advocation for spatial agency in cities by understanding how public space can contribute a form of cultural resistance within turbulent political and social contexts. The thesis aims to be understood as a manifesto; an architectural provocation that is committed to the democratic potentials of urban spaces. The research focused on the 2019 Santiago protests in Chile, a relevant precedent that demonstrates how ‘deliberative democracies’ of 21st Century Latin America are being challenged under current economic and political climates. The project considers the phenomena of protest as a manifestation of collective conscience translated into the physical occupation and de-powering of an urban territory, specifically the transformation of Plaza Italia to Plaza Dignidad in Santiago.

Throughout the previous 50 years, Latin American cities have experienced radical rates of urbanisation. A concrete plateau situated within the Andes Mountains, Santiago’s urban growth has been galvanised by the implementation of a neoliberal economic model under the dictatorial regime of Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s. It appears only the San Ramon tectonic fault line is capable of limiting the subordination of the rural to the urban, exposing the exploitative nature binding capitalism and urbanisation as a critical anchor of political and class struggle. The production of a protest culture has become a pivotal part of public life, where protest is not so much an abnormality, but a continuous urban condition in flux. A capacity for change commences with the awareness of the societal production of space, and the right to command and disrupt the urban structure: to decolonise the city.

In an effort to understand the capacity of public space to engage with processes of decolonisation, the research references fields such as sociology, political theory, and material culture to ensure a comprehensive analysis of the place. An in-depth theoretical understanding of the historical, cultural and political contexts supported observational work carried out during the protests in Santiago. This provided the framework for further post-situ ethnographic research on the spatial processes of decolonisation. In order to illustrate the act of decolonisation of Plaza Italia to Plaza Dignidad, a graphical documentation of the city's quotidian conditions alongside the destruction after protest took inspiration from methods and techniques used in archaeological drawing. The traces of protest thus delineated potential sites of intervention and provided a graphical representation of the physical, material and spatial conditions of the place.

During the months of protest, monuments throughout the country were repeatedly damaged and dismantled in a collective effort to reject the acceptance and permanence of stone statues that gave testament to a manipulated history. From monuments to ruins, the remains of colonial, oligarchical and patriarchal figures littered the streets, pronouncing the continent’s stolen identities. Within the urban fabric, the imposition of Monuments represent loci of power and conflict, where the iconographic glorification can be experienced as a violent intrusion on the public and collective sphere. Thus the re-purposing of monuments becomes the significant genesis of the project. By removing the existing statues from their plinths, power is dislocated and the status of the monument is redefined. An iconoclastic inventory documents these artefacts, their material, their dimensions, and their histories. The extensive catalogue archives the data of the defaced monuments and their respective plinths, in order to imagine how these artefacts could be re-appropriated and represented within public space in a sensitive and democratic manner.

In relation to the city, the brief imagines embedded scales that resist urban conditions and provide moments of spatial agency. The protest route is understood as an urban territory composed of three significant elements: the presidential palace, the street and the plaza. As the city’s main site for mass social manifestation, Plaza Dignidad forms a focal point within this symbolic and political landscape, through its convergence of principle roads, the river Mapocho and the Andes mountains. Translated into a programme, the project forms 3 spatial infrastructures: a Cultural Itinerary along the protest route incorporating the constellation of remaining plinths within the identified urban territory; Plaza Dignidad a civic infrastructure for urban ecology, civic engagement and public mobility; and a Public Archive facilitating a civic programme that aims to re-define the monument through the documentation and conservation of defaced statues. The urban strategy speculates a collective collaboration with actors within the city. Alongside the Chilean Council of National Monuments, the existing cultural and educational institutions that populate the avenue Alameda take responsibility to intervene with the surrounding empty pedestals according to their specific institutional programme, creating a constellation of didactic moments that puncture the public space.

The project focuses on the design of Plaza Dignidad as a monumental void that resists the dense urban fabric contained between two existing linear infrastructures: the L1 Metro line and the Mapocho River. Through a cultural, historical and political itinerary along the protest route, the spatial experience of a continuous public space seeks to be pedagogical and symbolic, by focusing the citizen perspective to engage with the provocative idea of ​​the horizon as a device to dismantle urban spatial hierarchies and power structures. The proposal to materialise Plaza Dignidad as a new horizon in the city encouraged the design approach to focus on the articulation of the territory and the ground. Expressing the plaza as a plinth, it is designed as a civic stage for daily rituals and social manifestation. The communication of the soil was extended to the material and construction processes. Led by an investigation into the existing soil conditions and the sedimentation layers that revealed the geological formation of the site, the main construction methodology sought the use of earthen construction, referring to vernacular traditions and proposing unconventional uses of the construction of rammed earth underground.

As an idea that tries to recover an urban territory to its people and its environment, the project brings together Plaza Dignidad, the Mapocho Riverbank and an underground public archive into a connected programme. The river promenade and peripheral gardens populate the urban site with native flora that once grew in abundance throughout the Santiago valley. In a symbolic gesture that relocates statues underground and replaces them with stone caryatids, these abstracted geological sculptures redefine the monument. The concept of ​​the ‘natural monument’ transcends the entire project across various scales and extends to the materiality of the square, which celebrates the richness and beauty of Chile’s geological diversity. The status of the political monument is subverted and redefined through ecology by empowering place, culture and memory.

The act of decolonisation comes from displacing political power and iconography, by returning a piece of the city to its indigenous landscape in which the re-appropriation of the square becomes a catalyst for the re-appropriation of the city as a whole, confronting the political and redefining the horizons between the ground, monuments, people, the city and the landscape. ... Read more

Invited by Dirk Somers of Bovenbouw architects, curator of the Belgian Pavilion at the 17. Biennale internazionale di architettura di Venezia, to create an ‘urban capriccio’ for the exhibition ‘Composite Presence’. Pimlott’s ‘Piazza delle Distanze’ was shown from 22 May to 21 November 2021. ... Read more

Invited by by Radu Tîrca, curator of the Romanian Pavilion at the 17. Biennale internazionale di architettura di Venezia to consider migration and its effects on the city. The text ‘The clearing within’ and the accompanying photograph ‘London GB 1992’, is shown shown within the project ‘Fading Borders’, 22 May to 21 November 2021. ... Read more

You can find them in almost any major cultural city. Combinations of museum-clusters and public parks: museum-parks. What are the (urban) advantages of these cultural clusters in the middle of the city and what role does the museum-park play in the urban fabric? In this architectural study of museum-clusters, Sophie Kugel dissects four museum-parks on different topics, such as spatial composition, route and architectural representation. By creating drawings on different scales for each case study, all four museum-parks can be well compared in order to answer the research question: What is the interaction between the museum-park and the public space in the city and in what architectural way makes the museum-park use of the advantages of museumclustering? ... Read more

The city of Brussels wishes to realise a new administrative building centrally located within the city’s pentagon. Brussels, being the capital city of both Belgium and the European Union, is considered a heterogeneous city, consisting of 183 nationalities. This heterogeneity becomes a defining characteristic of the metropolis, however a variety of other inhabitants of the city are commonly left unnoticed. Urban sprawl causes natural land to disappear, affecting biodiversity; not only of the countryside but also that of cities. Of which the latter is increasing. Some species have been in the city for years, a growing amount is migrating only recently. However, urbanisation and global warming i.a., is putting the flora and fauna of Brussels under pressure. While exploring the studio theme ‘the palace’ and ‘political space’ with its inherent representational function, ‘rights of nature’ became a defining topic for this project. Related to this topic, the project explores the use of lime-hemp, a circular building material, manifested in an economically feasible manner in such a large-scale building through prefabricated construction techniques, in order to rethink ways of building to reduce our carbon footprint by the construction industry. Whilst achieving a pleasant indoor climate for the 1700 employees working for the City of Brussels as well as the animals inhabiting the building envelope, realised through the material’s breathing capacities. The proposed design aims to take part of a developing ecological network of Brussels Capital Region as well as to revitalize the relationship between humans and the natural environment. In order to restore ecosystems and biodiversity whilst serving as an exemplary to its surrounding as well as a responsibility to the environment. ... Read more

This project is about reshaping the current site of Museum of London in the City of London and proposing a new House of Music for the city as the new home for the London Symphony Orchestra since the Barbican Concert Hall is not sufficient any more. By continuing and extending the enclosed courts in the Barbican complex, a system of five courts, both interior ones and exterior ones, are created on site to host and communicate different functions. And by treating the ground of the project as a theatrical stage, it provides the possibility for the public to be also engaged in the complex. The topographical ground also negotiates the different height levels on site and therefore open up the Barbican highwalk system back to the city. ... Read more