Inspired by the concept of Heterotopia – a concept first coined by Michel Foucault in 1966, describing ‘other spaces’ – the aim of this project was to question the way metropolitan cities currently deal with ‘The Other’. That is, the human and non-human other. Like its previous function as a marshalling yard, can this year’s Urban Architecture Graduation Studio project site, ‘La Friche Josaphat’ in Brussels, be a place of rearranging? Rearranging the way a city deals with reception of newcomers, as well as the way a city deals with its green spaces.

The post-war architectural and urban design paradigm’s characteristic trait of spatial and functional determination limits the possibility for spatial adaptation and flexibility in urban spaces, struggling to face ever-steadily occurring social, economic, and climate challenges. In Droixhe - the largest post-war social housing ensemble in Liège, Belgium, the ineffective reach of previously executed housing requalification and increasing mismanagement overlook the urban public space on the housing blocks’ ground level, leading to its progressive deterioration and alienating fixed spatial ambience.
Drawing from the assemblage thinking theory in urban design and the notion of non-static built environments, the thesis project ‘Re:/Dis:/Assembling Droixhe’ incorporates architectural and urban design interventions within the ensemble’s urban ground level, allowing for ever-evolving compositions of elements with changing interrelationships, while challenging the pre-existing Modernist static built entities. Underlining the notion of “the incomplete”, the established design framework suggests the (re-)evaluation and upgrade of existing compositions through flexible building elements, which create the possibility to be critically reviewed and eventually recalibrated over time in response to occurring challenges. Applying a holistic multi-method approach, this design research aims to unveil the potential and challenges of urban transformation in static post-war urban environments as a point of departure to a more community-engaging and environmentally conscious architectural practice.

‘Design with (addiction) Care’ is a reflection on the role of an architect within the humanization of addiction care, primarily the design of the typology of a hostel. It is deeply rooted in the studio theme of the scarred city, where both the vulnerable scarred urban tissue as well as vulnerable people demand careful architectural reasoning. The thesis combines several methods to obtain an understanding of how architectural decision-making affects the use and experience of buildings over time. Concomitantly it examines how the perspectives of different stakeholders influence the design process. Analyzing the perspectives of architects, residents, managers, social workers, directors, local residents, professors and municipalities has contributed to a reflection on an architect's challenges, limitations and possibilities within our multidisciplinary profession.

This year's urban architecture graduation studio proposes a site specific approach within the district of Bressoux, on the fringe of the city of Liège. Seeking for opportunities in the working class district, after the industry has left the stage, a courtyard on a corner is found. Behind the perimeter wall, basic necessities for those in need are taken care of. A food bank, a restaurant, a social desk, a shower. The project proposes to rethink the collection of functions by adapting the existing masonry structures through carving & grafting. Opening and adding, allowing for new ways of occupation. And then to add something new to the table. Opening the gate for 24h and introducing a shelter and transit home, offering a bed during the night. Scenographic models and drawings are used to design and represent the spaces of the courtyard, as well as the objects & life within them. 

This graduation work serves as an academic documentation of my graduation project within the Urban architecture studio, black hill city.
The project aims to investigate and implement architectural interventions to transform the urban structure of the Belgian city of Liége. By focusing on innovative design strategies rather than large-scale urban interventions. More specified to this research. This project focusses on the different senses in architecture and the connection between architecture and urbanism by integrating these different senses in the design.

Dementia is a familiar brain disorder, generally seen as a disease of the elderly and care homes are designed as such. However, also people between 30 and 65 can get dementia, called Young Onset Dementia and are overlooked now in architecture. Due to the different life stage in which the disease occurs, these mainstream facilities do not fit their needs, resulting in a decreased quality of life. It is already known how to design a dementia friendly environment, what the different course and impact of Young Onset Dementia is and which supporting facilities in the first stages at home are needed. Knowledge about architecture for later stages of Young Onset Dementia is lacking. This thesis therefore identifies the spatial needs of this target group and their relatives, in order to design a care home that facilitates them in maintaining their quality of life. Important outcomes of their spatial needs are having a purpose, physical activity, social interaction with peers, having a break and expressing dividual elements. These are not met in reality and the institutional setting of care homes are founded to be not suitable too. Provided guidelines for designing a care home for people with Young Onset Dementia therefore focus on dignity and activity. It is important for them to keep an as normal way of living, where young people with dementia and their relatives are brought together and to have a meaningful day and activities.

Loneliness and social isolation amongst elderly is becoming an oppressing problem and could even cause dementia over time. A worrying omen, especially when the growing dementia figures in the Netherlands are taken into consideration. A problem which is even more opressing due to the current- and future shortage of financial funding, healthcare staff, and housing. A relatively new typology which tries to create a partial solution for this problem is the Dementia Village; where healthcare, social functions, and nature are combined with a community based living on a larger urban scale than usual. However, this typology only focuses on patients with advanced dementia and thus only covers a small part of the main problem. Could some of its features be implemented within the current and future built environment, in order to also provide suitable residential care for patients with early stage dementia? Could a neighbourhood be realized where inhabitants form a tight community together, and by that tackling the problem of loneliness and social isolation amongst this patient- and age group? The main question of this research is defined in the following manner: How can the Dementia Village architecture provide residential care for early stage dementia patients and elderly on a larger community orientated neighbourhood scale? By the use of literature reviews, case studies of current Dementia Village’s, interviews with architects, urban planners, and healthcare staff, observations of dementia patients and the current healthcare environment, and location research an answer will be provided to this main question. Eventually this will lead to the definition of design guidelines for the implementation of features of the current Dementia Village typology, location and its architectural elements within the built environment.

My graduation project focuses on the rebirth of a still-used paper factory in Maastricht, witnessing Maastricht's transformation from a former industrial city to an intelligent city. Since the Sappi paper factory is still in operation, large amounts of paper cellulose, machines, left-over spaces, and even manufacturing knowledge can be gleaned. I position it as a smart paper factory, not in a traditional spatial strategy, but through gleaning paper cellulose as a catalyst, which will link the industrial manufacturing, paper performance research, paper product design and interactive participation to establish this city creative hub.

The indispensable relationship between city and economy often remains incomprehensible and rather conceptual, as they do not meet in a concrete environment. In the most general sense, the economy represents production and consumption activities in which urban residents participate, yet there is no tangible space in cities where this relationship is physically exhibited and witnessed. The reason being that the industry though a keystone of the economy, has not survived the evolution of the urban tissue, resulting in the consequent lack of synergy between humans and the act of production.

Etymologically, the term industry appears as a synonym of ‘diligence’ and ‘hard work’ which allusively refers to that of humans. Though throughout the years the word represented the means of production, this is now out of sight. Production, once indispensable to human existence and the urban tissue, is no longer a part of everyday life. The functioning of the machines led to pollution and inadequate sources, while the industry needed bigger and cheaper lands which were hard to possess within the dense city center. This ever-changing dynamic resulted in the subsequent isolation of industry and production to the outskirts; resulting in segregated urban planning where it was not possible to witness the act of making.

Production is an everyday actor which plays a vital role in the urban flow. Gleaning the industry, collecting and giving it a new meaning, can reintroduce this everyday forgotten existence of production to its city. This way, production would not only represent the economy but also become an urban catalyst to evoke new possible interactions such as the sense of collectiveness. This collectiveness is provided by the ever-changing urban dynamics and; as a result, by a new understanding of urban culture. This approach offers shared urban spaces for different types of users, urban residents, makers, manufacturers, and workers.

After having been pushed away for years, the industry is now ready to be celebrated, offering unconventional perspectives for new urban and architectural explorations. By enabling many dualities such as humans and machines, contextuality and universality, etc. to exist together, it intends to form a more homogenous urban atmosphere.

Architecture is made for the user. It needs to fulfill their wishes.
When a building is taken into use the architecture of the architect partly disappears. This is not because the architect did not do a good job. This is the cause of being use. The users will always change a space to their wishes. This can be small by hanging a painting or bigger by using the spaces differently. More or less the user is the final layer and finishes the architecture. However this layer is a forever changing elements since users come and go and no user is the same.
This process should be let go by the architect. Even when it is hard to accept the design changes. Because the architecture was made for the users. The architect served as a tool.
However as a architect you can take the wishes of the user in account during the design process. Listen to their wishes and translate this in the design. This way the user will be more satisfied and less changes will be made by them in the life time of the building.
During this research I went to the users. Asked them about the current buildings and how they use these. What are the flaws and what works good? This was implemented in the design at some level.
I, as the architect, made the design for the new school with the wishes of the users in mind. Of the design the grey drawing is made. This represents the layer of the architect.
A new layer is added by the children of the school. The colours of the children make the design partly vanish. This represents the layer of the users. This layer works with the layer underneath but is adds new things to the architecture of the architect.
This way a new building is created, which will change into newer versions.

"At the beginning of this graduation year, there is a theme: Glaneurs, Glaneuse.
‘We are concerned with the city as a man- made landscape. The studio intends to reap and sow pieces of the city, to work with the existing and make use of its resources and potentials.’

In this case, gleaning is interpreted as an attitude to valorize residues, leftovers, what people would consider as non-space. By looking more deeply, diving into the site, and progressively identifying different layers of value (political, economic, architectural, etc), this research aims to discuss the image of industries in urban districts. Sometimes discrete, sometimes prominent, we often only remark their existence once they are gone.
‘There is a need to invent new processes and business models, more gradual and cooperative transformations working with existing building stock {…}.’

What Markus Schaefer (Hosoya, 2021) suggests in the book “Industrious city” is to better consider the value existing buildings instead of too simply decide to tear them down. He suggests elaborating new reconversion strategies, especially in urban environments which consider social, cultural, and societal parameters, more than only looking for financial profitability. Looking at former" "industrial campuses anchored in urban tissues, too often their reconversion has been oriented towards a tertiarization of city districts, somehow replacing a monofunctional industrial campus by another one.

In that respect, the case of Maastricht is particularly interesting to investigate. Considered for a long time as the first industrial city in the Netherlands, such slogan as become more a marketing strategy to develop tourism than a real representation of what the job market looks like. In December 2021, one of the biggest employers of the city, Sappi, a South-African paper company, announced leaving its historical situation in North Maastricht (Philippens, 2021). The departure of the paper mill, beyond the social disaster the loss of more than 600 jobs represents, also brings back on the table the status of industrial spaces in urban environments. It also offers an opportunity to draw a more inclusive strategy, as suggested by Markus Schaefer, for the redevelopment of this testimony of the industrial prosperity of Maastricht.

In that respect, this research aims to evaluate the potential interest in redeveloping productive activities in the Sappi campus and to elaborate a strategy for the reprogramming of the industrial site into a more inclusive productive urban environment."

The street is a complex socio-physical network that reveals various layers of life in a city: its historical setting, planning, political and economic situation, and cultural mentality. Studying such complexities of social life is important in order to understand the constantly changing identity of space. In the face of globalization, cities are being transformed into similar prototypes of each other and architecture has experienced placeness and loss of identity. Analysis of the context is relevant for the “localization” of new design interventions and it could help to avoid universal design solutions.

The project site in Anderlecht, Belgium exists a fragmented urban fabric in terms of morphological evolution in the post-industrial period, functional mix of the urban plot, connection with the immediate urban grains and the ephemeral state of ownership of spaces around the site. However, the nomadic site actors practise informal ‘urban mining’ which enables material flow despite physical distance of the urban fragments. The flow of resource becomes the immaterial spolia that gives experiential qualities and grants adaptability to the neighbourhood. The urban planning proposal thus endeavors to orchestrate the process of urban mining from collection, disassembly, extraction, recovery, consumption and reinvention within the site plot, challenging the status quo of recycling industry as infrastructure. The site is re-zoned into a production strip, mixed commercial and production public interior strip, and a cultural strip, forming a sprawling alley-yard internally that connects the major urban nodes of the plot at its periphery. The organization stitches the urban fragments thematically and functionally with narrating the process of urban mining. “Everyone is equipped by nature to receive and to assimilate sensory experiences,” (Lehmann, 2017). Recyclage is a hybrid that encompasses a material library, makerspace for material experiment , exposition space for new prototypes, auditorium, meeting rooms, office space for researchers and archive, providing a converge point for inhabitants, entrepreneurs, researchers and everyday makers. Being juxtaposed with teaching space of Le goujon and confronting the street of institutions, the recycle learning center serves as an extension of the educational cluster. The programmes are devised in zones that foster a pedagogical environment based on the observation of how a person understands and approaches material when I conducted the sensory experience mapping for the research. The spatial arrangement suggests exploratory and ascending movement with constant sightlines towards Le goujon which predominantly constitutes to the site context. The center interpreted materials as interlocutor between people from all walks of life, unleashing the inherent material literacy of individuals, reinventing architectural opportunities between traces of events, time as well as memories. The materiality of the project illustrates the boundless possibility of materials and the humanized facet of urban mining. Aluminium at different states and forms are harnessed to showcase the time and traces material afford particularly in this site with occupants constantly moving in and out. Aluminium is highly available, omnipresent in ever-changing commercial and residential buildings, and associated with domestic life and the remembrance of Anderlecht being a post-industrial city. The architecture ensemble is depicted as a living life account of aluminium that it is finished with mainly reused aluminium which undergoes a myriad of transformation strategies: reuse, repurpose, reconfigure and transform to take up different expressions. The ‘patchwork’ language presents an amateur character and recognizes the potential of anthropocene waste in elevating the design outcome, manifesting the envisioned position of Recyclage in empowering a home-grown community of nomads.

During the last century, Brussels transformed into an international capital, a process in which the quality of life of Brussels's own residents was not the first priority. The community of the neighbourhood and the everyday life of the residents became overlooked with the city shining it’s spotlights on the international stage. The neighbourhoods of Brussels become audiences to the city, not the actors.
The neighbourhood is to ignored no longer. Everyday life is a performance. As time passes people work, dwell, consume and express in an ongoing dialogue between the characters of the neighbourhood and the stage sets they perform on. Through staging everyday life value is given to these performances; a spontaneous discussion amongst neighbours, the captivation and amusement of a child, a moment of respite and relief from the city. The careful understanding of the relationship between stage and character puts the people of the neighbourhood in the limelight, their lives become the story to be told that the surrounding city audience should view.
Stage sets of public life are to be engrained into the urban blocks of the neighbourhood, anchoring their worth into the physical form of city and pronouncing their integrity with their embracement of local material and technique. An architecture of modesty is to be achieved, functioning as scenery to the performance, keeping the spotlight on people and their value in creating in the neighbourhood. Future development is going to happen. These stages of public life are fundamental to preserving the character of a place, to ensure the performance of everyday life can go on.
Derived from Latin "spolium" (plural: "spolia"), the term spolia is used in archaeology meaning "spoils" (as in "spoils of war"), booty or loot, typically seen in Greek or Roman architectural sculpture. It refers to the cut stones or decorative elements from older buildings that are re-used for new construction as an economical alternative to quarried stone which was more expensive.
The principle can surpass the re-appropriation of material to that of a defined approach to architecture. The spoils are found in the existing space and form of the built fabric, the traces of memory within evolved site and the everyday routines, use and occupation of the people in their neighbourhood. It’s an approach of attentiveness, with concern for that which exists, with a passion for the task of making something from something. It is a technique of reaction. With thorough observation the existing elements of the site are to be negotiated with, understanding their value and how they can be redefined to benefit the needs of the present.
The value of the neighbourhood needs to be reaffirmed. The stage needs to be set around the people that act immediately upon the city and that give life to its character. Through an architecture of modesty, stage sets of public life can be ingrained into the urban blocks, ensuring their preservation. Through the principles of spolia, value can be discovered in everything and gifted back to the people.
As the film producer Karel Reisz has said, looking back on his work, “It is about wanting what you got, rather than going out and getting what you want.”

Made in Manhattan is a cluster of productive spaces based on historical manufacturing areas of New York. The projects intends intends to rediscover the industrial past of NY and translate it into contemporary forms, refreshing the identity of Manhattan in the 21st Century while contributing to a socially layered and more stable community in Hell's Kitchen. Adaptability, temporality and interactions are the key elements in the distribution of the program (ateliers for makers, workshops and spaces for promotion).

Hell’s Kitchen West is currently transforming from former manufacturing to residential district however at the moment the quality of the living environment is far from being sufficient. The transition is done in a very hasty way and rezoning has a fragmentary character, some blocks have been already rezoned into residential and new high-rise housing developments are rising surrounded by warehouses, car retail shops, parking, car wash and warehouses which don't reflect the changing character of the urban environment. Moreover, the NYC planning department considers this zone a 'food desert' which means that the area between 10th and 12th avenues lacks public amenities which can provide fresh food. Doubled with the high level of environmental pollution from the Westside highway, lack of green public spaces and issues of reachability by public transport it leads to a discussion of how to create a qualitative urban environment for residents. Thus the research question is: How can food infrastructure be integrated into the residential urban environment of Hell’s Kitchen and soften the transition from the industrial past? How can local food manufacturing and distribution create new values for the community as well as provide green public spaces? The project is a combination of housing and Food Hub. Project is implemented in the group strategy of densification the strip of blocks along the Hudson River and creating new links with the waterfront and piers and thus establishing a new relationship between Midtown and the Hudson River. Food hub components are market and restaurants, urban farm/park-supermarket, e-commerce fresh food distribution centre, space for educational programs. Food and waste flows are a closed cycle between food hub ingredients and housing and shape a harmonious and sustainable food system.

This research is the result of an ongoing work of search. Throughout this process, research and design have been constantly interwoven together. Initially the research gave clues for the design, which in turn informed the research back. The aim is to position the project toward the city, at different scales. In this act of positioning, the project reveals the problems of the city and tries to address them. This research is presented in form of narrative. The text is divided in four main chapters, each one of which is an essay that deals with different aspects of the project, and contains elements of research, borrowed theories, ideas, quotes and reflections.

Research about the covered river Senne in Brussels. This former river seems to be invisible, but this research shows that this former industrial river still lives in the city (within the architecture and the urban structure). What can a revitalization of this covered river mean? And how does architecture relate to this revitalized space?

The main subject of the studio is “Spolia”, that can be explained as: “the left-overs or <<spoils>> of a building, which find themselves back in a new structure”[1]. The use of spolia can be economically, ecologically or aesthetically motivated[2]. However, the remains of the previous buildings are not only actual, physical elements with physical value to be assessed, but also the identity, images and atmosphere they create.The given site offers a variety of existing material - in order to answer the studio question of “what to keep?” an analysis and evaluation of existing tissue is needed.Anderlecht, where the site is located, is a bricolage of different identities; a vibrant and diverse community. Blended together are industrial and residential architectural building types of different scales, combined urban tissues of several ages, woven nationalities and entwined religions. With a gradual study of the neighbourhood many stories were unveiled.Those different lifestyles and different values are especially visible in Les Goujons – a mass social housing of enormous proportions and density. Built in 1970s as a solution to a housing crisis, it is now in a state of decay and deterioration. It is a massive project, housing over 900 inhabitants, with 382 apartments spreading over 18 floors. Lacking any human-scale, directed at one social group, designed without any consideration of fostering community or allowing socialization, with age it has gained a not-so-pleasant recognition.Les Goujons is not the only example of 1970s post-war mass housing deterioration. Similar projects of social housing were built all over Europe and world. Majority of them are facing the same problems: partial vacancy, neglect and poor safety condition, short life-span of housing and pauperization of its inhabitants.Housing offers more than just a shelter: it provides stability (both in terms of economics and in terms of peace of mind), feeling of security and a sense of belonging. Current social system does not always foster the situation of those who are in need. Could social housing be designed in a better way?The goal of the project is to propose an alternative for social housing. Haunted by problems such as neglect, vandalization, safety decrease, high turnover rates, the social housing complexes often seem to be a transit accommodation. Les Goujons, the building at the site, is currently experiencing many of those problems. The project will suggest transforming it through means of decreasing its density, modernisation of existing structure and addition of new functions. At the same time, in order to compensate for the lost units and provide more social apartments, a new housing complex will be designed, complementing the existing one. The neighbourhood will gain more residential buildings of better quality, aiming at their longevity. The introduced strategies will impact also the atmosphere of the place, improving its current state.The two parts of the complex will be working together as one, new composition, interlaced in palpable sense of shared scale, building geometry or materiality, but also in imperceptible sense of atmosphere, community and identity.