Synopsis Atlas - Stage 5

synopsis atlas

The Ethical City and the Final Design Thesis

The Ethical City

The Ethical City is on ongoing body of research conducted by the Stage 5 students and staff of the final diploma year at the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow. A different European city is studied each academic year in order to establish patterns and connections between these cities and Glasgow. in The fundamental aim is to learn from one another how we as architects and urbanists might circumnavigate the obstacles to sustainable regenerative urban repair, and to collate a tool box of powerful methodology to achieve long term positive urban change.

Reflecting upon Glasgow in Stage 4 while discovering and absorbing a new city in Stage 5 at once invites comparison and contrast between cities, such as their geographic situations, topographies and climates as well as the potent political, economic, social and cultural aspects which shape their particular morphologies and character. As in any city, the relative constancy or shifting dynamics of these influential forces have informed a continuous process of urban repair, renewal, and sometimes reinvention. Finding meaningful architectural expression which harnesses anticipated change is one of the most creative challenges of any urban architecture, one which is truly relevant to place, purpose and people.

With the ongoing threat of pandemics, artificial intelligence, food and energy insecurity, the climate emergency, and political upheaval across the globe (manifest in direct action, strikes and outright rebellion from ordinarily placid populations), we are asking the question, what is the future of our cities? How can we mend the urban scars, how can we as architects support people in their daily struggles, and mitigate and send into reverse climate change? The choices that we make as urbanists and architects can no longer be separated from our ethical positions.

The Final Design Thesis reveals a set of ethical questions, observations, issues and architectural responses. Each body of work evidences the gathering, organisation, analysis, synthesis and deployment of data, research and theory, thus generating an original intellectual position, and a creative, responsive architectural proposal.

Stage 5

Stage 5 is designed to capitalise on the skills and knowledge accumulated by students in the previous five years of education and professional experience. It is a teaching program with increasing levels of self-directed and peer learning, culminating in a Final Design Thesis and Architectural Technology proposal.

The Final Design Thesis/Architectural Technology proposal is comprehensively investigated and resolved to a level sufficient to serve as evidence of its architectural validity. It requires that students demonstrate an ability to develop a personal line of inquiry, professional level of judgement, solve complex problems and address issues relevant to contemporary architectural discourse. It aims to consolidate a student’s architectural thought, allowing them to define for themselves what kind of architect they want to be and what kind of architecture they want to pursue in their career.

Students are expected to operate with professionalism, independence and self-direction in preparation for the start of their architectural career.

The Final Design Thesis (FDT)

The Final Design Thesis is one of two major components to the Stage 5 year, (the other being Architectural Technology). It requires that students formulate and support intellectual positions with arguments that can be evidenced in an architectural proposal. This demands that students make strong visual, verbal and written arguments in support of their architectural intentions.

The thesis work uses the year theme of ‘The Ethical City’. The intention is to engage the student in debates around the role of architects and architecture in addressing concerns facing the city, such as sustainability, social cohesion and community resources, and how the city facilitates and nurtures society.

In 2022-23 the Stage 5 cohort worked in Brussels, using the specific urban, political, economic, social and cultural issues that occur there, to develop an ethical standpoint as the basis for the thesis investigation.

The FDT demands that risks are taken, processes are explored, unique artefacts are produced and the conversation around architecture expanded. It is not judged solely as a piece of architecture, but as a body of work, whose value is in the depth of investigation, the strength of the arguments, the judgement displayed, the intellectual context demonstrated, and the relationship of the architectural proposal to these things. Students are required to demonstrate their own personal and original intellectual exploration in their work.

Architectural Technology (AT)

The other major component of the Stage 5 year is Architectural Technology. This component of Stage 5 again builds on the architectural technology inputs from Stage 4.

While the FDT and AT are two separate courses, they are conceived as an integrated whole and consequently the thesis work is required to address both courses explicitly at all times. Students are required to develop architectural forms driven by and integrated with technical concepts.

9

10 Jette Jette 5 10387

brussels bruxelles brussel

11 Koekelberg Koekelberg 1.2 18008

12 Molenbeek-Saint-Jean Sint-Jans-Molenbeek 5.9 16378

13 Saint-Gilles Sint-Gillis 2.5 20188

14 Saint-Josse-ten-Noode Sint-Joost-ten-Node 1.1 24650

15 Schaerbeek Schaarbeek 8.1 16425

16 Uccle Ukkel 22.9 3594

17 Watermael-Boitsfort Watermaal-Bosvoorde 12.9 1928

18 Woluwe-Saint-Lambert Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe 7.2 7669

the ethical city 2022/23

19 Woluwe-Saint-Pierre Sint-Pieters-Woluwe 8.9 4631

The Ethical City

The Ethical City is on ongoing body of research conducted by the Stage 5 students and staff of the final diploma year at the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow. A different European city is studied each academic year in order to establish patterns and connections between these cities and Glasgow. in The fundamental aim is to learn from one another how we as architects and urbanists might circumnavigate the obstacles to sustainable regenerative urban repair, and to collate a tool box of powerful methodology to achieve long term positive urban change.

Final Design Thesis territories

1. Modernist territory

2. Industrial territory

3. Historic territory

Reflecting upon Glasgow in Stage 4 while discovering and absorbing a new city in Stage 5 at once invites comparison and contrast between cities, such as their geographic situations, topographies and climates as well as the potent political, economic, social and cultural aspects which shape their particular morphologies and character. As in any city, the relative constancy or shifting dynamics of these influential forces have informed a continuous process of urban repair, renewal, and sometimes reinvention. Finding meaningful architectural expression which harnesses anticipated change is one of the most creative challenges of any urban architecture, one which is truly relevant to place, purpose and people.

Stage 5 teaching team

Final Design Thesis

Miranda Webster - Stage leader

Jonny Fisher - co-pilot

With the ongoing threat of pandemics, artificial intelligence, food and energy insecurity, the climate emergency, and political upheaval across the globe (manifest in direct action, strikes and outright rebellion from ordinarily placid populations), we are asking the question, what is the future of our cities?

How can we mend the urban scars, how can we as architects support people in their daily struggles, and mitigate and send into reverse climate change? The choices that we make as urbanists and architects can no longer be separated from our ethical positions.

Studio design tutors

Charlie Sutherland founder partner of Sutherland Hussey Harris Architects

Stacey Phillips partner at Sheppard Robson Architects

The Final Design Thesis reveals a set of ethical questions, observations, issues and architectural responses. Each body of work evidences the gathering, organisation, analysis, synthesis and deployment of data, research and theory, thus generating an original intellectual position, and a creative, responsive architectural proposal.

Stage 5

Graeme Massie founder of Graeme Massie Architects

Thomas Woodcock architect at Elder and Cannon Architects

Architectural technology

Rory Corr - course lead

Stage 5 is designed to capitalise on the skills and knowledge accumulated by students in the previous five years of education and professional experience. It is a teaching program with increasing levels of self-directed and peer learning, culminating in a Final Design Thesis and Architectural Technology proposal.

Architectural technology tutors

The Final Design Thesis/Architectural Technology proposal is comprehensively investigated and resolved to a level sufficient to serve as evidence of its architectural validity. It requires that students demonstrate an ability to develop a personal line of inquiry, professional level of judgement, solve complex problems and address issues relevant to contemporary architectural discourse. It aims to consolidate a student’s architectural thought, allowing them to define for themselves what kind of architect they want to be and what kind of architecture they want to pursue in their career.

Rosalie Menon co-director of the Mackintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit (MEARU), and studio design tutor

Colin Glover senior architect at Oberlanders Arch

Adrian Stewart founder partner of DO Architecture

Christine Halliday architect at DO Architecture

James Tait founder of JTAIT Archietcure

Students are expected to operate with professionalism, independence and self-direction in preparation for the start of their architectural career.

with many thanks to our guests, reviewers and contributors

The Final Design Thesis (FDT)

The Final Design Theis is one of two major components to the Stage 5 year, (the other being Architectural Technology). It requires that students formulate and support intellectual positions with arguments that can be evidenced in an architectural proposal. This demands that students make strong visual, verbal and written arguments in support of their architectural intentions.

Doug Allard architect at XDGA - Xaveer De Geyter Architects

Ananelys de Vet designer, educator and researcher at Bureau Devet

Hugo Corbett architect at hugocorbett.eu

Katherine McNeil Head of Professional Studies, Mackintosh School of Architecture

Sally Stewart Head of School, Mackintosh School of Architecture

The thesis work uses the year theme of ‘The Ethical City’. The intention is to engage the student in debates around the role of architects and architecture in addressing concerns facing the city, such as sustainability, social cohesion and community resources, and how the city facilitates and nurtures society.

Elisabeth Schalenbourg architect at elisabethschalenbourg.be

Gideon Boie visiting professor at KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture

Patrick Moyersoen expertise in teaching and design practice at KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture

In 2022-23 the Stage 5 cohort worked in Brussels, using the specific urban, political, economic, social and cultural issues that occur there, to develop an ethical standpoint as the basis for the thesis investigation.

The FDT demands that risks are taken, processes are explored, unique artefacts are produced and the conversation around architecture expanded. It is not judged solely as a piece of architecture, but as a body of work, whose value is in the depth of investigation, the strength of the arguments, the judgement displayed, the intellectual context demonstrated, and the relationship of the architectural proposal to these things. Students are required to demonstrate their own personal and original intellectual exploration in their work.

Architectural Technology (AT)

The other major component of the Stage 5 year is Architectural Technology. This component of Stage 5 again builds on the architectural technology inputs from Stage 4.

While the FDT and AT are two separate courses, they are conceived as an integrated whole and consequently the thesis work is required to address both courses explicitly at all times. Students are required to develop architectural forms driven by and integrated with technical concepts.

00.

Final

Thesis territories

1. Modernist territory

2. Industrial territory

3. Historic territory

17 Watermael-Boitsfort Watermaal-Bosvoorde 12.9 1928

18 Woluwe-Saint-Lambert Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe 7.2 7669

19 Woluwe-Saint-Pierre Sint-Pieters-Woluwe 8.9 4631

Final Design Thesis territories

1. Modernist territory

2. Industrial territory

3. Historic territory

Stage 5 teaching team

Final Design Thesis

Miranda Webster - Stage leader

Jonny Fisher - co-pilot

Studio design tutors

Stage 5 teaching team

Final Design Thesis

Miranda Webster - Stage leader

Jonny Fisher - co-pilot

Studio design tutors

Charlie Sutherland founder partner of Sutherland Hussey Harris Architects

Stacey Phillips partner at Sheppard Robson Architects

Graeme Massie founder of Graeme Massie Architects

Thomas Woodcock architect at Elder and Cannon Architects

Architectural technology

Rory Corr - course lead

Architectural technology tutors

Rosalie Menon co-director of the Mackintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit (MEARU), and studio design tutor

Colin Glover senior architect at Oberlanders Arch

Adrian Stewart founder partner of DO Architecture

Christine Halliday architect at DO Architecture

James Tait founder of JTAIT Archietcure

Charlie Sutherland founder partner of Sutherland Hussey Harris Architects

Stacey Phillips partner at Sheppard Robson Architects

Graeme Massie founder of Graeme Massie Architects

with many thanks to our guests, reviewers and contributors

Thomas Woodcock architect at Elder and Cannon Architects

Doug Allard architect at XDGA - Xaveer De Geyter Architects

Ananelys de Vet designer, educator and researcher at Bureau Devet

Hugo Corbett architect at hugocorbett.eu

Katherine McNeil Head of Professional Studies, Mackintosh School of Architecture

Sally Stewart Head of School, Mackintosh School of Architecture

Elisabeth Schalenbourg architect at elisabethschalenbourg.be

Gideon Boie visiting professor at KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture

Architectural technology

Rory Corr - course lead

Architectural technology tutors

Patrick Moyersoen expertise in teaching and design practice at KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture

Rosalie Menon co-director of the Mackintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit (MEARU), and studio design tutor

Colin Glover senior architect at Oberlanders Arch

Adrian Stewart founder partner of DO Architecture

Christine Halliday architect at DO Architecture

James Tait founder of JTAIT Archietcure

with many thanks to our guests, reviewers and contributors

Doug Allard architect at XDGA - Xaveer De Geyter Architects

Ananelys de Vet designer, educator and researcher at Bureau Devet

Hugo Corbett architect at hugocorbett.eu

Katherine McNeil Head of Professional Studies, Mackintosh School of Architecture

Sally Stewart Head of School, Mackintosh School of Architecture

Elisabeth Schalenbourg architect at elisabethschalenbourg.be

Gideon Boie visiting professor at KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture

Patrick Moyersoen expertise in teaching and design practice at KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture

1. Modernist territory

2. Industrial territory

3. Historic territory

4. Le Pentagone - the historic heart of Brussels, defined by the small ring inner ring road (see #19)

5. European Parliament

6. European Commission

7. Palais du Bruxelles/Royal Palace of Brussels

8. Parc du Bruxelles (royal park)

9. Le Grand Place (14th century civic square)

10. Palais de Justice (Belgian High Court)

11. Gare du Midi (train station)

12. Gare centrale (train station)

13. Brussel-Noord (train station)

14. Manneken Pis (17th century fountain)

15. Gare Maritime (converted 18th century railway station, offices/ arts spaces)

16. Parc Elisabeth (leading to National Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Koekelberg - off the map)

17. Atomium (off the map - approx 1 hour walk from heart of the city)

18. Canal de Bruxelles-Charleroi/Brussels canal

19. Le Petite Centure/the Small Ring (inner ring road, formally known as R20 and N0)

20. Marche aux Puces (flea market)

21. La Fonderie (Brussels museum of industry and labour - converted 18th/19th century foundry)

22. Ninoofsepoortpark/Parc de la Porte de Ninove (public park)

23. Pompidou Centre (art gallery and museum space)

24. World Trade Centre

25. MIMA (contemporary arts centre)

26. Saint Pierre Hospital

27. Porte de Hal (medieval history museum)

28. Mohammed Ali Sports Centre

29. City abattoir

30. Zennepark (public park)

three territories

brussels bruxelles brussel

the ethical city 2022/23

1. John Pottage

2. Nancy Marrs

3. Stephanie Versha Chawla

4. Mia Pinder Hussein

5. Tingyu Ouyang

6. Wiktoria Pelczynska

7. Alice Hendrie

8. Maria Kinash

9. Bethany Lim

10. Daumantas Patamsis

11. Owen Brodie

12. Flori Hanley

13. Zifan Sun

14. Michael John Watt

15. Madeleine Ross

16. Lamees Hikmat

17. Michael McGoldrick

18. Daniah Kamil

the modernist city

the modernist city

brussels bruxelles brussel

the ethical city 2022/23

1. Anthony Tognini

2. Mahtab Gholamzadehfard

3. Rhiannon James

4. Hei Leung

5. Ketmanee Prabkhonchua

6. Sophie Emmerson

7. Olivia Bissell

8. Reece Oliver

9. Semirat Saidi

10. Fok Ho

11. Robbie Gibson

12. Calum Weir

13. Myia Robinson

14. Taeyoung Ro

15. Charlie Cullen

16. Charlotte Randall

17. Ilias Muckli

18. Leonie Bruggenwerth

19. Maria Dragan

the industrial city

20. Linda Ledina

the industrial city

brussels bruxelles brussel

the ethical city 2022/23

1. Louisa Dunn

2. Zachary MacPhearson

3. Mandu Okoko

4. Adam Cowan

5. Caroline Brewer

6. Jay Lee

7. Andi Stanuta

8. Aiwei Shi

9. Elias Wahlstrom

10. Kirsty Mann

11. Rachel Crooks

12. Eunyoung Jang

13. William White Howe

14. Harry Baker

the historic city

the historic city

stage 4

stage 5

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Location, site:

THE ARCHIVE OF UNCERTAINTY

Thesis:

Harry Baker

Thomas Woodcock

historic territory map #14 - Marollen, Brussels

Social theory surrounding the ever-increasing control attained by governments, city councils and private companies has created an atmosphere of pessimism for the future of our cities. The correlation between the theory of the city and the theory of capitalism is the fear of failure. This fear is what dictates public policy in the age of the consumer, setting out rigid opinions about what should and should not be displayed in the city’s public matrix.

The structured attempt to control the chaos of the city creates residual and ambiguous land within the edges of its boundaries. And whether the land presents itself as derelict sites, or unkempt border areas, these spaces of uncertainty provide the modern citizen a perspective outside the commodified, controlled, and privatised ‘open’ urban spaces. Creating potential outlets for unexpected or spontaneous encounters, informal events, and alterative activities, where people can cross back and forth between the known and the unknown.

However, a dualism exists between the spaces of uncertainty and certainty in the city, with certainty existing as anthropological place. Anthropological place has at least three characteristics in common, they want to be - people want them to be - places of identity, of relations and of history. An archive is a public institution whose main source of information is derived from those three characteristics. However, these institutions possess systems of control, steeped in bureaucracy, which makes it impossible to navigate the knowledge they possess.

My response to the ethical city is questioning who controls the information within its boundaries, utilising the themes of uncertainty to imagine the antithesis of an archive. The thesis explores how a building, which has the capacity to archive everything, manifests itself within the context of Brussels.

governments, city for the theory the age not be ambiguous itself as provide the privatised spontaneous back in the has at to bewhose However, makes within antithesis of archive

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AN ARCHIVE FOR CULTURAL PROTECTION FOR THE CITY OF BRUSSELS

Thesis:

This project explores the themes of cultural protection both conceptually and physically in the form of an archive for the city of Brussels.

The theme of protection is symbolised in the heavy floating structures encapsulated within a light ethereal skin. Within the heavy structure is the archive, designed to physically protect the artefacts within, and allow public circulation and enjoyment of the building through adjacent contrasting and ethereal exhibition space. This concept aims to allow for public engagement with the archive, whilst protecting and celebrating the objects and information within.

The building sits as a beacon within the city of Brussels, nestled in an uninhabited node between the diverse and rich districts of Molenbeek and Anderlecht, aiming to engage and connect a diverse population through the landscape it creates as well as the space within.

Anchored on the canal, the building tells the story of the industrial territory’s history, uncovering a forgotten portion of the canal and utilising it withn the building to engage and celebrate.

The building tells the story of the city not only through the artefacts held within, but in the architectural experience the user has whilst journeying through the perimeter landscape, and the spaces within.

Olivia Bissell

Stacey Phillps

industrial territory map #7 - Ninoofsepoortpark, Molenbeek, Brussels

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CITE DU SELFEGGHE: INHABITING BORDERS AS A METHOD OF REPAIR

Caroline Brewer

Miranda

Thesis:

Selvedge noun, ‘sel-vij [from early Modern Dutch, selfegghe]: the edge on either side of a woven or flatknitted fabric so finished as to prevent unraveling

Cité noun, ‘sit-a [old French]: the collective consciousness of a city, composed of “perceptions, behaviours, and beliefs”.1 specifically: the fundamental difference between physical environment [ville] and those who inhabit it [cité]

The architectural intervention establishes new modes of integrating industry into the urban fabric of Brussels through the framework of a worker-controlled consumer cooperative, leveraging textile waste to operate a Research, Education and Exhibition space located at the site of the former historic city wall.

It draws upon the development of Vooruit, a Belgian socialist organization that transformed traditional working class institutions into dynamic communities with a wide range of services and social outlets; the writings of Richard Sennett, who debunks romantic myths about community and how it forms; and an analysis of the city fabric using a taxonomy of seams stitches. In doing so, the project reimagines the fashion industry, its strategy for managing textile waste and its operational structure, in order to establish a sustainable platform around which workers can organize.

It questions how the byproducts of industry, specifically fashion, can be reclaimed as a means to build capital and emancipate both workers and materials from the cycle of fetish commodification that has alienated people and products from their native use value.

Through a series of investigations into the past, present, and future conditions of ‘walls’ within the urban fabric of Brussels, the architectural proposal seeks to understand how a wall might be embedded with the personal, productive, and political capacity to facilitate repair of relationships across the city and into the hinterland.

A series of interventions at various scales and delineated by the notion of ‘wall’ will create locations for research, production, education, and exchange across Brussels around which city life may flourish and expand in connection with systems of value which the community itself determines.

Webster historic territory map #05 - Marollen, Brussels

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AN ARCHITECTURAL SUBCULTURE

Thesis:

Music and subculture’s existence is cultivated in the balance between the right to social liberation and absolute fundamentalist authoritarianism. Groups who would otherwise become rudderless fall upon communitiesas ameans to protect one another. In a world of centralised structural power, safety nets appear scarce; community engagement which revolves around group activity becomes critically important for those who desire individual power by voluntary association. This thesis will focus on past, present and foreseeable und ground counter-culture music in Brussels in juxtaposition with the determination and domination of the shoehorned Northern District, in an attempt to scrutinise the blind service of the structural & hierarchical powers and their accumulations of taxing architectural planning, as a means to explore altern tive means of a conscious, more personal responsibility for the city’s material condition and those who occupy it.

My thesis is the exploration into architectural representation of habitually supressed expression of subculture & music & how they could alternatively be celebrated or atomised. The thesis therefore focuses on the ideologies behind underground and counter culture, and extrapolates the sentiment of the moral and ethical fabric of society seemingly shifting from a blind service to a heirarchy of society, to a conscious personal responsibility for the condition of the world and others within it. Musix is contextually relevant in this study as it already contains within it a deep sense of community and typical to punk or hardcore roots, it also contains within it a sentiment of decentralised power and authority.

Brief - To design an atomised, decentralised cooperative used as a means to express the importance and delicate relationship that such cultures have for the ethical city. such communities hang in the balance of social liberation and social authoritarianism, able to express self expression, but also required to express self expression as a result of authoritarian and structural oppression or injustices.

The programme aims to create a layering of sub programmes which dissect communities into array of importance and significance of eachother, which would otherwise be de-centralised in a typical city. The programme aims to regard history, community, music rehearsal and music performance in their own right and merit...

Owen Brodie

Graeme Massie

modernist territory map #11 - Brussel Noordstation, Schaerbeek, Belgium

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RECONNECTING THE CITY: ARCHITECTURE AND TRAUMA

Thesis:

Stephanie Chawla

Charlie Sutherland

modernist territory map #03 - North Galaxy Towers, Northern Quarter of Brussels

Trauma is a body’s response to intensely stressful event(s) or situations. It can also be understood as a sudden physical injury from an impact, violence or accident. Architecture or infrastructural development is often a very sudden and dramatic change which can be interpreted as a trauma to the built environment. It is becoming increasingly clear in the wake of the covid-19 crisis, the climate crisis, and constant global political shifts the necessity of prioritising mental health. The idea of wellbeing is centered around prioritising health, however, there is no health without mental health. Thus, this thesis utilises a lens of mental health to investigate methods of restructuring the built environment to sustainably center the wellbeing of people.

Based in the remnants of a mono-functional quarter that towers above the rest of the city, this thesis addresses the isolation and disconnection of the North Galaxy office towers. The towers are restructured as a mental health resource center that provides a sustainable network of resources for individuals, communities, material and energy production. The quarter has a history of major infrastructural change and a history of prioritising only economic development. Utilising a framework based on the concept of salutogenisis - providing a series of resources to support people transitioning into a state of wellbeing - the project is divided into three phases: reuse, restructure, and reconnection. The existing building is dismantled and reused, restructured through a series of interconnected systems to adapt to the programmatic needs of the building and reconnected to the rest of the city.

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MENDING MAROLLEN: A CLIMATE CAMPUS

Adam James Cowan

Miranda Webster

historic territory map #04 - Chapelle Station Junction, Marollen, Brussels

Thesis:

This project responds to the potentially claustrophobic density of Brussels’ historic territory, Marollen. Through studying Marollen, the themes of repair, connection and collective resource were identified, becoming the basis of the architectural thesis. These drove the design of a climate campus – an international hub for institutions and activists that draws on Brussels’ political significance in Europe.

Unpicking the patterns of Marollen, from the urban scale to the city block, down to the block interiors informed how to densify a challenging site, re-knitting the urban crust, and repairing the wounds of Brusselisation. The new block uses thresholds, sight lines and meandering routes between interior and exterior spaces, retaining the intrigue of the historic blocks while creating a dense yet permeable block interspersed with quality public spaces.

It is not possible to talk about repair without acknowledging the precarious social, political,and environmental landscapes we live in. A city where citizens are increasingly apathetic and helpless at the declining state of their future is not an ethical city. Existing frameworks to tackle the climate emergency have proved unfit in the past and present. This thesis responds to the invisible presence of transparent public institutions in Marollen, proposing a civic campus housing three new institutions. These will be a People’s House, a Climate Union and a Manufacturing School. The synergy of these institutions will instigate holistic ethical responses to the climate crisis, mobilising vast sections of society in education, negotiation, protest and collective action. The resultant campus will be a hub of palpable activism which empowers and creates activists, our generators of change, thereby stimulating exponential progress against the complex climate emergency.

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QUARRYING THE RUINSCAPE... TO BRING THE PALAIS TO JUSTICE

Thesis:

Rachel Crooks

Thomas Woodcock

historic territory map #11 - The Palais de Justice

In 2022 humanity consumed a year’s supply of the earth’s natural resources by the 28th of July. This unsustainable rate of consumption combined with the rise of virtual interfacing following covid- has society caught in a vicious parallel between finite resources, rising construction costs and redundant buildingsthis has the eventuality of ruination.

Drawing from Kengo Kuma’s essay on the Anti-Object alongside the concept of ‘Ruin-Lust’ as captured in the etchings of Piranesi, this thesis has the intent of investigating the potential to reignite a global circular economy, by setting up a framework to identify redundant buildings as pre-emptive ruins to be quarried and recirculated.

The ‘Palais de Justice’ in Brussels was once the worlds largest law court but is now crumbling and falling to redundancy, on top of this, its problematic history allows it to fit the parameters for ruination. By quarrying its spolia for district ownership, the process not only addresses the climate crisis but also dismantles the oppressive shadow the Palais casts over the Marolles District. It transitions a vertical power structure that condemns to a horizontal one that provides.

By pairing 5 District gap sites with the 5 key materials to be dismantled, a network of circular workshops would be established providing the impetus usage for the Palais’ spolia. These workshops would remain in place following the exhaustion of its quarrying to support a re-alignment to circular practices. This thesis has a focus on the stone workshop to test a set of rules that could be applied to the subsequent sitesconstructing in a way that displays secondary material to its maximum potential. The remaining spolia would be dismantled and debated for at the ‘Ruinscape’ before being transported by a funicular railway into the district to be work shopped and re-purposed.

The resultant ruinscape as Kuma’s ultimate ‘anti object’ and a district owned amenity would serve to continue the circular momentum by functioning as a site for debating what morally justifies the future use of our planet’s finite material.

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BRUSSELS: A CITY STRONGLY DEFINED BY ITS INDUSTRIAL PAST

Charlie Cullen

Jonny Fisher

industrial territory map #15 - The Foundary, Molenbeek, Brussels

Thesis:

Brussels is a city strongly defined by its industrial past. The abandoned inner blocks that characterise the industrial territory and once functioned as industrial spaces, have led to a fragmented urban fabric. The re-use of these spaces could serve important role in the city’s development. The thesis intervenes in the interstitial space at the heart an urban block to restore a social role for the locality. The thesis arises from the possibility of creating a focal point in the district, capable of creating new reciprocal flows of movement between Molenbeek and the city.

The thesis aims to explore themes of permeability, enclosure, and solid and void through thresholds and a progression of spaces, that allow these interstitial spaces to find a functional role in the city again. The “art foundry” will be a place for artists, sculptors, and the public. Located in a former industrial site in an inner block of Molenbeek, the project will include a foundry, workspaces, a library and materials archive, guest studios and exhibition spaces for invited artists and researchers. It hopes to repair the urban grain of the city that has been fragmented due to de-industrialistion.

The foundry aims to work with artists, communities and people of all cultural backgrounds to encourage interactions between different cultures and providing a catalyst for integrated social development.

Urban Context

As mentioned the district has a fabric. The abandoned inner blocks characterise the territory once functioned industrial spaces. The re-use of could serve important role in the development. The project intervenes residual space at the heart an urban restore a social role for the community.

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SUPPRESSION

Thesis:

Louisa Dunn

Miranda Webster

historic territory map #01 - Palais de Justice, Brussels

Suppression. In its simplest form this thesis, explores the connection between suppression and architecture. Inspired by my dissertation, investigating the correlation between architecture and segregation and how to implement change as a designer engages with the ethical city within the progressive society.

European cities are all currently facing the same moral question- How to respond to landmark buildings with a brutal history of slavery and suppression? Demolition would be an injustice to the lived experience of their victims and unsustainable within the climate crisis. However if there are maintained as is, does that perpetuate the values they stood for? Are they to be eternally chastised or does continual punishment hinder progression? This thesis explores a possible answer to these questions through the case study of the intimidation of the Palais des Justice over the Marollen district of Brussels.

The suppression of the Marollen people can be categorised twofold. Firstly, physically by the construction of the Palais de Justice, removing them from their homes and communities. Secondary to this socially, the eternal conquering and gentrification of Brussels has diluted the Marollen character and mother tongue of ancestral residents. Tackling the physical first, exploiting the architectural looting and applying punishment towards the built form outlines the ‘skin’ of the thesis. The concept of dismantling The ‘soul’ of the building looks at treating societal barriers through the forum of language within the programme.

Every 40 days a language dies and by 2100 it is estimated that at least 50% of the current languages will be extinct and with them the culture, traditions, poetry, songs and myths they represent. Currently, at a tipping point between revival or vanishment the Brusselian dialect and its remaining Marollen speakers finds itself critically endangered. The programme of this thesis aims to undo this by creating a dismantled linguistic centre that fosters the evolution and preservation of dialect and the celebrates the collaboration of learning. Doing this, further pays back Leopold’s injustice internationally but also deals with the past, present and future of language by acknowledging the historic value languages hold, breaking down current speech barriers between citizens and preserving languages during natural linguistic development respectively. The final design thesis - The - Inversion of Babel - strives to create a community

within the atoned Palais representative of the inherent character within the Marollen. The partial dismantlement of the Palais opens up the site back to the Marollen and the new interventions within memorialise the past, respond to the present and progress to the future.

the connection between dissertation, investigating the corhow to implement change the progressive society.

moral question- How to reof slavery and suppresexperience of their victims if there are maintained

Are they to be eternalprogression? This thesis through the case study of the Marollen district of Brussels.

twofold. Firstly, physically them from their homes and conquering and gentrification of tongue of ancestral residents. looting and applying punishThe concept of dismantling treating societal barriwithin the programme.

estimated that at least 50% them the culture, traditions, tipping point between remaining Marollen speakof this thesis aims to that fosters the evolution collaboration of learning. internationally but also deals acknowledging the historic barriers between citizens development respectively.

strives to create a comthe inherent characof the Palais opens interventions within meprogress to the future.

Fig A1.1 Looting the Looter Thesis Concept Diagram

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CITIES AS MINES OF THE FUTURE: BUILDINGS AS MATERIAL BANKS

Sophie Emerson

Jonny Fisher

industrial territory map #6 - Molenbeek, Brussels

Thesis:

Currently, the architecture and construction sector operates in an environmentally problematic linear economy where virgin materials are extracted from the earth, manufactured into a product, and disposed as waste via landfill. The detrimental consequences include the destruction of ecosystems, increased risk of resource scarcity as well as increased material costs. It is reported that the building industry contributes 35% of CO2 emissions, 35% of the world’s resource consumption as well as 30% of waste generated. The vast majority of this impact occurs in the initial construction phases, where products are mined and manufactured. Due to the global rate of material consumption, it has been speculated that by 2050, it will take two Earths to maintain the current resource demands. To meet the capacity of the planet, construction and demolition must reduce its carbon emissions by two billion tonnes by 2050.

To mitigate this risk, the sector must adopt a circular economy (CE) model, which by definition is “restorative and regenerative by design and aims to keep components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times”. Ultimately, CE aims to create closed material cycles by prolonging the utilisation life of materials, decreasing the use of virgin materials, landfill waste, and overall environmental impacts.

The aim of my thesis is to explore CE strategies and principles through the implementation of Buildings as Material Banks (BAMB). Through my investigation, I have focused my exploration on BAMB as a method to establish and maintain a building stock of recoverable and reusable building components. Instead of merely using and subsequently disposing of resources, they are borrowed from their technological cycles for a period of time before being returned into circulation once again. By implementing circular value chains, such as design for disassembly, urban mining and adaptive reuse, materials in buildings sustain their value, with the goal of facilitating a transition to a sector that produces less waste while using less virgin resources, slowing down usage to a rate that meets the capacity of the planet.

Cities should be viewed as the mines of the future - playing both the role of the consumer and the supplier of (their own) resources.

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POPULATION DIVERSITY AS A TOOL TO BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER

Mahtab Gholamzadehfard

Jonny Fisher

industrial territory map #2 - Ninoofsepoortpark, Molenbeek, Brussels

Thesis:

This project aims to use the population diversity of Brussels City as a tool to bring people together from different backgrounds and cultures through a food market.

Based on the ethical city researchers and answering the thesis question regarding how to feed the population sustainably, some research shows that the most successful food-related projects go beyond a standalone building designed for a single purpose, such as production or distribution. Instead, mixeduse schemes can facilitate the many roles required in the food network, and that’s where the idea of creating an urban farming space comes in. So, this project is a food market as a gathering point with Urban farming (vertical farming), which produces crops for using and selling in the market as a sustainable way of producing food.

The project will be located in the heart of Molenbeek (Ninove Park) alongside the canal, where all roads lead and have a strong connection with the city centre, making it an ideal spot to attract tourism. The chosen location is currently a flat park that lacks safety and is crossed by cars and trams, which makes it noisy. Also, undefined edge with poor condition. To tackle these issues, my idea of designing a food market will involve creating a public realm on the canal edge and identifying the chosen location by developing the landscape to guide the people into the building, which is open to the surroundings and create a strong connection to the context and also creating a courtyard as an open gathering space in the middle of the market.

The current condition of the Molenbeek is poor, with homeless living around the canal, which has a negative impact on the canal potential. Also, Molenbeek is known as a “NO GO ZONE”. This project will also tackle these issues to improve the current condition by proposing an architectural design different from the existing buildings to convey a sense of luxury and vitality.

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PERMANENT MEANWHILE: A SELF BUILD APPROACH TO A MORE AUTONOMOUS AND LOW CARBON WAY OF DEVELOPMENT.

Thesis:

Robbie Gibson

Jonny Fisher

industrial territory map #11 - Ninoofsepoortpark, Molenbeek, Brussels

The Thesis explores a development that gives more autonomy over the built environment and promotes inclusive and collective growth. It means to address the disconnection between existing social ecologies and new developments within metropolitan cities, as well as ingrained issues of waste and emissions within the construction industry.

It looks at existing design agencies, circular economy hubs, charities and social-cultural organisations within brussels and imagines what a development might look like if facilitated on site by them with the already established social and economic problems of the city known by each. Toestand, a non-profit organisation, that manages meanwhile use projects, will be the main overseer of the development for the duration of its growth.

The design work focus on how this emergence can be facilitated. The architectural themes being explored are the densification of an urban gap, creating a masterplan with plots for self build and a hub area for social exchange and promotion of self build agency.

Within the Hub Area an upper deck within a new block is explored as a devise to enable ‘A Take on a townhall’ that is more attune to autonomous organisations than traditional townhall typologies. The upper deck must be read as open, host a range of public spaces that are passively surveyed and overlap with a social exchange hall below.

The self build aspect of the wider masterplan is routed in the works of Piers Taylor and seeks to satisfy a phenominological thesis of architecture. Subsiquently the ‘Take on a Townhall’ building creates a sense of being within the city and is a place to engage in it’s sensory, social, political, economic and historic contexts. Through ‘engaging’ a collective contiousness of the challenges facing the built environment will be reached, eventually allowing a true vernacular to emerge.

Overlapping and intermediate spaces between inside and out have been explored to draw the city into buildings or flush the buildings out into the city. Its material composition seeks to heighten ones awarness of material resourcing and address the fragility of autonomous movements while asserting the institutions perminance within the metropolis.

Taylors Emerged Architecture: Creating a New Vernacular

An emerged architecture is defined as an architecture that emerges from its context. It’s formal, spatial and tectonic qualities are not the result of an interpretation or poetic comment on the place but a true embodiment of a places material resources, the materials qualities, social, cultural and economic contexts. It also embodies a collective sense of the physical reality of a place and the world through collective and inclusive participation of the spatial and construction processes.

The cities and towns shown in ‘Architecture without Architects’ are architectures of emergence. The Thesis views Peter Zumthors Therm Vals is an architecture of interpretation of place and fetishisation of material and atmosphere. It ignores economic and social contexts in favour of satisfying a phenomenological thesis of architecture. An emerged architecture can satisfy the need for a renewed sense of our embodied condition, the material world and phenomena while engaging economic, environmental and social contexts.

ADD the starting of a new vernacular

Synopsis

Piers

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DEATH IN THE NEW CITY: DEATH OF THE OLD CITY

Alice Hendrie

Charlie Sutherland

modernist territory map #07 - Brussels

Thesis:

The Northern Quarter of Brussels has developed vertically in an evolution synonymous with the late twentieth century Central Business District of the global city. This concentration of modern, high-rise commercial and residential buildings, dubbed “Little Manhattan”, encompasses an area bordered by railway lines, ring roads and a canal. In essence, the very fabric of the infrastructure needed for the successful operation of a world city.

This solid, urban enclave abuts the former National Botanic Gardens, now a much needed green oasis, in direct contrast to the surrounding built environment. The repurposing of Le Botanique into a public park and performance space highlights the requirement to preserve the shrinking natural landscape, which is threatened by the encroachment of expanding urban centres.

This thesis will aim to examine how we reconcile these twin requisites by addressing how we deal with death and remembrance in the new city.

Creating additional conventional cemeteries, crematoriums, and memorial gardens means losing what few unspoiled green spaces remain. By exploiting the built form of the Northern Quarter’s towers, we can connect this to the needs of a growing population and the demand for sanctuary and respite.

A vertical columbarium, or Tower of Solace, would provide an opportunity to firmly plant the urban version of a garden of rest in the heart of the new city. The confident, skyward form of the edifice could acknowledge the inevitability of death and its centrality to life. However, the interior should deliver a respectful, sacred space to receive and store the ashes of loved ones while offering privacy for contemplation. Opening the core of the tower would enable the installation of a central platform lift on which the funeral service will take place; its gradual rise representing the liminal space between life and death.

This thesis aims to sensitively unite the public and private spheres, taking into consideration the civic obligations of the city as well as the diversity of the populace and their philosophical and psychological experience of death and grief.

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THE WAY UP - PRODUCTIVITY AS NECESSITY

Thesis:

Cities have become the predominant form of human habitation as they have facilitated the centralization of goods and services, resulting in increased trade and economic prosperity. However, advancements in understanding the impact of environmental changes and ecosystems in the past 20 years suggest that many of the current environmental issues are linked to the urban way of life and consumption patterns. The concept that defines the interconnection between these factors is known as the ecological footprint of cities. The ecological footprint of an individual is influenced by various factors, including their lifestyle and consumption patterns.

These factors encompass aspects such as the methods used for constructing and inhabiting urban areas, the means of transportation utilised and the extent of travel, the methods of producing and acquiring food, and the manufacturing process of consumer goods. In urban areas, these factors determine the origin of resources for the city and the designated areas for waste disposal and pollution. The thesis discusses how a modern ethical city can be a sustainable model that rely on adaptive reuse approch since the environmental crisis is now primarily driven by the urban environment, with cities being responsible for the majority of the world’s natural resource consumption, pollution, and waste production.

Further to discuss the utilisation of natural resources and incorporate the concept of reuse to create a unified society that values and respects these resources. It is crucial to educate the younger generation about responsible, ethical consumption and re-tie people to the nature and appreciate these resources.

Lamees Hikmat Graeme Massie

modernist territory map #16 - Bd Roi Albert II 32, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium - Modernist Territory

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SEWING BRUSSELS’ PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTUREA CELEBRATION OF TEXTILE IN BRUSSELS

Fok Tong Jenna Ho

Stacey Phillips

industrial territory map #10 - Quai de l’Industrie 79, 1080 Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Brussels

Thesis:

Throughout the history of Brussels, the relationship between the city, its canals, and textile production has been closely intertwined. With a textile production tradition dating back to the Middle Ages and its strategic location on major trade routes, Brussels became a hub for the production and sale of textiles. The city’s network of canals played a vital role in the transportation of raw materials and finished products, enabling the textile industry to thrive.

However, by the end of World War II, urban manufacturing had taken up much of the city’s space, and the once vibrant textile industry in Brussels had declined significantly. The thesis aims to investigate and explore with the architectural language of weaving in architecture, and stitching together the past, present, and future of the Brussels textile industry. The goal is to create a space that reflects and honors the history and culture of the local community, celebrate and present exhibits and weaving technologies from different periods of Brussels’ textile industry, and bring this part of Brussels’s history back into the spotlight.

By integrating historical narratives into the architecture design of the Project, the hope is to create a space that is both informative and visually stunning. The design approach emphasizes the use of innovative and interactive design elements, with a focus on the integration of the building’s form and collection, while also drawing attention to textile pollution and sustainable fashion. As a museum in the capital of the European Union, hoping this project could create significant impact and promote positive change.

AND FUTUREBRUSSELS

city, its canals, and textile production dating back to the Middle Ages and its for the production and sale of textiles. transportation of raw materials and finished prod-

taken up much of the city’s space, and significantly. The thesis aims to investigate architecture, and stitching together the past, create a space that reflects and honors present exhibits and weaving technologies part of Brussels’s history back into the

the Project, the hope is to create a approach emphasizes the use of innovaintegration of the building’s form and collection, fashion. As a museum in the capital of impact and promote positive change.

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BOUNDARYLESS

Thesis:

Eunyoung Jang

Thomas Woodcock

historic territory map #12 - Marollen, Brussels

This project aims to unite people and provide a space for language training. Linguistic diversity is a hot topic in Belgium, which had a language law in the 60s. Divisions over language often pit different language communities against each other. Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is officially French and Flemish bilingual. Brussels is a diverse city, with 30% of its inhabitants being non-Belgians, and it still receives migration from all over the world. As a result, many speakers of other languages besides the official language exist.

These migrants speak the official Belgian language outside and their language at home. The less affluent and less educated migrant groups mainly settle in the pentagonal areas around the city centre, where house prices and rents are lower. In particular, the Marolles neighbourhood, where the site is located, is a historically immigrant neighbourhood with a high level of linguistic conflict. The neighbourhood is home to many families and children. However, according to an analysis of birth certificates by an open-edition journal, around 28% of children are born into families where their parents do not have an earned income. This background is likely to contribute to educational inequality.

To combat this, the Language Learning Centre is built, an educational space where families can learn together, sharing Belgian languages and their cultures. Under the theme Boundaryless, the space focuses on eliminating invisible boundaries, discrimination and prejudice through language and cultural fusion. It will be a space that encourages meeting different people, builds a creative culture, learns about community customs, expands the values of diversity and equality, and promotes a community culture of mutual understanding. The space’s programme comprises cultural outreach, Community, and Education.

Through an architectural space that can embrace diversity, children can learn about various cultural experiences from an early age, ensuring the cultural life of the culturally marginalised and the general public. Promote the cultural welfare of the population by placing cultural facilities such as libraries, galleries and performance venues. For Brussels, lacking in nature, parks are maintained, and the lower and upper spaces formed by elevated buildings are freely available for use so that more communities can be formed in more spaces.

Language skills are fundamental in life and employment. In the multiethnic and multilingual neighbourhood of Marollen, a language learning centre is provided to ensure that residents have equal opportunities and that there are no inequalities based on language. In Brussels’s multilingual and multicultural environment, it offers training in various national and frequently spoken languages.

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THE ENGAGEMENT OF HISTORY

Thesis:

Daniah Kamil

Graeme Massie

modernist territory map #18 - Brussels

The heart of Europe, a study that explores ideas relating to the engagement of history, Architecture and nature by restablishing an identity instead of creating one, this thesis will use the existing site and connect to the long history of Brussels of hosting several key EU organisations in its European Quarter, Brussels (Belgium) is regarded as the de facto headquarters of the European Union. Brussels is home to the offices of the European Commission, Council of the European Union, and European Council, as well as one of the European Parliament’s two official locations. Brussels is at the crossroads of the Frenchspeaking, Dutchspeaking and a host of foreign-speaking cultures. The Belgian capital is not only a melting pot of Frenchand Dutch-speaking cultures but Brussels is home to the European Union and NATO, Belgium has been influenced by the French, Dutch, Austrian, and Spanish, making it a unique combination of cutting edge and traditional cultures.

It is hypothesized that with relevant research and informed planning the proposal is to establish a space where historical and cultural knowledge is primarily presented. Celebrating brussels trilingual identity and its multi-cultural society. Brussels has always been known for being a green city. About 50% of the land is covered in vegetation, however the the distribution of green space amongst the communes is uneven and private gardens make up 30% of the green spaces, but are virtually non-existent in the city’s heart, which is almost entirely covered in concrete cobblestones, pavement, and roofing. A landscape can evoke expectations and a promise for a society. Particular landscape can create certain emotions and helps reshape society understanding themselves and their r relationship with the land and nature. The ethical city’s approach is celebrating and respecting Brussels as the de facto headquarters of the European Union, experiencing the landscape and the dramatic change in light, atmosphere and identity in each EU country through Architecture.

The will key facto Commission, European is not to the Austrian,

It is establish brussels being of green green concrete promise understanding approach Union, each

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STREET AS URBAN THEATRE

Thesis:

The architectural stage set represents space, time, and movement, depicting life on streets. Old familiar locations, memories, and anecdotal spaces can be traced through the movement of people. The scale of 21st century commercial landscape was once unified with the car, however, the overdevelopment of buildings for private use decimated the humanistic experience of our streets. Urban repair is required to reintroduce the Polypolis; removing monofunctional composition, adjusting the scale of existing buildings and repurposing in between spaces.

The Noli Map represents the basic condition of urbanism – public, private and figural space. Modernist skyscrapers housing private business in comparison to the space of the Noli, is anti-space, and anti-urban. In order to support the humanistic experience of public spaces, civic spaces must be created to enable the architectural stage set to support its local communities and therefore creating an active urban theatre.

Holistic urban design tactics should be implemented to support civic requirements. Historic strategies should be integrated to suit contemporary living and include:

1) The carpet: representing the street landscape and becomes the stage set; the floor weaves people through and includes the square – a moment of pause and respite. Where urban infill is required:

2) Poche spaces, cloisters and carved volumes represent the serve and servant spaces that support a mix use district.

3) The loggia establishes pace and perception of time through public spaces and is detrimental to regaining the working public spaces from private enterprise.

The archetype of the various urban repair tactics works as the mediator for readjustment of scale. It is a space that measures, frames, and blurs the threshold of public and private. It represents a rebalance of power, from private enterprise to public space for the people. It is more than just civic streetscape and explores the expression of an urban room. The movement of people through an architectural promenade can be seen as a spiritual preparation for the civic spaces the corridor connects with.

The perception of public promenade through street as existing is challenged in the modernist territory. The conversion of the private corridor to public promenade provides an opportunity to explore the architectural perception of time through the district, recalibrating its scale and providing architectural devises that support its communities. The threshold and reconnection to city is to be tested as it defines a new public space that influences the local texture of the city and its connection to civic spaces.

Maria Kinash

Charlie Sutherland

modernist territory map #08 - Brussels

MSA Stage 5

Thesis Design Report Kinash, Maria 2022 / 2023

Street as Urban Theatre

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FUTURE-PROOFING THE FOUNDRY

Thesis:

Linda Ledina

Stacey Phillips

industrial territory map #20 - La Fonderie, Molenbeek, Brussels

“Future-proofing in architecture seeks to extend the life of the historic built environment through the development of sensitive and thoughtful interventions.”

Brian Rich- principal at Seattle’s Richhaven Sustainable Preservation Architecture

Supported by research on modern approaches to heritage preservation and adaptation, this thesis explores the concept of Future-proofing through the industrial architectural spaces of the Foundry “Compagnie des Bronzes“ in Molenbeek, Brussels. The built environment’s life on site is extended through the preservation of existing building fabrics and thoughtful interventions informed by local contexts, the reuse of materials, and the use of new building technologies. The thesis also addresses Brussel’s loss of industry and the impacts on the site that Brusselisation has left in its wake. The proposed changes in the site fabric reverse the negative effects left on the surrounding building fabric through the anticipation of long-term developments and developing methods of adaptation.

A careful reprogramming of the Foundry transforms the spaces into a research and pioneering center for sustainable architectural technologies with small-scale production and craft production spaces. The project serves as a case study for the potential expansion of similar ideas- the return of the industry in cities in more sustainable and active spaces. The local influences from the past, present and possible future form the materiality and tectonic approaches, this concept of the passage of time in architecture reveals itself in the connections and interactions between the old and new, solid and void, light and dark. These revealed building structures and connections also showcase to the visitors the inherent beauty in deterioration and building in alignment with the site-specific contexts.

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THE COMMUNITY ENCLAVE

Thesis:

Climate change, covid-19 lockdowns and working from home have affected the social life of most people. There ia need of a place that helps to improve the mental well being of society.

Foods and drinks are one of the ingredient for people to gather and interact to improve the ethical behaviour during time of difficulty. To serve this purpose, a building bringing the neighbourhood communities together can help to bolstered relationship among them.

This community enclave, due to site parameters, is design on a small scale in comparison to a normal community centre. This enclave is a place where people comes to drinks and eat, a place where residents nearby can participate in activities such as an open market selling goods, physical exercise or just to learn about cooking and cultivation of greens. The project is located at a corner of the road juction, it is in the area of Marrolles which is a historical site.

A beer processing centre is included in the design because the history of the area shows it is a beer producing area in the past. The design started with a 2 floors beer centre at the junction. This building is supported by beer bars serving fresh beer to the locals. A small exhibition area on the ground floor, exhibit the local history of it and also how beer is made. The bar drinking area is design to view from the upper floor into the beer production process and this enhance the drinking atmosphere.

Other facilities such as restaurants and café are located in other buildings next to the beer building. These facilities in separate buildings are accessible on the ground and upper floor through open terraces. The building includes a cooking studio for the community to learn about food. As the main beer building is at the junction, the other facility buldings are positioned flanking the main building on both sides. This created an enclave for the garden. The privacy of this public garden encourage physical activities away from the public roads. A sheltered open market next to the garden invite more visitors to the place. While the building’s ground floor is connected by the garden space, the upper floor is also connected by an open terrace garden. Furthemore, an urban farming area is located on upper floor and its produce is supply to the restaurants.

The height of the building is designed low so as not to obstruct the view of the apartment next to it. The existing residential apartment with its raised up car park platform can be converted into a green space. The building’s façade is constructed of bricks and external floor of cobble stones while the open terrace is of limestone slabs, common materials in Brussels. Scale of this project serve the public well being without prohibitive cost.

Jay Lee

Miranda Webster

historic territory map #06 - Marollen, Brussels

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MANUFACTURING AND COLLAGE

Thesis:

Wai Hei Leung

Jonny Fisher

industrial territory map #04 - Ninoofsepoortpark, Molenbeek, Brussels

Manufacturing, we all know its name. Our lives are basically made up of products made through manufacturing. Our life seems to be closely related to it. But is this the truth? Manufacturing is an integral part of our human culture. It’s also an important hero in the development of many cities such as Brussels, Glasgow, Hong Kong, etc. But do people really still think of it as a hero these days? Because of the changing of times, it was forced with no choice but to leave the city it belonged to. However, in recent years, some people have begun to be aware and rethink the importance of manufacturing in cities.

The thesis asks how manufacturing should be reintroduced in today’s well developed 21st century cities. As the development of cities will not stop, manufacturing space within the cities will only continue to be compressed under the narrative which is lack of foresight and in-depth understanding. There is a great need for a place that can reconnect manufacturing, the city, and the people in the city.

This thesis aims to make a manufacturing building become a new civic place by utilizing textile recycling and fashion design as a tool together with the existing Ninoofesepoort Park. Learning from old textile mills and manufacturing buildings, and also new findings from researchers, it proposes a new typology that emphasis transparency, accessibility and integration of manufacturing building.

Creating a sense of showcasing, display, exhibition, fun by incorporating fa ade with varies degrees of transparency and together with a multiple levels promenade throughout the building and touching the landscape allows increased connectivity and involvement between manufacturing, the city, and the people.

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LANDSCAPE OF ENCOUNTERS

Thesis:

Bethany Lim

Charlie Sutherland

modernist territory map #09 - Parc Boulevard Roi Albert II, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Brussels

My thesis seeks to explore communal transaction and interaction, by creating a place of encounters through shared purpose and resources – moving away from the idea of consumerism. Learning from typologies like the people’s palace and la maison du peuple, it aims to challenge the notion of storage as a personal, singular entity and seeks to revert it to its origins, a communal facility. It adapts from storage and food typologies, creating plurality in programme for the mono-programmed district.

The thesis suggests spatial layout and programmes as tools that will foster social encounter. It investigates boundaries and thresholds between private and public as well as explore systems that will feed into the ‘social’ plinth. The adaptive re-use of a skyscraper and incorporation of circularity of building materials and design is explored within the thesis, with considerations for adaptable spatial arrangements and structures for future changes.

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MIDORI - KINTSUGI (GREEN - GOLDEN REPAIR) SCARS HEALED USING THE PRINCIPLES OF KINTSUGI

Zachary MacPhearson

Thomas Woodcock

historic territory map #02 - Marollen, Brussels

Thesis:

Kintsugi (“golden joinery”), also known as Kintsukuroi (“golden repair”), is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage using lacquer mixed with gold. The mentality behind this type of repair is to not try to hide the imperfections or areas of brakeage but to celebrate them as something that after going through a process can be made functional and beautiful once again. Whilst in Brussels I learned of how the railway, the subway, motorway and various architectural interventions “scared” the city there are also social and economic divides that seem to mar the city. The thesis therefore looks at Brussels as a fractured city, the first part of my research is to identify areas of breakage and how they impact the city. Kintsugi becomes the research driver, and the project seeks to fill, join or mend the identified scars by testing the impact of biophilic design in order to bring people together in a way that improve mental health. It is well documented that many inhabitants within city’s suffer from a lack of access to green spaces, which has a direct impact on mental wellbeing and mental health. This thesis is not, therefore looking at biophillic design for the sake of biophillic design or as an astatic but more as a deign parameter which can help to repair mend and bring together community’s in a way that is beneficial both to the individuals mental health, but also in creating social cohesion in a way that moves towards making Brussels a more ethical city.

Finally the built industry accounts for “39% of global energy related carbon emissions: 28% from operational emissions, from energy needed to heat, cool and power them, and the remaining 11% from materials and construction” – World green building Council. The thesis addresses this fact by using principles of circular economy, whole life building deign and sustainable design performance design with a preference of passive or passive house strategies. The climate emergency is likely the biggest threat facing humanity and architects must change the way in which we design and create buildings, as there is no future in the business as usual mentality of the past. Any project needs to address its environmental impact to be considered ethical. Failure to do so is either cognitive dissonance or simply morally devoid.

breakage, scar.

Japanese art mixed with or areas process can be railway, there are looks at breakage project seeks order documented that has a looking deign way that is in a way emissions: 28% and the The thesis deign and house architects future in the environmental

such as those implored by various shops and people inhabiting the historic territory specifically the market on Pl. du Jeu. Because the project is a master plan, all of these programs would be possible however I will focus on some to design in more detail.

Architecturally the thesis is interested in utilising underused spaces or “scars” in an adaptive reuse or parasitic architecture way, in order to create a new architectural language of inclusivity, community, learning and gathering. This reflects the need to use less and both the architecture and the program. Specifically the site of interest will be the railway as it emerges Église Notre-Dame de la Chapelle through to Gare du Midi and will create an architectural interaction. It I imagined that a new station entrance and programmatically complex mixer project would happen around Bruxelles-Chapelle station and a highline green space/park would stretch to Gare du Midi where further architectural buildings are proposed.

Architectural influences are: Jane Jacobs, Richard Sennett, Buckminster

Nicholas

Zachary MacPherson Kintsugi

Image of Kintsugi repaired pot

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LIVING HARMONIOUSLY WITH WATER

Kamila Mamatow

Jonny Fisher

Prince’s Dock, Glasgow

Thesis:

Rivers, the veins of the countries carrying life in the form of water and all the desired transportable goods. For Glasgow in particular, its river Clyde can be said to have breathed life into the city. as after increasing its navigability the city’s commerce and industries flourished attracting a bigger part of today’s population. The vast changes in the environmental and social fabric of the Clyde included the deepening of the riverbed and the razing of

existing communities along the banks. These led lo negative consequences such as amplified incoming tides and population displacement linked to disenfranchisement and impoverishment around the Govan district of Glasgow. still clearly evidenced in sociological studies of today. Current data available on the climate emergency puts one in six homes in the UK at risk of flooding due to rising sea levels and increased rainfalls. a number expected to double by 2050. Due to this fact. the RIBA is pushing the government to take action. by making the water management issue an official priority on the nation vis-a-vis the global agenda.

The main attempt of this investigation and resulting design proposal is in response to the above-described contexts taking place in Glasgow itself and as part of the larger UK-wide response to the climate crisis. The proposal seeks to embrace the river as an integral part of city design. and prototype a new typology of harmonious living with water. This theme will condense in the scheme for “Water Sanctuary”, where people and water will come together to immerse themselves in the process of mutual healing. The main aspiration is to instil respect for nature and improve the well-being of the bruised population of Govan that was, like Clyde, affected by the world’s insatiable hunger for more.

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RUE DU PEUPLE RECLAIMING THE VACUUMS OF EMPTINESS

Kirsty Mann

Miranda Webster

historic territory map #10 - The Palais du Justice Basement Plinth, Brussels

Thesis:

The modern city has an array of issues to contend with; an increasing population, the climate crisis, a cost of living crisis and increasing privatisation of public land and facilities. In the city of Brussels there is a large demand for space, while there are many vacant, unused spaces in the city. Places in the city where people can meet and linger without commercial expectation have been in decline. Thus, they are more important than ever.

This thesis examines the importance of public space, the question of ownership, and how successful public spaces can activate and contribute to their local communities. The district of les Marolles lies in Brussel’s southwest. It’s loomed over by the presence of the Palais du Justice. Marolles streets share a border with the Palias basement plinth.

This thesis enquires into the empty basement plinth of the Palais by drawing upon the work of Jane Jacobs, her understanding of ‘border vacuums’ and her writings on the importance of the activation of the city street. Furthermore, it recognizes the palais plinth as a “border vacuum”, transforming it into an active public space through architectural intervention, which engages with the local community by implementing a publicly owned and community-serving program. This will be achieved by provoking a community land buyout of the plinth, gifting the space to the community of Marolles. This enables a new program opportunity of the plinth to emulate the lost social typology of the Maison du Pueple, which was taken from the local community with its destruction in 1966.

The activation of an exciting site is a rebut to the trend of Brusselisation, which destroyed the building. The new program establishes a vibrant internal public space that activates its adjacent streets, establishing an animated streetscape, where people can linger without commercial expectation. Multiple interventions, such as light wells and new openings on the plinth façade, establish visual connections between the street and the plinth’s interiors, showcasing its activities.

‘It then becomes a seam rather than a barrier, a line of exchange along which two areas are sewen together.’- Jane Jacobs

with; an increasing populaincreasing privatisation of publarge demand for space, city. Places in the city where expectation have been in de-

the question of ownership, contribute to their local comsouthwest. It’s loomed over streets share a border with

of the Palais by drawing ‘border vacuums’ and her city street. Furthermore, it transforming it into an active which engages with the local community-serving program. buyout of the plinth, gifting a new program opportuof the Maison du Pueple, destruction in 1966.

of Brusselisation, which a vibrant internal public an animated streetscape, expectation. Multiple interventions, façade, establish visual conshowcasing its activities. exchange along which two

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DIVERSIFYING THE HIGH-RISE

Thesis:

Nancy Marrs

Charlie Sutherland

modernist territory map #02 - Brussels

Brussels is the world’s second most diverse city. Where the majority (over 70%) of the population originate from outside of Belgium, 108 nationalities co-exist, 108 different languages are spoken and over 3 languages are formally recognised across the city; making Brussels a world leader of multiculturalism.

We are often drawn to inhabiting space with people who share the same culture, way of life and language. In Brussels this has led to different communities inhabiting specific areas of the metropolis, encouraging a somewhat segregated society where both manmade and intangible boundaries visibly draw the line between different communities within the city.

This design proposal will capitalise on the vacant space currently present in the WTC III high-rise tower, transforming the 70,000sqm of unused infrastructure into a space which can be reclaimed by a community. The scheme and community who will inhabit the high-rise structure will celebrate Brussels diversity.

Taking the street as a democratic space within the city, this project uses the Brussels Street typology to form a design proposal. The proposal will take the traditional horizontal street as an exemplar of urban circulation in Brussels to create a vertical streetscape. The street through the building will reflect the compressed nature of programmes, vibrant activity and level of diversity which is unique to the Brussels’ streets.

The arts (theatre, film, art and music) are recognised within the structure as a communicative tool which provide a stage to celebrate different cultures. The users of the building are encouraged to interact at all levels of the building, from Belgian nationals, migrant communities and people who have just entered Brussels.

Designing spaces which are accessible to everyone regarding their culture, language or background is what creates the basis for an ethical city. These space’s allow communities to learn from one another, raise awareness of social disparities and civil imbalances as well as working to eradicate racial stereotypes and promote a more equitable and balanced society.

population spoken of and metropolis, boundaries high-rise reclaimed celebrate typology exemplar will unique tool to who background one eradicate

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PRETEND ITS A CITY

Thesis:

Michael McGoldrick

Graeme Massie

modernist territory map #17 - Parc Boulevard Roi Albert II, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Brussels

This thesis will examine the potential of architecture and urban design to promote social interaction and community integration among diverse and segregated populations in Brussels, drawing inspiration from Rem Koolhaas’s concept of the “culture of congestion” in “Delirious New York”. Through a critical analysis of historical and contemporary design strategies, including the case studies of MVRDV’s Hanover Pavilion, and Rem Koolhaas’ Seattle Central Library, this thesis will explore both the successes and failures of how the manipulation of density can foster chance encounters and cultural exchange among individuals from different backgrounds and communities.

The thesis will propose, through the use of mass timber construction as an architectural technology, a design framework that centres around enhancing social intensity, challenging traditional spatial distinctions, creating a sense of shared space and place, and fostering opportunities for unplanned activities and encounters. The thesis will also critically evaluate the impact of the Manhattan Project in Brussels and highlight the challenges and failures of the project. Jane Jacobs’ ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’ will also be evaluated with her community-based approach to city planning.

The thesis will argue that while architecture and urban design can play a crucial role in promoting an inclusive and equitable city, it is important to consider the social, cultural, and economic factors that shape interactions among people. It will also stress the importance of community participation and engagement in shaping the urban environment, and will propose strategies for involving community members in the construction process to foster a sense of ownership, community development and address the issues such as displacement, loss of cultural identity and social segregation. The thesis will conclude by emphasizing the importance of designing for the people who live in the city, and the potential of architecture and urban design to promote social cohesion and integration among diverse populations while addressing the challenges and failures of past projects.

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ADAPTIVE RE-USE OF INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE

Ilias Muckli

Jonny Fisher

industrial territory map #17 - old abbatoir, Anderlecht Brussels

Thesis:

With adaptive re-use of industrial heritage as a main focus, this thesis will first explore the making of the dense district and the changing relationships between man and nature, before focusing on the current problems raised by the Anderlecht Abattoir on an urban scale. It will then lead to a proposal making use of the industrial building and the site’s potential to once again be at the centre of production in a way that is fitting with the ethical city, and does not forget the benefits of considering nature in the design of urban spaces. The project will utilise water (which hasbeen a problem on the site), as a way to reconnect citizens with eachother and act as a relief from the dense city.

The thesis is therefore driven by the site and its history, and uses the programme of markets and production to imagine the site as a social and economic destination again.

Urban Permeability through the opening up of a former mono-use industrial site, as well as creating connections in the dense neighborhood. My initial interest in urban permeability took the form of identifying and opening up industrial sites of interest, and further developed into creating further physical permeability by allowing the industrial valley of Brussels to once again act as a sponge to relieve the dense neighborhood of problems cause by floods.

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SYNECDOCHE, MOLENBEEK

Thesis:

Reece Oliver

Stacey Phillips

industrial territory map #08 - Molenbeek, Brussels

Synecdoche, Molenbeek explores the surrealism of cinematic architecture in the context of Molenbeek’s post-industrial ‘non-landmarks’.

Molenbeek is historically linked with the birth of cinema in Belgium, - the country’s first film studios were commissioned here by Pathé Bros. in the early 1900s. A history of Molenbeek’s architectural contexts are examined, concluding how post-industrial development has disfigured the socio-cultural identity of the area. The thesis sites itself on the largest area of post-industrial development in the district, representing a significant opportunity for Molenbeek to reclaim its cultural presence in Brussels and redefine its future.

Juhani Pallasmaa’s ‘Architecture and Image’ defines the relationship between architecture and cinema as ‘a fantastical architecture suspended between dreaming and reality’. This theory is illustrated in the surrealist structures of Charlie Kaufman’s ‘Synecdoche, New York’, which have inspired the proposal. Synecdoche is defined as ‘a part of something which represents its whole’ - this concept is embodied through the platform of film representing multi-cultures within the ethical city, thus spawning the title of the thesis.

The area of investigation, Molenbeek, is Brussels’ most culturally diverse neighbourhood. It is labelled as a ‘hub of extremism’ due to ties with terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015. There is a growing isolation of cultures between the residents of Molenbeek and the city of Brussels, presenting ethical issues of social injustice and cultural prejudice.

The thesis aims to bring this social injustice to light by providing a centre for film production and screenings to showcase the multi-cultures in Molenbeek. Through this platform, the thesis presents surrealist representations of architecture in film and establishes Synecdoche as a concept to represent Molenbeek’s socio-cultural identity.

‘For

John Locke An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689)

a place to be truly ethical, there is a human need for unity and understanding’

‘synecdoche’

a part of something which represents its whole

synecdoche,

The

synecdoche, molenbeek

The image (left) shows the inversion of scale the full scale replica of New York. The warehouse houses the play of everyday right, as part of the film set. Scale, complexity result in a form of architectural cinema which

set explores the temporal and spatial structures surrealism can be used to re-define the identity

new york surrealist architecture of cinema

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COMIC AS AN REFLECTION TO REALITY

Tingyu Ouyang

Charlie Sutherland

modernist territory map #05 - Brussels

Thesis:

The point of existence of art is not to influence real life. Animation is not ashamed of its inability to influence real life directly, because it is spiritual culture.

Excellent art works create commercial value while gaining social influence. These art works either glorify beautiful things or satirize the ugly sides, and in many situations emphasizing values to the public. .

Among them, films, plays, comics and other art forms with scene transformation as their main expression are inextricably linked to architecture, as Juliana Bruno once mentioned, “Architectural space, like film, constructs anatomical moving images, living spaces and dynamic trajectories of living narratives.”

As film is a spatialized narrative, architecture is a narrativized space, and so is the relationship between comics and architecture, where the change and progression of each frame to another narrates through the organization of the tandem space, and in the process, time gains meaning through narrative.

‘The Adventures of Tintin’, a comic book that has influenced the world for more than a century, was born in Brussels, and it is a work with the right values to inspire, like many other comics.

In this Thesis, I will try to use ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ as a backdrop to create an inspiring archive Centre that also functions as a community center, hoping that it will serve as a medium to connect ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ with the real world, using cinematic architecture theory to amplify the influence of ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ on people’s values.

This thesis’s proposition believes that the creations of the spiritual world do not directly influence the material world. The only thing that can influence the real world is the matter that exists in the real world. But comics or other art forms can influence a person spiritually, or one’s values, and the behavior of people influenced by the spiritual level can influence the reality world, which is also an important research direction of film architecture.

COMIC

The point of existence directly, because

Excellent art works things or satirize

Among them, films, inextricably linked anatomical moving

As film is a spatialized architecture, where tandem space, ‘The Adventures and it is a work In this Thesis, I functions as a community the real world, using values.

This thesis’s proposition The only thing that forms can influence can influence the

Section 01 - Thesis statement

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ART FACTORY

Thesis:

Daumantas Patamsis

Charlie Sutherland

modernist territory map #10 - Proximus Towers, Boulevard du Roi Albert II 27, 1030 Bruxelles

Brussels is a well know city of culture in local and international art scene. Thus the rich and diverse cultural context of the city has prompted me to further investigate the way the art scene functions in the post pandemic present context.

Since the 90s. when digital art has rapidly taken over the world and especially now everyone using computers for art production the idea of what is the role of a physical studio needs to be reimagined.

Further research has prompted me to define 4 functions of contemporary studio, it being a space of making, showcasing, exchange of knowledge, and community.

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RISING FROM EARTH: A WELLNESS CENTER TOWER INSPIRED BY NATURE’S FORM

Wiktoria Pelczynska

Charlie Sutherland

modernist territory map #06 - Bd Simon Bolivar 30, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium

Thesis:

The foreseen extreme weather conditions and atmospheric phenomena present apparent obstacles and potentials for the built environment. A critique against the passive, hermetic environment of many contemporary buildings, this proposition is an architectural playground, spatializing climatic, weather and seasonal conditions for an all-around wellness centre. Through merging distinct programs of a multifunctional performance hall, market spaces, restaurants, group meditation, day spa and long-stay reflection retreat, the proposition challenges existing programmatic and cultural frameworks towards a sitespecific, ecological response to the wellness scene and cultural identity of Brussels.

The response is formed by taking a position on a distinction between the public and private realm that develops further into creating a transition between the city and solitary retreat. A range of scenarios is tested through a journey starting with public markets and on-street gallery spaces through to spiritual retreats. The distinction is made through a subtle entrance into a courtyard that takes the visitor into a series of gardens across 4 levels. The link is then developed further through a public restaurant and fitness suite through to a day spa. This is followed by group meditation spaces, a thermal experience, a long-stay retreat and a stepping well at roof level.

The theme of wellness is then tested by filtering down from a busy urban environment to peaceful spaces that are important to well-being. A design of a climate and light filtering facade supports the internal spaces with versatile environments that are program specific and include strategies such as; passive ventilation, water harvesting and winter gardens to create a healthy environment and break from the city.

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STITCHING THE CITY

Thesis:

Mia Pinder Hussein

Charlie Sutherland

modernist territory map #04 - Brussels

If the nature of architecture is the grounded, the fixed, the permanent, then textiles are its very antithesis. If, however, we think of the process of building and the process of weaving and compare the work involved, we will find similarities despite the vast difference in scale [....] The essentially structural principles that relate the work of building and weaving could form the basis of a new understanding between the architect and the inventive weaver. New uses of fabrics and new fabrics could result from a collaboration; and textiles, so often no more than an after-thought in planning might take place again as a contributing thought. - Anni Albers

The textiles industry is steeped in practices of exploitation and intense environmental extraction. By reframing the industry through the lens of sustainable social and environmental practices, this thesis explores how these ideas might lend themselves to the creation of spaces centred around textiles innovation, joy and community knowledge sharing. Rooting its practices in the ethical resourcing of materials, ethical labour and the sharing of knowledge to foster community and redefine an industry that has historically relied on the suffering of working class women of colour. Architecturally expressed through textiles as both building material and also architectural inspiration, this thesis explores the intersection of architecture and textiles within the Northern Quarter.

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URBAN PALIMPSEST

Thesis:

John Pottage

Charlie Sutherland

modernist territory map #01 - Northern Quarter, land extending from Rue de Brabant to the Gare Maritime.

This thesis explores the potential of using palimpsest as a tool to analyse and understand the unsustainable legacy of modernist planning principles in Brussel’s Northern Quarter, with a view to identifying key urban conditions that have been lost, and strategically intervening to establish productive, sustainable, and ethical urbanism in the district. Ultimately, creating a methodology that can be used to rehabilitate other problematic modernist districts in the future.

A palimpsest analysis focuses on a strategic East-West strip of the district, and proposes the restoration of a historic thoroughfare to re-connect the district to the wider city. Unsustainable modernist buildings are viewed as valuable repositories of component artefacts that can be re-arranged as a palimpsest to create new thriving streetscapes. A disused modernist building is re-imagined as a mixed-use street bridge, creating an urban pathway over a railway embankment on the district’s Eastern edge, re-connecting the Northern Quarter to the neighbouring district of Schaerbeek. Remaining reclaimed components are used to construct the new street as it continues West to connect with Molenbeek, with three key urban themes identified along its route, each derived from an urban palimpsest analysis: stone, earth & water.

As an anthithesis of dogmatic modernist planning principles, this approach is rooted in history and local context, restoring the Northern Quarter’s lost identity. Thereby establishing ethical urbanism that nuture a diverse range of economic activities, providing opportunity and accommodation for the inhabitants of Brussels in 2023.

unsustainable identifying key urban and ethical problematic restoration of buildings are palimpsest to create bridge, creating the Northern to construct identified along history and local that nuture inhabitants of

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REINVENTING THE URBAN BLOCK

Ketmanee Prabkhonchua

Stacey Phillips

industrial territory map #05 - Molenbeek, Brussels

Thesis:

The thesis explore the feasibilty of placing a public building on an exisitng urban block in an attempt to reinvent and give the urban space a new purpose that allows for multi-functional use whilst also exploringthe timber structure of Glulam.

The programe chosen to explore the thesis isa market hall. Situated onthe public andouter edge of Kokelberg/ Molenbeek the nature of the site allows for the proposal to be visable to the public. Molen-beek and Brussels open air market are very common and popular and often cost less than supermarket prices. The city devote specific day in the week to host theirmarkets. The market canhelp capture and celebrate the many cultures of Molenbeek. Whilst the main function is a markethall, the structure of the proposal consist of curtain walling that warps the front elevation of the building. This could be removed in the future whilst the main Glulam structure provides the roof canopy. The proposal incoporate a rooftop usable space that isopen to the public and can be used as a garden/growingspace which helps promote an active neighbourhood.

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BRUSSELS BRICOLAGE

Thesis:

Charlotte Randall

Jonny Fisher

industrial territory map #16 - La Fonderie, Molenbeek, Brussels

It’s now or never, if we want to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, it will be impossible.

IPCC, 2022

Maintenance has taken on new resonance as a theoretical framework, an ethos, a methodology, and a political cause.

Shannon Mattern, Maintenance and Care, 2018

Building construction and operation produces 38% of global carbon emissions, and much of this is from the release of embodied carbon during demolition. To avoid the carbon costs of demolition, a culture of makedo is needed; encompassing retrofit, repair, and strategic additive interventions.

Anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss describes the bricoleur as a pragmatist who makes do with whatever is at hand to reach their goal. This thesis translates this concept into an architecture and programme which uses existing structures and local materials and rejects unnecessary demolition and waste.

This results in an informal assemblage of programmes, materials, spaces and things which come together to create a vibrant and multifaceted cultural centre.

warming to 1.5°C. reductions across all sectors, theoretical political cause.

Care, 2018

38% of global carbon embodied carbon during a culture of make-do is additive interventions.

describes the bricoleur as a to reach their goal. This programme which uses unnecessary demolition and programmes, materials, vibrant and multifaceted

Oxford University Press. Care. Places, November.

Repair Cultures. Flow, and the Corporate Tulane Journal of https://journals.tulane.edu/TIP/article/

Speculative Ethics in More than

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MARCHE LA FONDRIE ; L’INSTITUTE AGRICOLE

Thesis:

Jonny Fisher

This design thesis explores the mutation of the city and architecture. Since Brussels was founded, it has existed through continual change and adaptation. As diverse cultures from different places have blended together, Sometimes It bloomed with miraculous monuments, sometimes It also faced decadence through wrong decisions or inevitable disasters. Even though its urban fabric is not perfectly organised and its new buildings are not aesthetically pleasing, the people and their architects constantly endeavour to figure out their own meanings in the deformed pearl rather than staying in the remembrance of things past.

Molenbeek-St-Jean: the western neighbourhood in Brussels, is the prime example of its mutation. Molenbeek, established by European immigrants, functioned as the heart of Brussels’ industry in the 19th century; however, since the 1980s, it lost its function, and those who established its identity left the neighbourhood with modest and poorly maintained brick residential units and large abandoned factory buildings. New immigrants from Africa or Arab countries having no cultural or ethnic affinity just settled in Molenbeek with the hope of having a better life. It is the ripe moment to write a new story on the old palimpsest.

This project on the foundry site in the heart of Molenbeek: a semi-derelict 19th-century metal workshop, shall introduce the new direction where Molenbeek shall go, with the agricultural institute and food&spice market. This proposal aims to declare the new function: Brussels’ City Farm. Through this new identity, a diverse mix of people and activities can be created to solve the current marginalised atmosphere. The contemporary timber structure accentuates the interference and intertwining between old industrial units and the new building, which reflects on today’s people.

This thesis seeks to determine how architecture can position itself within the paradox between historical continuity and the existential discontinuity of individuals in today’s Molenbeek.

Taeyoung Ro

industrial territory map #14 - La Fonderie, Molenbeek, Brussels

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TIE THE KNOT: CONNECTING DISTRICTS

Myia Robinson

Stacey Phillips

industrial territory map #13 - Ninoofsepoortpark, Molenbeek, Brussels

Thesis:

Among Brussels’ nineteen municipalities, the following proposal sits in the cities Industrial district on an urban knot between ‘Molenbeek’, ‘Anderlecht’ and ‘The city of Brussels’ - otherwise known as the administrative centre of the European Union. This opportunistic placement aims to tie the knot from one district to the other - infiltrating current physical & economic divisions and social presumptions to create a stronger social unity and identity, city wide.

Geographically the city comprises of compact blocks consisting of five metre plot sizes, to which allows for only a minor quantity of green spaces to be intertwined. This project recognises from this urban makeup that there is room for improved efforts towards increasing local biodiversity, providing opportunity for social interaction between municipalities and for the chance of learning about neighbouring communities through these efforts.

This thesis development has been led by iterated drawing methodology, programmatic drivers and with an engagement into personal architectural interests in phenomenological design and organic design. It presents an architectural response to a plethora of urban & social problems and research topics and takes the form of a masterplan proposal that focusses on always relating back to the power of water.

Purposeful navigation design of the building’s organic form and indoor to outdoor relationship to the canal allows the building user to be physically and visually always engaged and grounded in their position on site. In the discussion of building to user engagement, the programme made up from inclusive public spaces also aims to engage in community learning, bathing, and socialising. The proposals ambition of creating a new urban landscape through a physical and programmatically layered concept aims to present itself as a piece of framework towards a more ethical Brussels.

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A LANDSCAPE OF DE-GROWTH

Thesis:

In the Modernist Territory of Brussels the skyline is dominated by a cluster of tall, glass towerblocks. In the financial heart of the city the bustle of the busy capital seemingly shrinks away from the glassy façades. The dwarfing height and scale of the globalised ‘skyscraper’ typology results in a sterile, placeless atmosphere that permeates this axis into the city. Adjacent to this strip of towers are vibrant communities, fragmented by the central void of mono-programmatic office blocks.

The central axis of the financial district is a belt of green space, devoid of activity. Yet, this route is the locus for of many historic layers of Brussels’ past. Once the route of the River Senne, a crucial waterway for the capital it was polluted, covered, reduced to tabula rasa in the modernist upheaval of the area, with the un-realised intention of creating a motorway though this route. This central strip becomes the space for reconnecting dislocated communities. Subverting the towers as symbols of global financial power, which enshrine the goal of constant growth of wealth, the central strip is transformed into an architecture of degrowth.

Architecture for de-growth. Following principles of economic de-growth as an alternative model which suggests lowered consumption and spending on material goods, whilst prioritising social justice and activities which do not generate money (thereby, consume resources). The activities and programmes of the intervention relate to core aspects of degrowth, – education and activism, reuse and recycling, community and social exchange. These become interlinked programmes that introduce a new density and hybridity to the central strip.

The degrowth programmes and uses are unified by a singular roof structure. This green roof forms a new experiential layer to the main strip of the site, a flowing, conceptual landscape. This new layer of the site is a symbolic representation of a collective consciousness towards sustainability and degrowth. A topographical landscape flows out of the skeleton of the Zenith Building (the building at the terminus of the main financial district axis) and offers new vistas of experience. The degrowth programmes distributed act as the main parameter setting the height and shape of the topography. The roof is further defined by circulation, both ‘sub-terranean’ routes that carve out new passages through the site, and above ground circulation through the new landscape – reconnecting the scattered urban fabric through new routes.

Subverting the Tower. This approach re-conceives the office blocks as typologies with diminishing value: the new source of ecological value is in the materials that constitute their physical fabric, being stripped as the main constituent building-blocks for the new de-growth hub; a cradle-tocradle material reuse translates the thesis concept of a . The skeleton of the Zenith building of the tower remains as an urban folly; to be reappropriated, or as a crumbling monument to the folly of constant ‘growth’.

Madeleine Ross

Graeme Massie

modernist territory map #15 - Parc Boulevard Roi Albert II, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Brussels

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EQUITY: CREATING SOCIOECONOMIC AND SOCIAL OPPORTUNITIES IN BRUSSELS

Thesis:

An unavoidable factor evident in most cities is the contrast between those who live in areas of opportunity and those who do not. Often these neglected areas are well populated, have a strong sense of community and yet are lacking in the facilities that differentiates them to the seemingly wealthier population. Considering the urban plans and educational statistics in the Molenbeek territory, I believed this is to being a key starting point in balancing Brussels. Education is not only the provision of a syllabus and structured learning institutions.

In fact, other forms of education usually help an individual to find their purpose, have aspiration, and be motivated to purse an area of interest granted they have the means, resources and facilities to do so. Educational factors in a community effects the economic growth, health outcomes and social cohesion. Molenbeek has a diverse population and it’s time to claim some of the attention that has been focused solely in the pentagon of Brussels. Access to capital, infrastructure and workforce development can help shape this communities economic growth.

The architectural agenda to capture this thesis will be to explore the depth of a block and creating routes through into an educational institute, a theme which parallels the individual journey to self directed growth/ learning.

Considering the layout city blocks, one would find Brussels to have a number of deep blocks which are often left undefined. The idea of exploring beyond what is seen at street level or beyond the ‘shop front’ or getting into those deep blocks became intriguing to me and birthed the idea of drawing a viewer into this deep block, curating different routes/ views, and finding a place that cannot be seen from the street side. The exploration of the block would guide the individual to the various programs provided that would enable them to learn, socialise, grow, teach and work towards improving their quality of life and thus impacting the community.

Semirat Saidi

Stacey Phillips

industrial territory map #09 - Ninoofsepoortpark, Molenbeek, Brussels

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URBAN SCARS

Thesis:

Dorica Eyser Santos

Thomas Woodcock

Glasgow southside, junction of Pollockshaws Road, Eglington Street and the M74

Social Infrastructure is an undermined and important role in developing modern societies. The design and build of physical places that encourage natural interactions increases the chances of communities to be active and grow. This prevents them from being forgotten, and ultimately can positively impact the growth of an ethical city. The development of glasgow’s critical infrastructure, such as the M74 and M8 has led to the gradual diminishing of communities and their social infrastructures. Like a scar, it has cause harm to the area and there needs to be architectural healing.

The library is a prime example of a building with functions that symbolises the different components of good social infrastructure: a place to exchange knowledge, to have natural interactions, to socialise and more importantly, to empower the people. Libraries are more than often free to use, and what is expected from them have inevitably altered because of our changing society.

A 21st library should respond to the needs of the society and community it is based in. My site is based in Glasgow southside’s, Eglinton Toll, where the communities are known to be diverse in race, religion and classes. Indentifying the characteristics of the community and the urban landscape enabled me to develop and design a library that would mediate the relationship between Glasgow’s critical and social infrastructure.

My design thesis centralises around glasgow southside and how infrastructures, such as the M74, has dramatically split the communities. By designing a library underneath the M74, I will be able to emphasise the importance of social Infrastructure and how it should be considered as a solution to heal a significant ‘URBAN SCAR’ within glasgow.

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EXPOSING THE SENNE: RETURN OF THE URBAN BOUNDARY OF BRUSSELS TO ITS CITIZENS

Thesis:

The fortifications of the 17th century delineated the city’s boundaries and acted as a barrier between the upper classes and the commoners, as well as the enemy. The planning design did not transform the severely polluted Seine into a new boulevard with closed ditches as borders and toll booths until the end of the old regime. Unbinding the city from its shackles.

The purpose of the transformation was to create a commercial and business district suitable for a contemporary capital and to enhance living conditions for locals. In reality, the decision was made without consulting the locals, resulting in the destruction of homes and historic communities. Due to the rapid modernization of the city, the development of the north-south railway, tunnels, and motorways eliminated the toll booths’ final physical boundary. The industry progressively disappeared and was replaced by commodities, real estate developers, and office buildings. There is a progressive migration of the working and middle classes.

This paper examines the manner in which boundary spaces reveal the separation of classes in the modern urban renewal process. Whether from the hard boundary of the city walls during the feudal dynasties to the soft boundary of the toll booths, and then from the removal of the last physical barrier to the emergence of new forms of boundary space.

The urban commoner class appears as a marginalised image in history. The design of social space appears to be a technique by which the power class defines and regulates the ‘other’. The purpose of this thesis is to civilianize Brussels’ border space in order to investigate who a city should be constructed to serve. We must find a space that is genuinely for the common man between the intrusive consumerism of commercial self-interest and the authoritarian tendencies of the state bureaucracy. In a manner that preserves the city’s historic border pattern and returns the city and its neighbourhoods to its citizens.

Aiwei Shi

Thomas Woodcock

historic territory map #08 - Marollen, Brussels

barrier design ditches as shackles. district reality, homes development of physical commodities, real working and classes city walls from the space. of social ‘other’. investigate genuinely for self-interest and preserves the citizens.

City Wall

Traditional architecture Demolished

Defence Toll Booths

Demolished

Polluted Coverd as Boulevard

Sewer

Spacious streets

Ring Road

Traffic Congestion

Brusselsisation

Senne River Traffic Buildings

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CELEBRATING TRIVIALITY

Thesis:

Andi Stanuta

Miranda webster

historic territory map #07 - Marollen, Brussels

Brussels has a habit of using built interventions in the city as a way to display power and importance – imposing structures as a tool of city branding and as an outlet for ego. These structures tend to be oversized, intimidating, have a lack of human scale or function, and have resulted in spaces from the past being radically buried. Triviality is a ‘lack of seriousness’, which I am arguing is essential and, in Brussels historically, often overlooked in favour of these types of development.

The Royal Route is a key example of this – large parts of the neighbourhood were removed to make way for these examples of power and wealth that still overlook the entire city and yet lack any kind of relatability. This thesis therefore proposes a route perpendicular to the Royal Route as the anti-thesis of these ideals, signifying a shift in priorities. The route consists of three key sites connected through various tactics.

importance – im to be oversized, past being radically historically, often this – large parts of that still overlook perpendicular to the consists of three key

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MICRO CITY

Thesis:

The scheme repurposes the WTC3 building in Brussels North, adding a new tower to the original, which was erected in an unfinished state in the central area of the North, one of the failed products of Brussels’ post-war Manhattanism. The scheme redesigned the towers from a vertical urban orientation with the aim of adaptively reusing the concept of structural technology: bringing the lost memory and past of Brussels North back to the present, with a vertical design adapted to the future development of climate change. The single function and type of high-rise building has been redesigned to incorporate the local cultural and historical context, giving the high-rise more possibilities.

The existing tower retains its original office function, while incorporating a training centre, hotel and residences. The new vertical city houses the interpersonal functions of Brussels: cinema, theatre, gallery, museum, gym and discotheque. The two towers are connected. The spaces are staggered in different parts of the building and are connected by stairs and projections. The building explores phenomenological theory using specific functional needs and unique experiential qualities, and challenges the conceptual nature of the ‘floor’ through the coccyx.

The resulting building explores the possibilities and sustainability of future skyscraper development, while the multiple functions and spaces within and the indeterminate gaps between functional spaces offer unknown possibilities for spatial interaction and human interaction, emphasising functional crowding + spatial crowding, while creating crowded spaces. The project also draws on Constantine’s architectural grammar of collisional situationalist internal crowding as a response to the homogenisation of the contemporary city and skyscraper. Through this multi-functional design, the building explores the sustainability and development potential of future skyscrapers, while also providing a vibrant, diverse and interactive urban space and future spatial trend that contributes positively to urban sustainability.

Zifan Sun

Graeme Massie

modernist territory map #13 - Brussels, World Trade Centre III

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CONNECTING COMMUNITY AND URBAN FABRIC

Anthony Tognini

Jonny Fisher

industrial territory map #01 - Ninoofsepoortpark, Molenbeek, Brussels

Thesis:

Brussels is the economic capital of Belgium and a top financial centre of western Europe.

The neighbourhood of Molenbeek resides in western Brussels, a short walk from the central tourist area. It is a notoriously poor area, made up predominantly of an immigrant population, with tight narrow streets, and dense urban fabric punctuated by small squares flanked by places of worship, shops and light industry. A large deep canal separates Molenbeek from the centre of Brussels, acting as a barrier keeping the two neighbourhoods distinctly separate.

The thesis seeks to explore an architectural proposition that has the potential to better integrate Molenbeek with the urban fabric of the prosperous centre of the city, and thus bring together a wider variety of people, and hopefully a greater degree of economic and social integration.

The site chosen is a large flat semi derelict park area to the south of Molenbeek, located at a significant entry point into the city from the west intersecting with the canal, tram network and major arterial roads.

The programme for the building will primarily be sport and leisure, providing safe and accessible sports facilities within walking distance of both the city centre and Molenbeek. It will cater for most indoor sports activities, in a range of interesting architectural spaces, each space with its own outlook over the city. The land surrounding the building will be improved, and will incorporate the existing canal, a relic of Brussels industrial past, making it more accessible to the public.

The construction of the building is to be predominantly made from timber, with a primary structure consisting of timber columns and beams / trusses, with the aim of achieving a more sustainable approach to large scale building construction.

The programme for the building will primarily be sport and leisure, providing safe sports facilities within walking distance of both the city centre and Molenbeek. most indoor sports activities, in a range of interesting architectural spaces, each own outlook over the city . The land surrounding the building will be improved, and incorporate the existing canal, a relic of Brussels industrial past, making it more public.

The construction of the building is to be predominantly made from timber, with structure consisting of timber columns and beams / trusses, with the aim of achiev sustainable approach to large scale building construction.

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SANS ÉCHELLE - À TOUTES LES ÉCHELLESWITHOUT SCALE - AT ALL SCALES

Elias Wahlstrom

Miranda Webster

historic territory map #09 - Marollen, Brussels

Thesis:

We are living in a world of mostly plain, simple aesthetic. In the field of architecture, the first realisation of this style was arguably the Steiner House, designed by Adolf Loos in 1910. The boxed shaped building with square windows, plain walls and no ornamentation was the catalyst for rational approach in architecture and thus launched a decree which accelerated quickly through architecture, art and design.

Today this phenomena is strongly evident in commercial design. In the past decade, a majority of big corporations have stripped their logos and image from three dimensionality and brought it to a simpler form. The reason being our habit of scrolling past ads without a second thought. Simpler design is more quickly readable.

But a future shift in the paradigm is evident. Through technological advancement, such as VR, the digital realm will become more immersive and this will lead to more complex design both in the digital and real world.

The final frontier of ornamentation in the past looked into nature for inspiration and this will be the case again. The fractal dimension of nature provides infinite opportunities for complex design, which communicates to us through a primal familiarity.

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DIVERSITY THROUGH TACTILITY

Thesis:

Graeme Massie

modernist territory map #14 - Brussels

Identifying the problem within the urban fabric is poor public thresholds resulting in lack of street life and diversity within the district.

The Thesis aims to generate diversity through tactile qualities of the districts very own natural blue limestone material.

I aim to test the tactile and sensory qualities of the blue limestone through architectural design.

If we give a historic building a connection with the landscape through the materiality, will the landscape naturally accept the building and will the material link with the landscapes indigenous geology and in turn create a natural draw, and sensory connection with the place, leaving the desire to linger and return?

This is aimed to create an anchorage required to generate diversity and well-being to weave and stitch the urban fabric back into the district.

Michael John Watt

Tutor:

Loca on, site:

Michael Graeme

Modernist

Thesis: Identifying street

The Thesis natural I aim to architectural If we im-bed materiality, the landscapes connection This is well-being

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Student:

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PRECARIOUS BRUSSELS

Thesis:

Calum Weir

Jonny Fisher

industrial territory map #12 - Ninoofsepoortpark, Molenbeek, Brussels

Cities are, and always have been, economic opportunities but the inequalities within them is increasing at an unsustainable rate as every part of cities becomes commercialised. The economic and technological changes in cities have led to creation of a new social class, coined the Precariat by Guy standing, this underclass is created with

• Unstable labour - such as temp or zero hours contracts

• Reliance on money for security - no sick leave, holidays or cover and working from home

• Under represented - both in politics and in labour

Both exploitation of labour and cities have created a lot of social problems across our cities and as capitalism finds more ways to exploit more people then more people from a higher social standing will fall into the Precariat.

The proposal between the canal and the historic city centre. This spot has been left and neglected since the old canal dock wasn’t needed for manufacturing as the city pivoted away from this during the globalisation in the 60s and 70s. This spot between the three districts allows me to create building which can serve as an “Urban Breakroom” which stands to represent the workers in a highly used spot within the city as it sits between what is typically viewed today as domestic and labour. I have orientated it to use the canal as extra weight to spread out across the city and to enhance the route the canal creates within the city. The spaces around the building can be used mainly as place to meet and socialise but can also frame and service mass protests and demonstrations which would be visible to the city.

The “urban breakroom” part of this will include a food court, vertical street, accessible washroom facilities and places to go when they aren’t working. These immediate comforts all exist at ground floor level giving them the most immediate impact to everyone who needs them. Libraries are one of the few places where people can be without being sold something or having to pay to be there. This is what makes them valuable today. Drawing on the likes of the Pompidou centre to create a new kind of social space which seems to invert the tradition of a public building and goes against some of the urban tradition that is typical in the city. Along with this I want to incorporate a similar programme as the TUC in London to give people the legal representation they lack in their professions today.

Finally, the building will utilise engineered timber to create a sustainable building, as climate change also effects the most vulnerable in society, and to create a warm inviting feeling within the building while also giving it a lot of utility to adapt to the specific needs of a ever changing state of work in decades to come. This should create a proposal which can create greater security for workers within brussels.

Brussels

inequalities within them is commercialised. The ecosocial class, coined

working from home problems across our cities people from a higher has been left and necity pivoted away

can serve as an used spot within the labour. I have oriento enhance the can be used mainly protests and demonstrastreet, accessible immediate comforts everyone who

Libraries are one of the few places where people can be without being sold something or having to pay to be there. This is what makes them valuable today.

Drawing on the likes of the Pompidou centre to create a new kind of social space which seems to invert the tradition of a public building and goes against some of the urban tradition that is typical in the city.

Along with this I want to incorporate a similar programme as the TUC in London to give people the legal representation they lack in their professions today.

Finally, the building will utilise engineered timber to create a sustainable building, as climate change also effects the most vulnerable in society, and to create a warm inviting feeling within the building while also giving it a lot of utility to adapt to the specific needs of a ever changing state of work in decades to come. This should create a proposal which can create greater security for workers within brussels

Student:

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DESIGNING THE COMMON-GROUND

William White Howe

Miranda Webster

historic territory map #13 - Marollen, Brussels

Thesis:

The epistemology of the name ‘Brussels’ comes from the flemish ‘Brouscella’, meaning settlement in the marshes. Now made up of 184 different nationalities and 104 languages, Brussels is one of the most diverse and multicultural places in the world. Brussels was [and still is] a collection of people from different locations and backgrounds who are connected by a physical location.

The physical built environment and communities of people go hand in hand. Perhaps the oldest example of the synonymous nature of architecture and the collective is the church, an urban artefact designed to bring people together, face one another and socialise as a group. In turn, architecture and social life have a very strong connection. William Whyte’s analysis of public space showed how space brings people together, not only providing places for friends to meet and sit together but also for strangers to enjoy the company of the crowd. In short, architecture has the ability to foster or inhibit a community.

“Architecture can’t ‘force’ people to connect; it can only plan the crossing points, remove barriers, and make the meeting places useful and attractive” - Denise

Scott Brown

For years architecture [whether for good or bad] has been used to dictate the way we interact with one another. Dwellings, streets and urban fabric have been manipulated to evoke connections and bring people together or alternatively create divides and oppress. Brussels has a lengthy history of utilising architecture to hide its ‘poorer, less desirable’ side, a phenomenon so akin to Brussels that it has become known as Brusselisation.

Once a district for the making and selling of fabrics, furniture and wines, the historic territory of Brussels has always been affiliated with the exchange of skills and craft. However, these once-accessible businesses, based on practical skills and open markets, are slowly being replaced by increasingly exclusive businesses and institutions. It is a community that is being threatened by the creep of the metropolitan city centre and the expansion of the middle class. Recent developments within the Marolles/Marollen district have further restricted the existing inclusive trade in favour of the exclusive. Workshops have been replaced with vintage stores on high streets. Alleyways of vernacular dwellings levelled in favour of planned, aesthetic social housing. Political graffiti is covered with sterile curated murals.

This thesis aims to create an architectural artefact which can sit on the boundary of these two communities and act as a mediating force. Connecting and blurring the boundaries between the two groups of people. Whilst also allowing the existing communities to access facilities the intervention will respond to the increasing demand for retail and exhibition, whilst reviving the workshops and markets conceded to capitalistic commerce.

Thesis Synopsis

Designing

The epistemology settlement Brussels is still is] a by a physical The physical oldest example an urban group. In analysis places for the crowd.

“Architecture barriers, and For years interact with evoke connections Brussels has a phenomenon

Once a district territory of However, are slowly community expansion have further have been levelled in sterile curated This thesis two communities between facilities whilst reviving

Student:

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ARCHITECTURE THAT HEALS: GOVAN WATERFRONT WELLNESS CENTRE

Thesis:

Xi Xie

Miranda Webster

While the society is busy getting back to work and rebuilding its economy, we often neglected the most important part of our lives - our mental health. The mental health diseases affect hundreds of millions of people in the world per year, yet because its often invisible, we do not pay enough attention to them.

Mental health disorders account for almost a quarter of the total burden of ill- health in the UK. Poor mental health is strongly associated with social and economic circumstances, including living in poverty, low-quality work, unemployment and housing. There is also a well-documented burden of mental health disorders following disasters, including evidence from previous viral outbreaks. Most people do not seek help, or do not even realise they are suffering from mental health issues. They rather carry the burden by themselves than telling anyone about it.

As the urban population is predicted to double in the next forty years, cities must be prepared to transform their current models holistically and sustainably. We need to start thinking about how to create denser metropolises with high urban quality and better quality of life for citizens. Cities must continue to be hubs of innovation, culture, and well-being.

Although cities typically fulfill their goals of quality of life and efficiency by providing a combination of accessible spaces, activities, and services, one of the challenges we face in denser cities is creating quality public spaces and the rapid increase in mental health issues that might be neglected by most as they are invisible. The demand for open, green spaces and recreational areas is increasing as the population grows.

Govan is a unique place in Glasgow that is filled with opportunities, and the graving dock especially has caught my attention. Situated along the Clyde, it is opposite the Riverside museum and SSE Hydro; across the river, there are the Ibrox Stadium, Elder Park and Festival Park. It is slowly being reclaimed by nature, and left empty for many years. This thesis aims to examine the possibility of transforming and regenerating the historic Govan graving docks into a centre of innovation, culture and wellbeing which provides the residents of Govan a variety of educational and recreational activities, increase local employment opportunities, reconnect human and nature, and improve the quality of life of the residents.

We live in architecture, and at the same time architecture helps to shape our collective memory as a city. If architecture could heal, how? These are the questions that inspired me to pursue my thesis topic on mental health and wellbeing.

Graving Dock, Govan, Glasgow

of mental low-quality folnot than transform hubs of accespublic invisible. across nature, �ng resiopportuni�es, city. If mental

Exchange programme

Shona Beattie I Stephen Brown I Calum Gillespie I Helena Grimshaw I Antonia Headlam-Morely Viola Königs I Tim Lewis I Gabriel Leung

Students at MSA are able to undertake a period of exchange with our partner institutions, some of which are funded through the Erasmus Exchange Programme.

Students are invited to apply for a partial-session exchange during the academic session preceding the academic session in which the period of exchange is intended. In general partialsession exchanges are offered in Stage 3 (BArch) and Stage 5 (DipArch).

Stage 5 students use their first semesters ‘exchange’ work to support the development of their Final Design Thesis when they arrive back for semester 2 in Glasgow. The returning exchange students bring back a diverse range of experiences, methodologies and architectural preoccupations which offer insight to different ways of learning and enrichen the life of the studio.

The MSA Exchange Programme

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A PLACE FOR DISPLACEMENT

Thesis:

Shona Beattie

Miranda Webster

Bucharest, Romania

Conditions of temporality and precariousness are familiar to both the urban fabric of cities across the world and to the people who live in them, but are often unrecognised, disregarded or hidden out of sight until they can be no longer ignored. These conditions will become only more prevalent and exigent as disastrous weather events create an increasing number of climate migrants – a projected 1.2 billion people globally by 2050. Recognising the precariousness of the city is essential for future contingency and resilience and for strengthening solidarity with those in need.

This is particularly relevant in the city of Bucharest, which has a relationship with the precarious in a multitude of ways. Here, a tumultuous history is visible all around you and yet the city sits vulnerably awaiting an earthquake it knows will have a disastrous effect. This condition of the city evidences a precariousness of urban populations, built fabric, economic instability and political turmoil which underlies the formation of cities across the globe.

The thesis project questions what meaningful spaces architecture can create when acknowledging the context of precariousness, fluctuance and temporality inherent in the city and its people, and how we can create places in a context of displacement.

This is investigated through the site of the former Bragadiru brewery, a surviving relic of old industrial heritage within a neighbourhood razed for the construction of the monumental ‘People’s House’. Now lying in decay, the site has been swept along in the story of Bucharest over the last century. Envisioning the adaptation of this site links into a new phase of reuse happening across the south of the city, and enables a chance to imagine change which can learn from the mistakes of the past.

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LANDSCAPE NOUN (LAND)

Thesis:

Stephen Brown

Miranda Webster

Bucharest, Romania

The thesis takes the typology of the commercial high rise and explores its unrealised potential for ethical service to the public realm. Where the scale of a tower has a permanent impact on physical landscape, the thesis explores how the typology can be reimagined through programmatic and spatial solutions that integrate the high-rise into its situational landscape, addressing the social, urban, and political dynamics of the city.

By utilising the controversial Cathedral Plaza as a site of critical inquiry, the project considers the various avenues through which the tower can be redeemed. Through an attitude towards retrofit that seeks to pay a reparation towards the damages done by the architecture, a situational analysis is undertaken to ascertain strategies that will restore the relationships with the tower’s context. In doing so, the high-rise can then be evaluated for its transition away from serving private interests to become a landmark of redemption that enhances the civic quality of its environment.

The tower in question has a turbulent relationship with St Josef’s cathedral that stands only eight metres adjacent. With its construction being received as a transgression against the church, the archdiocese launched a six-year lawsuit that ultimately saw the tower’s building permit revoked shortly after its completion. A suspended demolition order has since been issued, yet this project seeks to take a more resourceful view of the situation, sparing the tower a deconstruction that would come at both a high fiscal and environmental cost. Through mending the fragmented relationships the tower has with its locale and weaving the high rise into the wider public life of Bucharest, this thesis project illustrates a scenario where the Cathedral Plaza is transformed from a symbol of neoliberalist opportunism into a landmark representing inclusion and service to the public realm.

A LARGE AREA OF LAND, ESPECIALLY IN RELATIONSHIP TO ITS APPEARANCE

The Cathedral Plaza

A Mark in Landscape

Design Journal

by Stephen J Brown

Student:

Tutor:

Location, site:

Barcelona, Spain

NUEVA RED

Thesis:

Vilanova I La Geltru, a once thriving fishing and sailing port, is at the heart of Catalan Culture. Located 35 Kilometres South of Barcelona on the Mediterranean, The port town has a new found crisis, where the Passeag Maritim segregates Modern Vilanova from its sailing routes. Over the years Vilanova has had important trade and migration pass through. Conquistadors once departed from this Harbour in look for riches, which were brought back to the town.

During the Spanish civil war, Spanish civilians fled southern Spain for Catalonia, directly through Villanova, looking for safe haven in France. Nowadays, a more global intake finds a large percentage of diversity in the town. But the ill success of the harbour exiles the harbour and its historic importance from the rest of the town.

It is my ambition to look at redesigning the passeag maritim, and furthermore, to create a civic exchange on the harbours edge, extending the Calle principal into the water and reconnecting and giving the harbour back to the people. The Library will serve purpose as a Depository, holding important artifacts and information about the town, as well as a tool for cultural exchange.

Calum Gillespie

Miranda Webster

These Posters Vilanova in the town. that the conquistadors the interchange deep routed Church, during the

Arrival

Student:

Tutor:

Location, site:

Stockholm, Sweden

STOCKHOLMHUSET

Thesis:

A key challenge in architecture involves how to evoke and bring to surface the collective memories of place through tangible and intangible features of design and, in doing so, to embody the spirit of a place. The metaphor of place as a palimpsest is valuable: similar to the way a manuscript allows successive texts to be written and erased to make way for the next, so too does the built environment allow the layering of visible and hidden traces of past cultural and social daily life.

Stockholmhuset: the Museum of the Everyday critically engages with the tensions and contradictions that arise from considering place as palimpsest. These include the tensions arising from pressures for restoration versus modernist planning, as well as the contradictions between inscribing a spirit that respects collective memory, while engaging a forward looking identity.

Stockholmhuset is intended to be an urban manifestation of the city centre’s genius loci. In its design and function, it seeks to bridge multiple layers of meanings and dialogues between past and present with the purpose of strengthening, and giving voice to, the civic core of Stockholm’s commercial centre. This is an area that witnessed devastating mass demolition and displacement of thousands of inhabitants in the last century due to modernist city plans. Stockholmhuset aims to create spaces that facilitate engagement with notions of change, permanence and resilience – physical spaces that trace memories of the city whilst also looking to the future. Maintaining and working within the rational frame of an existing office block not only provided a physical framework, but also emphasised the social; and cultural significance of adding to the building’s historical narrative.

The new organisational focus of a central courtyard and raised plaza function as gathering spaces for visitors, seamlessly extending the exterior public square – its spatial qualities, its functions and its visual language - into the building, strengthening the collective identity of the area. The ‘collage’ of facades that surrounds the existing frame each reintroduce and reimagine the layers of physical and cultural history of the site. Recalling the metaphor of the palimpsest, the various narratives of the facades are told through their construction methods, which constitute an integral part of my architectural technology investigation.

Stockholmhuset: the Museum of the Everyday embodies the collective memory of the city and aims to foster a sense of community, critical engagement and cultural awareness. The museum’s collection includes artefacts that represent the daily routines, practices, and experiences of Stockholm’s inhabitants – reflecting experiences of industry, the arts, family and entertainment, among others.

Helena Grimshaw

Thomas Woodcock

Student:

Tutor:

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THE AFTERLIFE OF THE DAM

Antonia Headlam-Morley

Thomas Woodcock

Lac du Salanfe and the Dents du Midi mountain range, Valais Canton, south west Switzerland

Thesis:

The hydroelectric energy produced from the Salanfe Dam services the equivalent of 30,000 households a year; but its future is uncertain. Loose sediments, sliding down from the slopes of the Dents du Midi mountain range in the south west of Switzerland are accumulating in the reservoir, decreasing its volume and in turn the reliability of hydroelectric power. This thesis aims to find a method of ensuring the capacity of the lake, preserving the functioning capability of the Miéville power station, as well as creating stable ground which supports vegetation and growth in the future.

Working with this fragile terrain, the landscape intervention strategy proposed in this thesis details how an implementation of wooden poles could provide a framework for sediments to accumulate, densify and stabilise the hillside. The system of poles act as scaffolding for the new landscape, becoming increasingly hidden by the layers of accumulating earth.

The project aims to design an architectural presence which facilitates the creation of these landscape grids. The principles dealt with when designing the interventions, those of time, purpose and evolution in design prompted the development of an architectural language which questions how an inhabitable place can become habitable for a finite time. The thesis asks how one can design a building which facilitates the creation of these interventions, a necessary step in order to stop the reservoir from filling with sediments, without leaving a mark itself.

Through these gestures, the thesis seeks to ensure the afterlife of the dam.

Thomas

Kyoto, Japan

THE KYOTO TEMPLE OF POTTERY

THE KYOTO TEMPLE OF POTTERY

Student:

Tutor:

Location, site:

Viola Königs

Thomas Woodcock

Kyoto, Japan

thesis proposes the design of a Pottery Recycling Gild in Kiyomizu, Kyoto, to address the issue of 150,000 tons of ceramic waste produced in Japan each year, which is 5% off all non combustable waste in the country. The Recycling Gild will not only educate the public on ceramic recycling but also create a community space for Toki Shokunin 陶器 職人 to learn from each other, share knowledge, and invent new technologies. The location in Kyomizu, known for its pottery and density of pottery workshops, will allow for easy access to recycled clay and waste disposal. design idea is inspired by a walk through a Japanese temple that provides transparency in recycling process, from collection to recomposition of clay to new re tableware on display. programme includes a pottery workshop, for the public and for private potters to rent a space, and create together with an apprentice flat who seeks to learn the art and craft of pottery its recycling in more depth, this person will also be the gate keeper of the Temple. The space starts with a ceramics art gallery that not only celebrates small pottery but also large clay sculptures as well as the art of Kintsugi. The single way journey through the Pottery Temple leads you a large climbing kiln (Noborigama), around a wee moss garden, past the recycling factory, through a step by step display of the ceramics recycling process, to the heart of the temple with views overlooking the secret garden and its lake with a view up to the Otani Honbyo Temple. Heart is off to the side but connected by a golden bride to celebrate and accentuate the meaning of Kintsugi. This space is a gathering and celebration space that overlooks the secret garden and the whole Temple. Kintsugi is the art of exalting past injuries, the Way of Kintsugi can understood as a kind of therapy, inviting you to transcend your struggles and transform your personal hardship into gold. - Céline Santini.

Thesis:

This thesis proposes the design of a Pottery Recycling Gild in Kiyomizu, Kyoto, to address the issue of 150,000 tons of ceramic waste produced in Japan each year, which is 5% off all non combustable waste in the country. The Recycling Gild will not only educate the public on ceramic recycling but also create a community space for Toki Shokunin to learn from each other, share knowledge, and invent new technologies. The location in Kyomizu, known for its pottery and high density of pottery workshops, will allow for easy access to recycled clay and waste disposal.

The design idea is inspired by a walk through a Japanese temple that provides transparency in the recycling process, from collection to recomposition of clay to new re tableware on display. The programme includes a pottery workshop, for the public and for private potters to rent a space, and create together with an apprentice flat who seeks to learn the art and craft of pottery and its recycling in more depth, this person will also be the gate keeper of the Temple. The space starts with a ceramics art gallery that not only celebrates small pottery but also large clay sculptures as well as the art of Kintsugi. The single way journey through the Pottery Temple leads you past a large climbing kiln (Noborigama), around a wee moss garden, past the recycling factory, through a step by step display of the ceramics recycling process, to the heart of the temple with views overlooking the secret garden and its lake with a view up to the Otani Honbyo Temple.

The Heart is off to the side but connected by a golden bride to celebrate and accentuate the meaning of Kintsugi. This space is a gathering and celebration space that overlooks the secret garden and the whole Temple. Kintsugi is the art of exalting past injuries, the Way of Kintsugi can be understood as a kind of therapy, inviting you to transcend your struggles and transform your personal hardship into gold. - Céline Santini.

In this way this thesis seeks to heal the damage ceramics waste has done to the Japanese country through a gap in the city filled with Gold.

this way this thesis seeks to heal the damage ceramics waste has done to the Japanese counthrough a gap in the city filled with Gold.

Viola Königs

Woodcock

the ceramic other, pottery and disposal. transparency in display. a pottery space sculpleads you factory, with Temple. the secret Kintsugi can your coun-

WAGASHI EXPO - EXPLORING NEW IDENTITY AND VALUE OF JAPANESE CONFECTIONERIES IN CONTEMPORARY KYOTO

Student:

Tutor:

Location, site:

Man Cheong Gabriel Leung

Miranda Webster

Kyoto Imperial Palace, Kyoto, Japan

Thesis:

Since its glory days as the capital of Japan (794), Kyoto has managed to cultivate a flourishing tradition of artisanship for over 1200 years. Yet with the recent economic recession and changing habits of a new generation, artisanship in Kyoto is facing a noticeable decline.

Wagashi, meaning Japanese confectioneries, are traditional Japanese artisan sweets that are typically enojyed after a tea ceremony. Wagashi come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and flavors, and are often intricately designed to reflect the seasons and other elements of Japanese culture. With the rise of Westernstyle desserts and other global food culture, younger generation have started to lose interest in the traditional craft, leaving the industry at risk of surviving in the rapdly changing world.

My thesis thus, aims to create a two-part architectural scheme in the heart of Kyoto promoting the craftmanship of Wagashi and to provide immersive experience via projection mapping and architecture, showcasing the new identity and possibility of the artisanship.

Student:

Tutor:

Location, site:

Gottsunda, Sweden

BUILDING FROM BUILDINGS

Thesis:

This thesis celebrates an evolving relationship with construction material, in the context of climate crisis, housing crisis and the increasing stigmatisation of lower socio-economic areas. In these critical uncertainties we can examine previous points of flux and learn from their successes and failings. The Million Program era in Sweden was perhaps the most successful post-war house building regime, summarised by stating that nearly one quarter of the countries current housing stock was built in the 10-year period between 1965 and 1974.

The thesis therefore suggests three principles: material reuse, community agency and urban densification which counter three identified problems of extractive resources, negative stigma and housing crisis.

With this guiding lens, a new municipal actor develops in the town of Gottsunda, operating at three different scales and specialisms regarding provision and upkeep of housing. The thesis provokes a radical cultural change to develop a circular economy, to empower communities and to start another house building program that regains housing as human right, not as commodity.

Tim Lewis

Miranda Webster

Final Design Thesis territories

1. Modernist territory

2. Industrial territory

3. Historic territory

Stage 5 teaching team

Final Design Thesis

Miranda Webster - Stage leader

Jonny Fisher - co-pilot

Studio design tutors

Charlie Sutherland founder partner of Sutherland Hussey Harris Architects

Stacey Phillips partner at Sheppard Robson Architects

Graeme Massie founder of Graeme Massie Architects

Thomas Woodcock architect at Elder and Cannon Architects

Architectural technology

Rory Corr - course lead

Architectural technology tutors

Rosalie Menon co-director of the Mackintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit (MEARU), and studio design tutor

Colin Glover senior architect at Oberlanders Arch

Adrian Stewart founder partner of DO Architecture

Christine Halliday architect at DO Architecture

James Tait founder of JTAIT Archietcure ........................................................

with many thanks to our guests, reviewers and contributors

Doug Allard architect at XDGA - Xaveer De Geyter Architects

Ananelys de Vet designer, educator and researcher at Bureau Devet

Hugo Corbett architect at hugocorbett.eu

Katherine McNeil Head of Professional Studies, Mackintosh School of Architecture

Sally Stewart Head of School, Mackintosh School of Architecture

Elisabeth Schalenbourg architect at elisabethschalenbourg.be

Gideon Boie visiting professor at KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture

Patrick Moyersoen expertise in teaching and design practice at KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture