The latest book under the banner of Everything Without Content is out now. It takes Charleroi, Belgium as a case study for the contemporary city: the Large City. Without nostalgia for its industrial ruins, nor contempt for modernity, the city was the subject of a year-long studio led by Kersten Geers at the Academy of Architecture USI in Mendrisio. As a form of “applied theory”, the book features students’ projects—an imaginary city—coupled with real projects: Megafactory by OFFICE and Palais des Expositions by Architecten Jan de Vylder Inge Vinck & AgwA. The book features photographs by Stefano Graziani.

OFFICE is part of the Cities exhibition curated by Nina Bassoli at the 24th Triennale Milano International Exhibition which opens on May 13th. We will showcase The Large City, which takes Charleroi, Belgium as a case study for the contemporary city. Charleroi was the site of a year-long teaching studio at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, and the exhibition will feature students’ work, as well as photography by Stefano Graziani. For this occasion, we will also launch the latest Everything without Content publication: The Large City. 

You can find more information on the Triennale Milano International Exhibition here.

25 Columns is one of four nominees for the Kasper Salin Prize, awarded annually by Architects Sweden to a Swedish building or group of buildings of high architectural quality. The winner will be announced at the Architecture Gala on April 3 at the Filadelfia Convention Center in Stockholm.

OFFICE together with Krupinski/Krupinska, in collaboration with artist Akane Moriyama won the first prize in a competition for a new transport hub in Malmö. The competition called for a new flexible and sustainable multi-story car park that combines several public functions, and which can easily be converted for another use or adapted to new types of mobility. A simple box with a skin of recycled bricks meets high sustainability standards, while making an urban figure with a unique character.     

EXPOSING THE WORLD

This book focuses solely on the Shonandai cultural centre, the first major public project of Itsuko Hasegawa. The latest Everything without Content publication is the unlikely successor to the previous books we made on the works of Aldo and Hannie van Eyck and Giancarlo de Carlo (Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, 2023). Shonandai belongs to a different time —the 1980s— and a different place —Japan— but it shares the desire of the earlier generations to ‘overcome’ modernism. Hasegawa achieves this in the most outlandish way, possible perhaps only in Japan in the 1980s. Shonandai is where the 1960s techno-avant-garde comes full circle. The book features photographs by Stefano Graziani.

OFFICE 349: ATELIER VAN DE VELDE
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The construction of Atelier Van de Velde is progressing steadily with the concrete silhouette of the building taking shape within the landscape. The building, located in a flood-prone area in the outskirts of Leuven, is designed as a simple concrete box that features round perforations in its lower façade to allow controlled flooding of a crawlspace below the raised ground floor. Hanging from the longer edges of the flat roof are two aluminium canopies which provide a sense of privacy and covered outdoor space. The atelier has two levels, a workspace below and a residential area above, each independently accessible by retractable outdoor aluminium stairs that stand in stark contrast to the immobile, monolithic concrete volume. The building is scheduled to be completed in spring 2025.

OFFICE 334: OFFICE BUILDING
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

In Brussels, at the corner of Rue de la Science and Rue Montoyer, a major renovation of an office building is well underway, as the façade elements are assembled and put in place. The project reuses, transforms and optimizes the existing building by freeing the floor height from techniques, and by integrating ventilation ducts within the new façade. The new façade grid creates a distinct and recognisable identity, while allowing larger window openings, and overall improvement of the spatial quality of the office floors. A double-height foyer creates a transparent and porous ground floor and emphasises the building’s main entrance. As the work on the courtyard and interior partitions begins, the project remains on track for completion in spring 2025.

Bas Princen and Kersten Geers in dialogue

A conversation between Bas Princen and Kersten Geers on their collaborative practices is the first session of the new cycle of lectures organised by ARQUIN-FAD Barcelona. This event will take place on Monday December 2nd at 6.30PM at La Virreina Lab in Barcelona. You can find more info on the event here.

LECTURE AT THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN STUDIES AT TORCUATO DI TELLA UNIVERSITY IN BUENOS AIRES

Kersten Geers will give a lecture on OFFICE work on Monday November 4th at 19h at UTDT in Buenos Aires. The lecture is organised by the Centre for Contemporary Architecture Studies. You can find more info on the event here.

OFFICE 338: HOUSING COMPLEX (LOOFSTRAAT)
CONSTRUCTION STARTED

Construction has started on the Housing Complex (Loofstraat) for Compagnie Het Zoute in Kortrijk with the terrain clearance and excavation for the underground parking. Set within a diverse context of urban blocks, row houses, free-standing villas, and a protected English garden, this residential project seeks to connect the park and the city with a set of autonomous housing blocks nestled in a lush greenery. The design features five marble-clad, diamond-shaped volumes with triangular terraces within steel frameworks. The buildings’ distinct volumes, encased in a rhythmic grid of light steel studs, create an austere yet harmonious structure that integrates with its surrounding context.

OFFICE 126 Centres for Traditional Music is part of the group exhibition Restless Architecture at the MAXXI museum Rome. The exhibition was curated by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and will be on view from October 25th until March 16th 2025. You can find more info here.

Fondazione ICA Milano presents Picture Window Frame, an exhibition by Stefano Graziani and OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen, curated by Cloe Piccoli, running from 03.10 to 30.11.2024.

This second iteration of a commission by window manufacturer Finstral, showcases Graziani's photography of Finstral’s production process and art collection, alongside new photographs from Milan’s artist archives, academies, and museums. The display, designed by OFFICE, reuses the aluminium window frames from the first exhibition, now reconfigured to fit a smaller space. A catalogue will be published by a+mbookstore. More info available here.

LECTURE AT THE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA

Kersten Geers will give a lecture on OFFICE work on Wednesday October 9th at 7PM at Kuppelsaal at TU Vienna. The lecture is organised by the Institute of Architectural Design. You can find more info on the event here.

OFFICE 301: UNIVERSITY CAMPUS COMPLETED

OFFICE 301 University Campus in Antwerp, developed with Jaspers-Eyers Architects, is ready for its first academic year. The project transformed a former slaughterhouse into a hi-tech campus for 3,500 science and biomedical students. The single-story industrial hall was repurposed with a new floor slab, doubling its original 7,600 m² surface and blending smooth concrete with exposed structural elements. The lower façade was cut for continuous glazing and features round openings above for windows or air vents. The campus includes workshops, labs, and lecture rooms along two wide parallel corridors. A new connected tower houses classrooms and administration, with stepped terraces on the upper floors, forming a landmark for the future sustainable mixed-use development.

"Written as a kind of anti-guidebook, Something Completely Different by Christophe Van Gerrewey, appropriates certain clichés about Belgium (Baudelaire famously called Belgian monuments “counterfeits of France”), eschews the pragmatism of most guidebooks in favour of meditative, essayistic prose, and finally, cunningly, reveals that all along the subject has not been Belgium at all, but rather the nature of architecture." Published by MIT Press.

Cover photo OFFICE 50 After the Party by Bas Princen.

The latest edition of El Croquis magazine dedicated to the work of OFFICE has just been published. It presents a selection of twenty-five projects made over the period of seven years since the previous OFFICE monograph, including several projects that have not been published before. The issue also features an essay by Christophe Van Gerrewey and an interview Giovanna Borasi conducted with Kersten Geers and David Van Severen. You can find more info and order your copy here.